ctate94

I'll be studying architecture next year as a freshman at Arizona State University, and I'm worried about the time commitment it will require.

I'm hoping to add a Spanish Language minor as well, and I want to get involved on campus. I'm interested in joining a sorority, doing student government, playing intramurals, and joining a handful of clubs. I'd also like to stay sane and maintain my social life. Is this too much to handle for an architecture student?

rick12

Can you do one or two of those activities while majoring in architecture? Yes.

Can you do all of those activities while majoring in architecture? No.

Architecture will become your life on campus. It's not a bad life, hanging out and learning alongside a bunch of like-minded friends. If that's not the life you want then you should think about another major that does not require that level of commitment.

rick

KandKsmom

As an arch student you will soon find out that studio is your social life for the most part. How much of your social life is going to be up to you. If you envision leaving class and going to do many of your chosen extracurricular activities during the week, studying at night, etc., like students in most other majors do, you will find it impossible to keep up or turn in quality work.

Personal example. Four years ago, my s and his one of his best friends enrolled as arch majors. Both started out freshman year involved in a club sport and joined a campus faith organization. Year two, the club sport was dropped. By year three my s reported going to maybe one meeting every couple of weeks with the campus ministry group if he was lucky. He said he felt "guilty" if he wasn't in studio working on his projects. Now his friend on the other hand continued to be much more involved with that club and tried to manage giving sufficient time to both. Each felt comfortable with their path. It is all about balance, but you really need to think about how committed you are going to be to the field of architecture and to your design work.

You will sacrifice a lot of time for your work and will not be able to be as involved in as many other extra-curricular activities as other students. If you know this going in and are OK with it, the arch major can be a very wonderful experience. Best of luck to you!

turbo93

There are ways to do it - DD1 is majoring in Architecture as well and intents to pursue a minor in Arabic studies. This includes Arabic I and II which as any language I & II in her school is 4 credits, not the usual 3 hour. The only way was to take them in the summer (they have two 7-week or so mini-mesters). This gets expensive tuition wise but is the only way around it. Likewise, she's taking summer courses this summer to clear her schedule of other things (even 'simple' electives).

If you commit to 4-5 straight years of school, no summer or winter breaks, it's doable to so some of the things you want.

As far as 'social life', the studio is the social life for the most part. Maybe what you want to do is doable 1st year, but past year 1 when there's a studio course and a couple of other Arch classes and a heavy elective, those 15 credit hours look like 150.