I am currently in the first year of a 3 year M.Arch program. In the 2 years between my undergrad and now I was able to save some amount of money but at this point I'm not even sure if it will last me through the year.
I know architecture school is heavily populated with trust fund kids and foreign money, but does anyone have any experience pulling in some amount of income while in a full time program?
I feel like any job requiring me to work "shifts" or be on call for multiple hours at a time is not feasible with my workload.
Any examples or tips would be appreciated!
h0wl
Sep 30, 19 2:16 pm
I'd recommend side hustles / gigging. whatever can create passive income from enjoyable things. Good one is reselling high-demand, low supply items. I've made a month's rent off of a pair of sneakers and/or jackets before. Its inconsistent and takes a bit of luck and persistence, but it can net you a full-time paycheck from time to time.
flatroof
Sep 30, 19 3:24 pm
Does your university offer on campus work or assistantships in other departments? If Sci-Arc, what were you thinking?
surprise_drug_test
Sep 30, 19 3:29 pm
yes, but first year students dont really take those jobs as the initial course load is pretty intense. also those jobs only pay around $13 an hour and dont offer more than about 10-20 hours a week.
GridBubbles
Sep 30, 19 3:30 pm
I had a classmate that worked at a bar/pub on Fridays and Weekends. He was pulling in descent money from tips and what not but I would not recommend it as it takes a toll on your grades, sleep, and quality of work. That being said, I think its all dependent on the individual's work ethic and the nature of the workload in school. If I was to do it again, I would probably work at the school union or book store while in school because honestly, grad school was a piece of cake and as long as you're on top of things during the most productive hours (ie in studio), you should be able to manage part time shift work and regular course work. The only risks are modelling time, which requires fabrication and labour to make models and can take extremely long hours (only if you have high expectation of craftsmanship).
Fivescore
Sep 30, 19 3:39 pm
Most of my income in my 2nd and 3rd years of grad school came from teaching assistantships and fellowships - though those weren't available in my program until after first-year. Sometimes I did 2 of them per semester. In my program 1 teaching fellowship or 2 TAships in a semester were enough to cover rent and food for a semester, but this varies from one university and department to another. (In my program a "fellowship" meant you were independently teaching a section of a course, whereas a TA is usually more of an assistant to a faculty member who does most of the teaching.)
I also had a part-time job in a local architecture firm - the employer had graduated from the same M.Arch program and was pretty understanding that I could only offer chunks of production help as my schedule allowed. It didn't seem to be a problem that I tended to have more hours at the starts of semesters or during breaks, and then disappeared completely around midterms and finals. That wouldn't have worked as well if I had been the only employee and was being depended on heavily to meet the firm's deadline crunches - don't take on that sort of position because it won't work! There were other firms that would sometimes call the architecture school to request a bunch of students to help with model-building for a few days, and sometimes I would do those jobs if they fit in my schedule. These days that might not be a thing, since not as many firms build physical models.
I did lots of other odd jobs - mostly they came from casual networking: I took on some research assistant gigs - usually they were from local attorneys and realtors who wouldn't have had access to the university's libraries without hiring a student. I also did some tutoring of undergrads. The architecture school also paid students often for little grunt work jobs, like repainting rooms or walls, scanning piles of old documents, and clearing out all the left-behind detritus from the studios in the summer. The secret to getting those jobs was to be good friends with the administrative employees.
Non Sequitur
Sep 30, 19 3:39 pm
Part time job in retail and learn to manage your time and assignment commitments accordingly. You'll thank yourself once you leave school and understand the difference proper time management makes.
TAships are a great alternative, even an RA if available.
archanonymous
Sep 30, 19 3:45 pm
I did work study , tended bar, etc... But the biggest impact would have been if I could manage my time properly.
If I had my current time management skills in arch school I could have worked 7am to noon everyday and drawn circles around everyone else there.
