what being an architecture major is REALLY like | college Q&A

true architecture fashion i got three and a half hours of sleep last night [Music] architecture all right so hey guys as you can tell i'm back again with you another video and this one was actually requested for once i typically film videos that nobody asked for um but this is quite the opposite ever since i started talking about being at usc and being an architecture major i've been getting tons of questions so if you aren't familiar with my channel i'll quickly introduce myself i am caitlin a rising second year architecture major at the university of southern california i've lived in like turkey germany in multiple states but i currently live in texas and this is where i applied to colleges from so i was not an international student i also just added a minor in urban sustainable planning and i also do air force rotc so i am a busy girl but i didn't want to do this myself and make a whole video about my own experiences so i asked a few other people to help me out hi i'm ava i'm kristen i'm joe marin just for context everyone here is in the same grade level and program as me at usc so this video will be kind of conversational but of course i have a list of questions to ask because that's just how i do things so we'll be covering a variety of topics ranging from the application process portfolios model making and just how we dealt with virtual learning due to coronavirus i honestly can't really describe why i got into architecture i feel like maybe it's because of the traveling and just living across the world and being exposed to just different types of architecture but i've always kind of had in the back of my mind i loved combining art and science and creating design that sounds very tacky but when you combine all that together i just really wanted to learn how to think like an architect if that makes sense and learn what the philosophy is behind design um by doing it myself and i just kind of always knew i could make a whole different video about how i came to the conclusion of doing architecture and architecture specifically at usc rather than other campuses okay so what was your influence for choosing architecture and then i guess why did you choose to do that at usc like i used to want to be a fashion designer and i was like okay that's probably not going to happen well actually architecture wasn't my first choice i originally wanted to do like art in general and i kind of always was into like hgtv like just the idea of people living in my art i was like wait that's kind of fun so then i decided to go to architecture and then once i started researching about it a little bit more i really got into it and i i've just been fascinated by the whole idea of just like creating spaces playing like god's hand a little bit and being able to construct buildings that would eventually become communities to help people i just love the different opportunities that usc was presenting to me and the fact that it's current with how like architecture is supposed to be taught in the 21st century it's not like focusing on hand drafting it's actually teaching me relevant software that i'll be using in the workplace and i think the whole ideology or like the philosophy in usc now like they have a new philosophy of the citizen architect and compared to the other schools that i was looking into i it like made the most sense to me it resonated with me the most i think it has like that good in between between like a big public school and a small private school and the fact that it has like all the ability to do all these tailgates and sporting events and like all these different activities but like still with a smallish campus feel and also i was excited to live in la it's in la which is there's like perks and there's downfalls to that i went to usd right after high school university of san diego and i studied a little bit of architecture there which is where i really kind of like found out that i'm interested in architecture but the program at usd wasn't really um it wasn't what i was looking for and i was looking for something a little bit more rigorous so what was your application like like my portfolio was basically just art um i just submitted my artwork from high school so like paintings drawings because i did art for four years i was in ap art i was applying to a bunch of schools so i kind of had the same like stuff for my portfolio there wasn't actually anything architecture in it it was mostly like photography other types of art i had like some animation stuff in there finishing your first year of architecture school changed your outlook on architecture as a subject and field and has it like shapes what you think you'll do with your degree differently yeah before college all started i i kind of just wanted to focus on like residential architecture i was like oh i want to build houses like i want people to live in my art blah blah blah architecture was all about like houses just a year of this education kind of gives you this new way of like thought and like now going through a whole year it's just it really broadened my mind of what you can really do with architecture definitely broaden my horizons as to like what architecture could encompass and like what like your degree fully can do because i think one of our professors said her first job wasn't out of formos for louis vuitton i believe if that's any indication of anything that must mean like you can definitely like virtually do anything you want it's super versatile the degree so it's like that's kind of reassuring for me if you haven't started architecture don't get any ideas in your head of what it's going to be until you actually have a taste of it it was just really tough but then you do make it through and it's like rough but it's really rewarding i think and that's what i've learned is that like no matter how how hard it is it's like in the moment you're gonna like push through it because time doesn't stop and like it's gonna be rewarding at the end let me just say that first semester of college was the hardest adjustment of my life i've always been a very