Architectural Engineering vs. Architecture (Courses/Salary)

Nitsua24
Sat, 30 Nov 2013 14:37:47 +0000

rick12, thanks very much! Another question, if you don’t mind - are there specific classes/minors you like to see or look for? I hear minors aren’t important at all, but skills learned from certain classes can be valuable.

For instance, these are the minors offered by the College of Architecture and Environmental Design:

Cal Poly SLO:

•Architectural Engineering Minor
•City & Regional Planning Minor
•Construction Management Minor
•Integrated Project Delivery Minor
•Real Property Development Minor
•Sustainable Environments Minor

I was originally considering Construction Management or Architectural Engineering. I talked to my grandpa, who was an iron worker and worked on the Mondavi Center at UC Davis. He said the architectural engineering minor would be useful, because he had a lot of experiences with architects that wouldn’t be told their designs wouldn’t work/couldn’t be built/etc. I also think the extra math involved in an architectural engineering minor might be valuable - I’m not crazy about math, but I could see it being beneficial.

Or on the other hand I could minor in Astronomy or Geology, both of which I would really enjoy. Astronomy would give a better understanding of physics (which likely would not be applicable to architecture), and Geology would obviously teach me more about the earth.