panantha1

Do Arch students have on campus jobs?

gomestar

all nighters are not exactly normal. My girlfriend, an architecture student, has yet to pull one of those. Granted, there's been times when she has been very very busy, she's never actually had to stay in the studio all night. The latest she's been back is probably around 1 or 2 in the morning on the worst days. She's also signed up for 18 credit hours and a painting studio class, most students are signed up for 15. Several of her friends have pulled all-nighters, but that's what they get for starting a project at 5 pm the day before it's due. My gf starts her projects early, doesn't procrastonate, and she does just fine. The stress comes from difficult professors who are very pretentious, and sometimes hard to please. I'm not saying all-nighters don't exist (because they certainly do!) but rather working hard on days and weekends is an easy way to minimize the sleep-less nights.

She swamped this week ... but has only one final exam next thursday, then she's done. I'm loaded with finals the following week, she gets off easy!!

gomestar

it's certainly possible to have a job, but only something easy for maybe a few hours on the weekend. It'd be wiser to join a club or two, or volunteer some place to build the resume. College shouldn't be all work and no play.

Justin_hui

see the good thing about architecture is that you don't take as many exams or do homework as much as other students, but you spend a lot more time in studio.

I also believe it's also how intense you work that will determine how many sleepless nights you will have. Again it varies for different people because some are perfectionists and some are not. Some work faster and more efficient than others. But from most students i've talked to at cornell architecture, they do pull a lot of all-nighters. one cornell arch student told me you prob won't have a lot of time seeing other ppl in the campus. during the summer program, our professor said that the first weekend that we had (before the classes started) was the weekend we would have the most free time. (they give you assignments on weekends too)

gomestar, is your gf first year? because usually students stay up for about 3-4 days without sleep to finish their projects before the end of semester.

panantha, some arch students have on campus jobs but i would say not as many as other students. it all depends on your work ethic. but trust me, all arch students (students who actually get their degrees) work very very hard.

Justin_hui

arch students usually get internships during the summer and those usually help pay off tuition (very slowly though..interns get paid almost nothing). cornell students have a reputation so finding a job shouldn't be too hard. but interning is very boring.

gomestar

yeah, she's a first year, and doing her 'final project.' She's very busy, but certainly not 3-4 days w/o sleep busy. It also depends on what material you're using ... paper is easier to work with than metal is. Her model is pretty much done, the drawings (7 total) are what's taking up the time now. Yet, studio time is 4 hours for 3 days a week ... plenty of time to get substantial amounts of work done. It all depends on what your project is, how fancy you want to make it, and so forth.

How long what your summer session thing?

Justin_hui

the summer session was great. it's modeled after the arch chourse first year students take at cornell. drawings are pretty easy to do. we are given 4 hrs of studio time but everyone works late at night. a lot of us had to break curfew in order to finish our projects. the fortunate college students who were in teh program pulled all nighters frequently. i'm kind of glad to have the curfew because it makes you work a lot faster..but then it can be a lot more frustrating.
trust me, 4 hrs and three days a week is nothing in arch studio. ppl live in studio..we set up cots, bean bags, had TV, and dances to accomodate the social life we were lacking outside of studio.

Justin_hui

you can easily bs the program and sleep all you want..because nothing is ever required except for the final projects. but your effort and work will be evaluated and your effort will show in the projects. there's really no such thing as how many models are due except for the very final ones. ppl could care less whether you spend three days or 1 hr on a project. it's all about your interest in architecture and how much effort you're willing to put into it. And most people do. most ppl at cornell arch can't imagine themselves getting a poor evaluation or doing poorly in the program so they all work very hard and long hours.

gomestar

was it 15 weeks long? The cots/bean bag idea has been proposed, but never accomplished. At least i have yet to see it.

Justin_hui

no it was 6 weeks long..worth 6 credits. we students just bought the bean bags at Target and just placed them around studio for people to sleep on.

gomestar

well, the 6 week program is much more condensed than the regular semester program (which i believe is 15 or so weeks) so it makes sense to have many more all-nighters. The regular studio class isn't like that, nobody is sleeping in the studio or anything. The summer sessions are always more intense since they try to cover the same amount of material in 1/3rd of the time.

panantha1

gomestar: Is there anyone you know in Arch that has a job? I would like to get first hand information, if possible on how difficult this is?

gomestar

the only person i know in the program who has a job was my gf's TA. He, obviously, works as a TA, but is a mater's student (doing the 5+1 that Cornell offers).


I couldn't imagine my gf holding a job. I dont doubt it's possible, but she barely has a life outside of school, and a job could kill even our friday and saturday night hockey game breaks. Right now, school is her full time job.


It's kind of a shame, because architecture students are the one group of students on campus that need a job.

Tuition + room and board + fees = $44,000 or so a year.
Architecture start-up kit = $550
Recommended "spare cash" = $1,000

My gf's last project ended up costing her $300 in supplies! Yay for expensive wood! She maxed out her "cornell card" (a type of debit that's billed to your bursar) about halfway through the semester. We're given a $500 limit with the cornell card.

It'd be very difficult to balance academics and a job. It's best to work all summer long to have spare cash. Luckily, my gf has a steady stream of cash comming in from home.

panantha1

gomestar: Are you telling me that for each project they'll have to shell out cash?

gomestar

yes. Total cost varies depending on materials (wood, metal, plastic, etc.). Cornell suggests setting aside $1,000 each semester to cover these costs. It gets very expensive, the paper (i think it's mylar to be exact) for my gf's final project drawings ran her a solid $50. The wood for her last project was $3 a sheet times 60 total sheets. Coffee is $1.50 a cup times 4 cups a day. At least there's a cafe in Sibley hall.

It's very very expensive to be an archi. I bet they don't mention this in the information booklets.