academic person and i've never really had problems balancing sports with academics my social life extracurriculars family but getting to college was just a different story honestly there's reasons for it being harder that you cannot anticipate architecture is pretty like hard and my my high school was also pretty like challenging so did you do anything in high school that prepared you for or did you go to like cornell summer camp or anything like that i think like half of our class did that like cornell camp i knew i wanted to do architecture in high school but in this area specifically where i live there's not really as many like programs or i didn't pay to do programs after first semester everyone is on the same level basically so even the people that went to cornell and all that they had like this huge advantage at the beginning because like they already did cad like they knew what analysis drawings were yeah but after first semester i feel like the learning curve is the same but i would definitely say that one year of college where i took on a pretty like heavy load helped me kind of adjust to architecture at usc i think like you having a transfer experience was like a stepping stone that's like a big thing because going into college at usc like as an architecture major a lot of people try to prepare themselves by doing summer camps or like learning stuff and you can honestly like never prepare yourself fully like not even just high school to college it's like major to major too because some people like around final season they start stressing because like yeah finals are stressful but they say like they have to pull all these all-nighters and stuff like that and i'm like you really don't understand like the feeling of having to if you're not done with your models like the stuff you have to present to your professor like they expect you to work all the way up to the time you have to present and i think my feeling of being overwhelmed was a combination of factors but a big part of that was being an air force rotc that was a huge huge time commitment on top of a an already time consuming major that was very tough to get to a point where i felt balanced but that did come it did come and now i feel fine so then like going on to actual life like once we got to school what was one word that just sums up first semester like the first thing that comes to mind confused stressful intense exhausting yeah honestly like did you ever consider dropping yeah like a little bit not know kind of partially maybe i never did like it's a running gag like oh my goodness this is like so intense this is so much work i want i'm going to drop and like switch to doran's type which is like the college of arts and sciences but um i don't know it's just the life i like stockholm syndrome i guess you always go back to it and like how do i say this it's exhausting but nonetheless like every single time that you stay up or at least most of the times there's definitely like a reward you have like an aha moment and everything like all that that like led up to is like oh thank god i just kept reminding myself like i worked so hard to get here i'm not gonna like throw it away like this is my dream you either keep up or you really fall behind my professor just like encouraged me to like just stick to it even though if it was in like a really harsh way she said it after that um it really clicked in my mind how architecture was gonna be so then i just stuck to it and i'm thankful i did because i really enjoy what i do now besides studio we obviously have physics and then 114 is like history and then 214 and we have 105 which is the design communication class so those classes kind of offer like a break but what would you say was the difference between like the way you worked for architecture versus the way you had to like study for those classes because you can't really study for studio i'm much more of a book kind of person studying stuff like that is to me actually so much easier and it's like if you study you're gonna get it and it's also it like gives you a background for other things because i remember a kid a girl you probably know who i'm talking about was like mad about the teachers not teaching us like certain terms she was like you guys need to teach us how to talk about our work and the teachers were like no like you'd talk about your work the way you want to and like will help you i feel like those other classes really like gave us backgrounds like have a philosophy behind our work we get to see how these current movements of architecture rose and i get it's important to like understand like what the predecessors of everything was we're going to focus on studio because that's the big topic we start with a tour of historic sites around los angeles and we start with lectures where you kind of get the history of everything at each different house or site we kind of do a different sort of plan there's like plan section elevation axonometric after we kind of visit the site do our ads builds we start to analyze things and make analytical drawings and you talk about something in the building that isn't necessarily immediately visible you talk about compression expansion like sorts of feelings of transparency density all sorts of things like that very cliche topics but you got to make it artistic and it has to make sense your lectures and you typically have descripts where you talk one-on-one with your professor or in small groups in your studio studios are like about maybe 12 people maybe like nine depends on how many people drop and then you just go back and forth on your ideas about how you want to analyze building and then you build models you make drawings you print them out you revise you get redline which is like them correcting your things coming up with ideas and then you go to a review which is like a pinup where you put everything on the wall and you present and typically you get paired with another studio so then you'll see other kids works from different studios with different professors they'll have outside critics sometimes so like actual working architects or just other professors from