Bench
Sep 30, 19 4:08 pm
For a very unique perspective -
By the time I got to university I had turned semi-pro as an athlete, fortunately in a sport that allowed oneself to mostly choose the competition/event schedule. I usually was busy with this 2 days a week, primarily on weekends, plus working out frequently. My profs were understanding in letting me have some wiggle room to balance it with school, and I also aggressively chose my class schedule to be as condensed as possible (including one particular semester with only 3 days of classes). I did have to drop it altogether for short periods of time to focus on finishing school at least twice. Masters was certainly easier to balance as I was primarily conducting my own thesis research and my advisor was very supportive.
It wasn't a lot of money, but it covered a good chunk of living costs. Coupled with a TA'ship and some scholarships I went through school without having to get a loan.
And as a follow-up, I actually turned fully pro for 2 seasons after finishing my masters degree, balancing it while working in a firm. They were tremendously supportive of the endeavor and felt that it made me a better all-around employee.
I did end up retiring last season.
Archlandia
Sep 30, 19 7:23 pm
Considering your user name... the answer just seems all too clear
Everyday Architect
Oct 3, 19 7:35 pm
I found that working multiple part-time jobs on-campus and off-campus worked well for me. On-campus jobs never seemed to give me that many hours, but they were easily able to accommodate my class schedule. Off-campus jobs were mainly evenings and weekends, but were able to get me a fair amount of hours and better pay. In both cases, the key for me was being able to do homework while on the job, either because the work was related in some way to my coursework (teaching or research), or there was plenty of down time where you the job was to basically sit at a desk and wait for long periods of time.
Just off the top of my head, these are some jobs that I had as well as other classmates: research assistant-ships, teaching assistant-ships, library circulation desk worker, tutor, help for professors moving offices, housing or apartment coordinator/resident assistant-ships (doubly good if they give you a stipend in addition to free housing), janitorial services, landscaping/grounds crews, parking enforcement, wood shop attendant/supervisor, student print media (newspaper, magazine), print shop worker (get paid to print your classmates presentation boards), computer lab monitor, campus radio DJ (ours was volunteer, but if you can find this as a paid gig you can basically get paid to do homework while listening to your favorite playlists).
One of the highlights for me was getting paid to tutor a classmate in one of the structures classes that I was currently enrolled in. In other words, I got paid to go over our lecture notes together, work practice problems, and study for tests. Stuff I would have been doing on my own anyway, but as a tutor I was getting paid for it.
I am currently in the first year of a 3 year M.Arch program. In the 2 years between my undergrad and now I was able to save some amount of money but at this point I'm not even sure if it will last me through the year.
I know architecture school is heavily populated with trust fund kids and foreign money, but does anyone have any experience pulling in some amount of income while in a full time program?
I feel like any job requiring me to work "shifts" or be on call for multiple hours at a time is not feasible with my workload.
Any examples or tips would be appreciated!
I'd recommend side hustles / gigging. whatever can create passive income from enjoyable things. Good one is reselling high-demand, low supply items. I've made a month's rent off of a pair of sneakers and/or jackets before. Its inconsistent and takes a bit of luck and persistence, but it can net you a full-time paycheck from time to time.
Does your university offer on campus work or assistantships in other departments? If Sci-Arc, what were you thinking?
yes, but first year students dont really take those jobs as the initial course load is pretty intense. also those jobs only pay around $13 an hour and dont offer more than about 10-20 hours a week.
I had a classmate that worked at a bar/pub on Fridays and Weekends. He was pulling in descent money from tips and what not but I would not recommend it as it takes a toll on your grades, sleep, and quality of work. That being said, I think its all dependent on the individual's work ethic and the nature of the workload in school. If I was to do it again, I would probably work at the school union or book store while in school because honestly, grad school was a piece of cake and as long as you're on top of things during the most productive hours (ie in studio), you should be able to manage part time shift work and regular course work. The only risks are modelling time, which requires fabrication and labour to make models and can take extremely long hours (only if you have high expectation of craftsmanship).
