I am sitting here on the couch with the football game on … I was planning on tackling my email inbox. After reading through the first 10 or so all asking for some sort of advice on being an architect I thought I would just write a few posts on the subject.

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In true ‘Life of an Architect’ fashion, I am just going to talk from my perspective. That doesn’t mean I’m not taking it seriously, it’s just that this is a question – or series of questions – that I have answered again and again and again and again (and again and again …).

It takes a lot of commitment and desire to become an architect. For starters, the amount of education needed is considerable. Assuming you actually want to become licensed, you either have to graduate with a 5 year professional degree in architecture (which few people actually do in a 5 year time period), graduate from a 4+2 architecture program (you will graduate with a 4 year non-professional degree in architecture and a masters degree in architecture). You can also have a 4 year undergraduate degree in another area of study, and then you’ll have to enter into a master’s degree program for a minimum of 3 years. Where your education is concerned, depending on the path you choose, that is either 5, 6 or 7 years worth of higher education – and you are just getting started.

I will take a paragraph here to briefly talk about architecture school and it’s own set of rigors and requirements. I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin (thank you, thank you … please, take your seats) and I came out of school 6 years after I entered with 206 credit hours. Part of the delay was that I spent time studying in Europe on semester and couldn’t load up on hours, and I had to work during the summer for spending money so I couldn’t take the time to get some entry level classes out of the way during the summertime. I was also in the band for 3 years and that didn’t help matters either. At one point, my friends told me that they stopped asking me to do things because I always told them I couldn’t and that I had work to do up at studio. The architecture students had their own key to get into the architecture building after hours and on weekends. I kept food up at my desk so I could stay at my desk later and longer. There weren’t any people who were in a fraternity or sorority in the architecture program. Am I painting a clear picture here? The commitment starts on day one for incoming freshman entering architecture school.

Up next is a 3 year accreditation period … actually that isn’t necessarily the case but the rules by each state and overseen by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) are ponderous. Even as I type this, flipping back forth to the NCARB to get some rule clarifications is making my head is starting to hurt. I am not even going to try and explain this portion of the process. However, the short version is that it is expensive and will add time to the overall process of becoming an architect. The amount of time to achieve the required office environment experience is typically between 3 and 4 years.

Then there are the registration exams. There are 7 exams in all and each test cost $210 for a total for $1,470 … and that’s if you pass them all on the first try, which rarely happens. Want proof? Just look at the published pass/ fail graphic  below.

ARE Pass / Fail Rates (information from NCARB)

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Those passing rates are terrible. Due to the nature of having to take all these exams during the time you are working, few people (and none that I know) take the exams all at once. Most prefer to spread them out so they can allow time to study properly. A goal of taking all the exams within a 1 year time period seems to be a common goal but if you fail a section, you cannot retake that section for 6 months. While that might seem reasonable, what that translates into is a 18 month to 2 year period for most intern architects to take and pass all the required exams before they can be called an Architect.

The rules have been amended since I took the exam (there were 9 sections then and back then we had to design and build and actual building in a 12 hour window – we had it a lot harder than today’s whippersnappers). I also remember that each exam was at least 3 hours in length, with the longest being an 8 hour exam. You can now take the exam during your internship period whereas previously you had to complete your internship before you were eligible. In the end, you are looking at an average of 6 years of higher education, and 3-5 years of internship and test taking for a grand total of 10+ years before you are an architect. And for all this hard work and education what sort of riches were waiting for me? A starting salary of $24,000. Granted that was 1992 but even then, that was a paltry amount and completely disproportionate to the education I had received.

The point I am trying to make is that if you are thinking that you might be an architect, you had better be serious. Nobody becomes an architect because they think it sounds cool or they like to draw. There is a lot more to it and I think it needs to be a calling for you to even think you will experience any measurable success. If you are reading this and your thinking it’s all doom and gloom than maybe you aren’t cut out for becoming an architect either. Believe it or not, but I loved all this stuff and never felt like I was being kept from doing other things that I would have preferred doing. I liked being at studio, I didn’t hate studying for the exam because I thought I needed to know this stuff if I wanted to be a good architect. For the record, I did pass all my exams on the first try, because I took it seriously. I thought my salary sucked but it didn’t ever make me think I had taken the wrong path.

Like I said in the beginning, being an architect isn’t a job, it’s a calling. I am planning on writting a series of posts to elaborate on some of these particulars. Yes, this is a little self-serving because I plan on sending these links in my responses to the endless emails I receive asking these same questions. If you are an architect or an architectural intern or student, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below … I know everyone will appreciate the time you took to contribute. I know I will.

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