different schools or even the same school older years so your professor has a very very big impact on your workload number one how your you'll approach that workload and the standards and qualities that they like expect of your work she'd have like really strict deadlines you have to pin up on time perfectly his um approach was like very i would say lax but also very like stern at the same time we always complained like my whole studio complained about that but in the end we were just kind of like grateful because i had to remind myself all this is pushing us so we can be the best in the end yeah first semester was difficult because of my professor but it was very very building joe and aaron both have the same professors as me for both semesters which was like a miracle and mind-blowing and thank you lord but our fall semester professor was she was she was quite notorious for being difficult she was a no bs type person she's like you need to get it done you need to get done now like if she didn't like something she would flat out tell you and it's like there's no sugar coating about it and i remember she literally called me out for not putting in my 100 she said and i quote okay i don't quote quote but this is basically what she said she said caitlyn you are so smart and i just don't understand why you're not using that and then she proceeded to say do you even care and guys i was pissed because she didn't know that i literally had military training to go to at 5am and i wasn't getting back to my dorm from studio until 3am like you can ask my roommate shout out to michaela because i was i was sort of a difficult roommate in the sense that you never knew when i was gonna come into the room or if i wasn't gonna see you for two days i was running on like three hours of sleep most nights and the harsh reality of that is is that it doesn't matter it might have been a little abrupt at first but it was like for me it snapped really quickly and made my expectations always want to meet hers which was basically like above the roof so it's like over expecting everything i think my professor really emphasized if you had a job as an architect and you showed up to a presentation and didn't have your stuff done what is that gonna do i was happy that she realized that like i had potential now looking back i see exactly what she meant i was producing to produce so i could get it out of my mind and be done and move on to the next thing because i was so like busy but i wasn't really getting the quality of work that i could have gone because i wasn't putting my actual heart into my work and also it's like nice to have that first semester because then going into second semester i already have those super high standards for myself which allowed me to push myself really hard and it's very starting to realize that fact that you have to still be passionate in times of stress but there's a sweet spot where everything just flows and i i found it eventually so what was like the most influential thing like a professor has said to you a big one for me i don't know if it was influential or just like it stuck with me it's like mary rich there's so many more architects out there than the world actually need so it's like be in the job if you're truly passionate about it because or not you'll hate it every day of your life she said this like the more models the more like work you put in like the more options you have the more like roots you can see like another phrase she said that really stuck with me and it's like she said it to another student but like i took it in my own way and you're an effing cat and i effing hate cats it's like a singapore cat i read this like article a while back i don't know how i mentioned that but i just remember like talking to my professor about this first semester i was comparing myself to a cat jumping off a balcony because i had a good idea and then i jumped off what did she say to you what was the sentence you got to say it and then we were talking about the whole cat thing and she was like i don't like cats no guys she said you're a cat and i hate cats this is what this woman said i think she likes me though i think you you also insulted her dog oh oh it's just a cat the thing is like when you have criticism like that you can't take it personally constantly being told to like stop thinking may feel like a personal thing but i feel like what you did you were able to separate it and be like okay this is work they don't not like me so like if you want to talk about how you dealt with that if you have a good relationship with your professors and when they insult you like it's because they want you to do better and it's relevant it's relevant that's all i can say like you respect your professors you understand what they're saying where they're coming from um she shaped my views of architecture like strongly because she was difficult though like it really helped my second semester first of all i want to say that i think she was definitely more like harsh on you guys for a semester than she was on our studio second semester with your studio because you're you were her first studio like in the fall she was in charge of creating you guys she was in charge of like kind of building you like establishing your foundations as architects and then come like second semester where she has this group of students who didn't have her who she wasn't able to like lay down their foundation she was like kind of working off of like bad foundation oh my gosh i love this architecture metaphor i think for me i i'm i'm super grateful that i at least had her first year i don't know if there was something specific she told me but i could remember um like my project second semester dealt with like curves and stuff and oh god like horrible just the idea of that because i was still having trouble understanding facial nature of curves so she was like i want you to go into downtown and visit the i forgot the name what is the frank gary building with like the um is it the sydney opera no that's an obstacle yeah walt disney the um walt disney concert hall yeah it's right next to the um to those i haven't been