Your life at architecture school would be totally different from other university students. This is because architecture is not just your education, it becomes your way of life! So, make sure you really want to do it before you commit to it – You’re gonna need to know How to Survive Architecture School Like a Boss! All things considered, the architecture school experience is highly rewarding. Besides learning countless valuable skills, you learn to become the strong individual you never were. Basically, if you’ve been through architecture school, you can encounter anything! So, let us now demonstrate how you come out of architecture school not just ready to build but ready to face life.
Courtesy of Architectural record
How can Architecture School Strengthens You?
1. Architecture School Teaches You Real-time Commitment
People have a tough time making commitments. Due to this, businesses fall apart, hearts break, and sometimes global wars occur! In the middle of all this chaos, if you can be an individual of solid commitment, you can be an inspiration for great reforms.
Thanks to Architecture school, you can develop this amazing trait! Once you’re in it, you must eat, drink, and breathe architecture, and dream about it as well. I mean, talk about some real hardcore commitment!
2. You Get Your Act Together!
Youngsters cannot help but get indulged in all sorts of redundancies. YouTube any video about creativity or learning and compare its views to a video of a singing cat, you’ll know what I mean.
An Architecture student is different, though. You learn to get your act together no matter what. The school work covers your to-do list from top to bottom. It further pushes you to get rid of all useless things and only pay attention to matters that concern you. This quality makes you a wiser individual in the long run.
3. You Get Stuff Done in No Time!
If there’s one thing you do not find at Architecture school, that’s the time! All your dreams of producing high-quality renders are shattered with one blow of a reality check: there is no time! You see your peers doing awesome and this increases your frustration.
Thereupon, you start your becoming-a-robot journey. Sooner or later, your body gets adapted to working like a machine and you literally get stuff done in no time. People think it’s unbelievable what you do.
4. You Become a Multitasker!
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Not only can you do stuff in no time, but you can pull off multiple tasks all at once. You have the burden of finishing studio work, AND your history class assignment, AND all the writing assignments for your electives in a limited time. This becomes your daily life and you grow into an all-star multitasker.
5. You Sacrifice for What You Love!
People usually like to take benefits from the person or the thing they love, but only a few chosen individuals would like to give anything up for their beloved.
Guess what? Architecture school teaches you to sacrifice for what you love! How beautiful. The moment you enroll in it, you better start loving it more than your sleep, food, and social life. That’s because you need to sacrifice these luxuries for their sake!
6. You Stand-up for Yourself!
© Flickr CC user Rory MacLeod
For you to have a commanding personality, you must learn how to stand up for what you believe in. Don’t worry, the school has got you covered. The jury will always get it all wrong, compelling you to stand up for your ideas and to defend your work.
7. You Master Patience!
Nothing in life could be worse than submitting 3 models, 5 renders, and 10 architectural drawings in a day and a half only to face rejection. The jury insults your work more than constructively commenting on it. Such reoccurring events eventually make you rock solid.
Not to mention the gazillion hours you spend at the model shop to wait for your turn to use the laser machine. The ultimate test of patience comes when it’s finally your turn, BUT the guy tells you to go home because you are not wearing the right shoes. You feel like bursting into tears at his face, but you hold back. Overall, the amount of patience and calmness architecture school instills in you is beyond compare.
8. You Move-on!
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At school, there is a success, but there’s the inevitable failure as well. There is no scope for remaining hung up on the work you spent centuries to produce. Thus, you would have to move forward to catch up. Later in life, you will thank your school for making you someone who can easily move on.
9. You Become Unrealistically Optimistic!
There is no other option. You are almost forced to imagine the best possible outcomes for all the tragedies that happen at architecture school.
You’ve got a submission in 5 minutes, but you cannot make it in less than 2 days. Therefore, you assume that the professor will accept late submission without any problem. Likewise, your posters are not printed and the jury is in a minute. You try your best to think that the plotter will print 10 A0 sheets within this minute. Of course, this is a fairytale, but it will keep you calm. Believe me, with unrealistic optimism, you can accomplish things way beyond your league.
10. You Forgive Yourself!
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Many people fail in life for being unable to forgive themselves for the mistakes they committed. You, on the other hand, are accustomed to making blunders in the spirit of doing things quickly. The fact of the matter is, you will make mistakes in design and in life. The school prepares you to figure these mistakes out quickly and to forgive yourself for making them in order to move forward.
11. You Apologize!
You fall short on your duties in both your studio and life. A real strong person is one who acknowledges his/her fault and apologizes for it. You cannot let ego get in the way when your professor catches your short-cut cheats. Rather, you sincerely apologize and promise to work harder and with integrity.
12. You Gain Knowledge & Confidence!
Throughout your coursework, you are required to effectively communicate your design in front of large crowds. In your first few times, you might lag, but with more experience, you realize that you are the most knowledgeable one about your design. This helps you gain the ability to convey your ideas with confidence.
Perhaps the best experience you earn at the school of architecture is this knowledge and confidence. These two qualities make up people who change the world.
