The College Years - Episode 0002 | Life of an Architect

In this second episode of the Life of an Architect podcast, we turn our attention towards the college years. I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992, while Landon received his diploma from Virginia Tech in 2016 … so how has college changed over this time?

There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to architecture school:

How do I pick which college is right for me?
Is it hard to get admitted?
Is there a portfolio requirement?
Will I have a social life?
What sort of classes should I take?

Here’s a hint … don’t take a Kung Fu class like me – but I cover that in far greater detail around the 32-minute mark.

Podcast: Embed

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Attending architecture school has been one of the most requested topics over the years – I receive at least an email a day from either parents, high school students, or even grade school age kids. I have written dozens of posts on the subject over the years and it seems like I can’t cover enough angles to address what appears to be a never-ending stream of questions. When Landon and I recorded this episode, we were easily on our way to a 2-hour episode, which nobody (including me) would ever be able to sit through and listen. Eventually, I was able to edit it down to about 50 minutes but you will hear that this episode ends rather abruptly – another lesson along the way as we work towards honing our podcast chops.

For all the people who express some displeasure when I introduced the podcast – it’s going to be okay. I will still be writing blog posts and the idea will be that I will alternate between podcasts and blog posts. There are a bunch of new people that are specifically here because of the podcast … but between podcast episodes, please feel free to join in and be a part of the conversation via Twitter and Facebook. If you like the podcast, it would mean a great deal if you would rate it over on A pple Podcasts. Since we are new at this, we are having to dig deep to help build some engagement.

Links:
University of Texas School of Architecture
Virginia Tech School of Architecture
Architecture Schools – Where to Study
Architecture Schools (US) Ranking 2018 … fairly subjective but works as a starting point when doing your research.

So … what happens next? That’s a great question, and depending on your objectives, you have some priorities to set. I can tell you that high school guidance counselors have it all wrong and there is a place for almost anyone who has an interest in architecture and a willingness to put in the work. It really is that simple as a starting point and making the decision on where to go will not be the most difficult decision you will make. Figuring out what to do with that education will be a much bigger deal … but we’ll get to that in another episode.

Cheers,