a while in the broad and the mocha and then when i visited i was like wait i'm like kind of this stuff is like actually making sense for once yeah and then i came back into class on like thursday and i told her and she was like you finally got it and like she was like so happy for me there's definitely support it's not to say that these professors come in and trash you you have opportunities to actually learn from them i emailed the same professor at like 4 30 a.m and she responded to me and i also skyped this professor and she answered while she was at a family party you know with our professors i remember calling her once and she was in the parking lot and she like responded she like she was facetiming me in the parking lot of some place and like we were talking about my work and the professors are so supportive it wasn't like she would just criticize us and leave she was always there to help and i think that's like a quality education that you're paying for professors love their work i think and they really care about you succeeding and finding yourself and your own voice in the work that you make the professors definitely do support you and so do the students studio culture is a really big thing being in the same area as peers for hours on end maybe all through the night not only helps you build friendships super easily but it helps you learn from other people like if you need help with commands someone's going to be there to do that if you need help with the printer blah blah blah btc they'll create you if you're like hey what do you think of this drawing and they're like oh you can get your feedback immediately but also have fun at the same time so it's not just a lonely experience every single class we would come in with our work and instead of doing like individuals he would always pair us up with like a group or like we'd do like groups of twos to crit with them groups of threes like kind of a more dynamic conversation where everyone was participating we would input stuff about what we think about other people's projects and like suggest things to do any like why don't you do this or like you could possibly take this direction and see it like that i think doing that really helped build a studio culture not just in our studio but like across like all of the first years first semester of college like you know everyone is kind of freaking out together so i feel like that's a cool thing about studio culture it's just like your whole studio is kind of struggling together yeah so everyone just kind of bonds over that and we're like with each other i don't know how many hours a week you get to know everyone like it's fun not only after first semester but after the first year i feel like i have some ride or dies in architecture i love the studio culture at usc because um like i'm always in studio and one of the rituals that i really like is going to starbucks at like three yeah i know i have like a routine with like caitlyn and some other friends like it's usually caitlyn and me but whoever wanted to tag along we would always go to starbucks and we would always say we have to leave studio for starbucks like around 2 20 so then we would be there at 2 30 when it would open up from their 30-minute break i mean recurring like traditions like going to starbucks each person will take their own like voyage from like one side of campus to the other and like always come back with our books for each other it feels like everybody in there is family because you see them like you don't know somebody very well you look in their eyes as you're walking by them i love the studio culture and i think it's really um incredible it's like night and day studio culture at usd versus usc because i also love like going up to just somebody in a culture next door and being like do you know how to do this and they're so nice and they're so helpful usually you really need to get into that mindset that like your people around you can really help you some people might know a little bit more that other they went to like summer camps or stuff like that so don't be afraid if you feel like you're being you're a little behind because you don't get the software like the only way you're going to learn is by asking around utilize them because they might not they might know stuff that you don't and then like eventually they'll ask you questions and it's like you get that really good studio culture where it's like everyone's trying to help each other out it's competitive but not in a way that's like bringing other people down everyone's trying to help each other yeah it's honestly really healthy which i was kind of surprised about it's learning to live with all these different people being able to turn over to like a friend or like just even a studio mate and ask them a question about a project it's like really something that shows you like how to work cooperatively with other people when everything transferred online halfway through second semester i was already at a better level of dealing with everything and i was already doing really good in person and the support continued from professors after corona it can get very draining to be on a computer for a studio two times a week for four hours now it's gonna be three times a week for four hours you don't get the breaks of model making and model making was something that was like really going well for me and it got like snatched with corona but you definitely learn new skills when you do get put online i got so much better at different programs and studios went on to zoom so we were still doing that face to face with our professors and other students and then we use the mirror which is for presentations and like crits and redlining and then we of course still emailed being all online it's kind of i don't know mental health wise it was a lot better because like i didn't have to be in studio late and that that didn't give me anxiety but um um like using rhino by myself here was really hard because if i had questions i'd have to like send videos of my like i didn't have that like one-on-one help right next to me i i don't know if we were we would have been