M.Arch / M. Int Arch education in the US compared to India

[ps2507]

How different is the M.Arch / M. Int Arch education in the US compared to India ?

[Boba felt]

ok, so a really broad question but I'll try.  I have an undergrad in arch and masters in engineering, plus years in the construction industry in the US so that's where I'm coming from with this:

 

#1) What is your goal for a career?  Do you want to work in India or in another country?  If you want to work as an architect in a specific country, it's best to get your degree and then licensed there.  It's very difficult to transfer a licensure from another country, even from UK to US is a huge pain and we have similar codes.  If you want to work in India, I'm not sure that you'll be paid more for having a US degree.  Most Arch Masters are not funded, so you would be out a lot of money that you might not get back in the workforce.

 

#2) More modern or "western style" architecture and construction programs are considered the gold standard and also more reliable in those countries.  I don't mean location, but countries like (US, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Australia, South Korea and Japan) would be considered at the forefront of architecture and construction.  There is a reason that many countries (Middle East and Southeast Asia especially) pay their students to study arch or construction degrees in the US and then bring that knowledge back home.  The US (and the countries listed above) have the most sophisticated codes and construction companies doing the work, and are producing student capable of joining that workforce.

 

#3)  If you want to work in the US, I would recommend studying here.  Having worked in a US architecture firm, I think it is almost 100% impossible that they would hire a recent grad from an Indian architecture school.  There are lots of unemployed architects already in the US, so the hiring pool is limited basically to graduates from our own schools at this point.

 

Hope this helps!

[ps2507]

Hi, Thanks for your reply.

Basically, what I was trying to find out was this:

I am an International applicant - applied to various schools in US - Fall 2014 term - for M.Arch / M.I.A programs. I have been working as an Interior Designer in India / Dubai for last 12 odd years / graduated some 14 yrs back and am totally not in tune with the current education scene. Back in my day, in school, we did everything by hand drafting. Besides in offices, we have a 3d guy,the model guy, the drafting guy - etc on our teams). ( even in school we used to outsource all these stuff ! ). Well - you get the drift. I am not sure how the culture is different in US and at-least in schools- am guessing one needs to do everything by themselves? - so looking for advice on 

1. what I should be prepared for ?

2. what software do I need to learn ?  ( I only know autocad / indesign / photoshop - absolutely no idea about 3d max or any 3d softwares - always had a guy on my team to do that! ). SAIC where I have applied has told me that Rhino & grasshopper is used extensively.

3. How do architecture design studios in school work?

4. Do I have do lots of study models in different medium ? or is everything done in 3D ? 

( I'm kinda worrying that going back to school is going to hit me like a ton of bricks- so trying my best to prepare myself mentally - and If I can learn some software beforehand- so that I wont be learning everything from scratch )

Appreciate all the advice.