Most of my income in my 2nd and 3rd years of grad school came from teaching assistantships and fellowships - though those weren't available in my program until after first-year. Sometimes I did 2 of them per semester. In my program 1 teaching fellowship or 2 TAships in a semester were enough to cover rent and food for a semester, but this varies from one university and department to another. (In my program a "fellowship" meant you were independently teaching a section of a course, whereas a TA is usually more of an assistant to a faculty member who does most of the teaching.)
I also had a part-time job in a local architecture firm - the employer had graduated from the same M.Arch program and was pretty understanding that I could only offer chunks of production help as my schedule allowed. It didn't seem to be a problem that I tended to have more hours at the starts of semesters or during breaks, and then disappeared completely around midterms and finals. That wouldn't have worked as well if I had been the only employee and was being depended on heavily to meet the firm's deadline crunches - don't take on that sort of position because it won't work!
There were other firms that would sometimes call the architecture school to request a bunch of students to help with model-building for a few days, and sometimes I would do those jobs if they fit in my schedule. These days that might not be a thing, since not as many firms build physical models.
I did lots of other odd jobs - mostly they came from casual networking: I took on some research assistant gigs - usually they were from local attorneys and realtors who wouldn't have had access to the university's libraries without hiring a student.
I also did some tutoring of undergrads.
The architecture school also paid students often for little grunt work jobs, like repainting rooms or walls, scanning piles of old documents, and clearing out all the left-behind detritus from the studios in the summer. The secret to getting those jobs was to be good friends with the administrative employees.
Part time job in retail and learn to manage your time and assignment commitments accordingly. You'll thank yourself once you leave school and understand the difference proper time management makes.
TAships are a great alternative, even an RA if available.
I did work study , tended bar, etc... But the biggest impact would have been if I could manage my time properly.
If I had my current time management skills in arch school I could have worked 7am to noon everyday and drawn circles around everyone else there.
For a very unique perspective -
By the time I got to university I had turned semi-pro as an athlete, fortunately in a sport that allowed oneself to mostly choose the competition/event schedule. I usually was busy with this 2 days a week, primarily on weekends, plus working out frequently. My profs were understanding in letting me have some wiggle room to balance it with school, and I also aggressively chose my class schedule to be as condensed as possible (including one particular semester with only 3 days of classes). I did have to drop it altogether for short periods of time to focus on finishing school at least twice. Masters was certainly easier to balance as I was primarily conducting my own thesis research and my advisor was very supportive.
It wasn't a lot of money, but it covered a good chunk of living costs. Coupled with a TA'ship and some scholarships I went through school without having to get a loan.
And as a follow-up, I actually turned fully pro for 2 seasons after finishing my masters degree, balancing it while working in a firm. They were tremendously supportive of the endeavor and felt that it made me a better all-around employee.
I did end up retiring last season.
Considering your user name... the answer just seems all too clear
I found that working multiple part-time jobs on-campus and off-campus worked well for me. On-campus jobs never seemed to give me that many hours, but they were easily able to accommodate my class schedule. Off-campus jobs were mainly evenings and weekends, but were able to get me a fair amount of hours and better pay. In both cases, the key for me was being able to do homework while on the job, either because the work was related in some way to my coursework (teaching or research), or there was plenty of down time where you the job was to basically sit at a desk and wait for long periods of time.
Just off the top of my head, these are some jobs that I had as well as other classmates: research assistant-ships, teaching assistant-ships, library circulation desk worker, tutor, help for professors moving offices, housing or apartment coordinator/resident assistant-ships (doubly good if they give you a stipend in addition to free housing), janitorial services, landscaping/grounds crews, parking enforcement, wood shop attendant/supervisor, student print media (newspaper, magazine), print shop worker (get paid to print your classmates presentation boards), computer lab monitor, campus radio DJ (ours was volunteer, but if you can find this as a paid gig you can basically get paid to do homework while listening to your favorite playlists).
One of the highlights for me was getting paid to tutor a classmate in one of the structures classes that I was currently enrolled in. In other words, I got paid to go over our lecture notes together, work practice problems, and study for tests. Stuff I would have been doing on my own anyway, but as a tutor I was getting paid for it.