<p>How important is building your portfolio as a freshman entering arch school? Should I rather focus on theory until I become familiar?</p>
<p>Not sure I fully understand what you are asking. However, your portfolio should show both theoretical and the practical side of architecture. When you get out into the real world, very little of what you will do will be “theoretical.”</p>
<p>Thank you for replying. What I meant to say is, this will be my flowchart for next year’s classes</p>
<p>[CAL</a> POLY POMONA | DEPT. OF ARCHITECTURE](<a href=“http://www.csupomona.edu/~arc/barch-flowchart.html]CAL”>http://www.csupomona.edu/~arc/barch-flowchart.html)</p>
<p>And only 6 of them are oriented towards my major (the rest being G.E.). Should I spend some of my “spare” time studying arch theory or should I be more hands on and design?</p>
<p>Interesting. I took a look at that curriculum, and it looks way different from what I did at Pratt. </p>
<p>To start with, you are not immediately fully immersed into architecture until later on, after the first year. To me, this is a mistake. Structures is put off until after the first year. Again, a big mistake. Many people dropped out of architecture because they couldn’t pass statics. </p>
<p>In architecture, you need to do it 24hrs a day, 7 days a week (well, you know what I mean) to know if you really want this profession. </p>
<p>I don’t know anything about Cal Poly. Is it NAAB accredited? How is studio? Have you seen their work and compared it to other colleges? </p>
<p>School is mostly about “theory” and conceptual thinking in architecture. There will be little emphasis on building codes, industry standards and the like. And you will learn nothing about the business of architecture in school. That you should study on your own so you won’t be shocked when you get out into the real world of earning a living in architecture.</p>
<p>Hope this sort of helps!</p>
<p>Jeff
B. Arch, Pratt</p>