@ELMarquez said:
that's what I am about to say, I'm also leaning towards project management since a proj manager is on the long term skilled list, but I have already made skill assessment with Vetassess with architectural draftsperson as my job. Considering the circumstances if graduated with Masteral in Architecture - I can be accredited as Architect in Australia or pursue my architectural draftsperson job ( and I can use my assessment).
Can you tell me more about the life of Masteral Archi Student, please?
is it demanding and what about part time work?
thank you soo much. I needed guidance with decision making. again, thank you.
For migration purposes, an accredited MArch degree is usually sufficient to get a positive skills assessment for AACA. But if you plan to get registered as an Architect in Australia, you will still need to do the logbook and take the exam (similar to internship and PRC exam in PH). If you choose to migrate as a draftsperson, you will still need to do OQA as pathway for registration. If you study MArch, then you just need to do the Verification, which would make you eligible for the APE.
Studying MArch is challenging, in my opinion, since the studio culture is quite different from how they do design studio in PH. At USyd, we need to take 4 subjects per sem (6 credits per subject, so 24 credits total each semester) to fulfill the full load requirement as an international student. Design studio is worth 12 credits, which is double the credit of a normal class, so you will be spending most of your time doing design work.
We only had one class day per week--one hour lecture, and the rest of 7 hours is spent in tutorials. Tutorials mean a small discussion group with your tutor (usually a practicing architect), who can help you refine/challenge/critique your design. Depending on your tutor's requirements, you may be required to submit something every week, so you really need to spend many hours at home or the studio to get work done. On the 7th week, we had interim review, where you have to present your work to everyone, and the tutor and your classmates will critique your work (in terms of design, concept, workmanship, details). On the 13th/14th week, there's the final review. Again, there will be a panel (either industry experts or practicing architects) who will critique your work. In my experience, they can be quite brutal with their comments. After the final review, you will need to prepare a digital and hard-copy design portfolio for your work that semester, showing your design process and your final design.
The sleepless nights begin roughly 2 weeks before final review, when everyone is working on the final boards. The studios are jam-packed, all the computers in the labs are used for rendering (I've seen one person taking up 8 iMac computers just to render their project), people cooking ramen in the pantry at 2 AM in the morning. You'll see the studios at its messiest, trashcan full of pizza boxes/food containers, people wearing yesterday's clothes (yes, the architecture building is open 24/7). If you feel like studio is hard after reading this, I assure you, it is! :p It's a scary amount of work, and nobody told me about it when I first started. But it will definitely teach you how to be resilient, creative, and confident.
The first time I took a design studio, I took it as an elective because I was not studying MArch. My design tutor was shocked because no one would willingly take design studio as an elective (but it's a core/required subject for MArch) because of the amount of work it requires. You'll need to learn new softwares like Rhino and Grasshopper. AutoCAD, Revit, and ArchiCAD are used in industry, but not in architecture school. And don't forget the cost. Design studios typically require students to produce scaled models of their work. Laser cutting, CNC, 3D printing, presentation board printing (A0 size, full color) are NOT FREE. You have to budget a lot of money for model-making tools, materials, and color printing. In my first design studio, I spent over AUD 200 for one semester, and we only used very simple models. Expect to spend more for complex designs.
I don't know what kind of designer you are, like how well you can manage your time, but it was really difficult for me, even if I wasn't working part-time. I still don't know how I managed to get through 2 design studios, but if you're doing an MArch, you'll be doing that four times, one each semester. 😃 I was crazy stupid and unprepared the first time, but the second was much better because I had better groupmates. You need to prepare yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially if you're doing MArch.