able to dive into styles as much you know what i mean like our personal styles if it weren't for the fact that we were doing online and we weren't we were spending our energy more towards the 2d and like the visuals rather than the actual like model building and i think like being able to see like what my style is at the end we had this you know our class had this set of projects and we each had a really distinct style yeah and if you put your time and energy into it it was really beautiful i thought that was really valuable honestly because i don't know if we would have gotten to do that if it weren't for online learning all right so we're almost done but what do you think is missing from the curriculum like were there highs low points like what would you change about it were you getting your money's worth that's like a big catch-all question i'll touch on some points um in like an order in terms of like hand drawings and stuff it would be a really cool tool to know like how to properly create like an uh hand-drawn architecture sketch but in terms of where this industry is going i don't know if it'd be as practical as like knowing the software in terms of diversity um i went to like a discussion i think it was the one before the covet discussion and this late this woman i think she's going to be a third year she talked about how architecture 214 was very eurocentric in its curriculum and we could definitely have better inclusion in terms of like history it's kind of a running joke and they were like oh here's another like white man's building there's this and this yeah and we kind of touched on how bauhaus was literally like created by racists but it's just no one ever addresses it directly it's kind of like oh this is the past but we never talk about the implications of that and maybe it's just because like we're first years but i don't know the class itself was like really diverse the people in our first year class i think were definitely like representative of a diversity push and by the school to become more inclusive not only like racially but also socioeconomically yeah i feel like it may get discouraging to like apply because of a financial barrier at first yeah i had a work study first and second semester out of like all my options um it turned out to be like one of like i think the most like financially sound the program is really really good like i'm really glad i'm there i'm glad i chose it like the people are cool the professors are cool i don't know if this is just about like the whole architecture college thing in general or if it's just usc but it is very expensive like it's probably one of the most expensive majors just because you have to spend your own money getting these things that aren't already in the tuition the harvard of japan costs like five thousand dollars a year yeah so it's kind of outrageous but if we were to put that aside say this is normal and it is in the us like i think it's worth it i don't know i don't know if people realize like how fortunate they are to go to a school like usc to study architecture because you get your own like studio space like you get your own desk and i think it's worth it you know on your application people know the architecture school at usc like people have heard of it it's reputable you know and i think that's part of the money i'm paying for it's like when i graduate i hope that that might somewhat help me as like an applicant for work on top of that usc is also known not only as like a powerhouse in both sports and academics but they're also like a powerhouse in terms of art and i don't know if that's talked about and the idea of having like a really good music school a really good drama school really good film school really good art program a really good like architecture program there's a big community of them not only represented in usc but in la and it's really cool to like be able to be in that group and like flirt with one another i think that culture is really interesting and i don't know if it's really replicated or it's possible to replicate anywhere else usc architecture allowing first-years to go back i think is the best decision because they definitely need that in-person experience definitely use your ta they're there for a reason they have expertise that you don't have and they'll teach you so much so shout out to jose and raul thank you guys i'm here as well guys like i'm here making an advice video so obviously i expect people to ask questions i know people have comments about like computer sizes and requirements first year you don't really need to go out and buy like a 3 000 laptop to render things as you go through the semester you'll learn what you need for upper years and the specs will probably change a little bit so don't really get too stressed out about that i definitely have a few tips that could just be quickly said in a shorter video so if you have any questions about things like that that i could discuss leave them down below and if you have anything else if you want to know more about studio culture if you have questions about diversity how i felt inclusion things like that dm me on instagram i can give you more one-on-one talks um i'll leave my socials in the description if you would like to do that and i just want to give a huge shout out to my peers my friends that helped me with this video aaron ava joe christian thank you guys so much for helping me out it's very cathartic to discuss um architecture and discuss our experiences throughout the semester i'll definitely be back with more covering subjects more in depth stay tuned and i'll see you guys again in my next video

Channel: kaitelyn haynes

Views: 27,314

Rating: 4.9778304 out of 5

Keywords: USC, university of southern california, uc, architecture, vlog, q and a, q&a, questions, answers, what being an architecture major is like, college, california, studio culture, model making, zoom university, online learning, fall 2020, usc, major, advice, freshman advice, freshman, first year, architect, architecture degree

Id: RBv6BdnSD5U

Length: 28min 45sec (1725 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 01 2020