Any architects in here?

[Jmd]

Question is, what's your recommendations on schools, know of any online schools possibly..
I'm all the way out in Greenville, roughly 30 minutes east of rockwall with a kid on the way it's hard to break away hours from my 7-5 job and still pay the bills

[BradM]

I built a shed once.

[slow99]

From everything I know, architect as a profession is about as dead as it gets.

[Jmd]

Well that royally sucks to hear...

[Ruffdaddy]

Yep...if not dead...greatly degraded. Much like law during this time period.

What is it you want to do?

[8mpg]

Architecture aint no joke. My cousin is one. He spent hundreds of hours (sleeping many nights in the design room) doing his degree. He did UTA for his bachelors and masters. You wont do shit without a masters in architecture and even when you come out of your masters, you wont make but $40k or so. You better be in for the long haul. My other cousin is just starting his masters in architecture at the University of Cincinnati. He also spent hundreds of hours at school working on models and plans. I highly doubt you will be able to do this online.

[Jmd]

Thanks guys. That's a bit depressing honestly. I've always wanted to design houses, city layouts, bridges and buildings. Or am I looking more at civil engineering with this aspect?

[Ruffdaddy]

Thanks guys. That's a bit depressing honestly. I've always wanted to design houses, city layouts, bridges and buildings. Or am I looking more at civil engineering with this aspect?

Go civil engineering if you want to get into the city layouts, bridges etc. Also probably won't be online (at least I hope not).

There are actually jobs in that field however

[Sean88gt]

Yep...if not dead...greatly degraded. Much like law during this time period.

What is it you want to do?

Law isn't as dead as people think.

[Ruffdaddy]

Law isn't as dead as people think.

Lol only if you've been doing it for a long time. If you're Going into it now, don't expect it to be nearly what it used to be. Pay is pretty damn low, jobs are mostly bitch work, while competition is still high.

I was actually speaking with a lawyer at a career fair yesterday that is getting into engineering because the money isn't there in law and he hates the work, he wanted to either change jobs or go into patent law.

Now if you can specialize in something like patent law that's different, but also requires a technical degree in addition to a JD, and often times technical experience.

[Z06killinsbf]

LowFast or whatever is one, maybe email him

[Sean88gt]

Seems anecdotal, at best, but likely applicable to a fresh grad with no life experience. Where did you get your JD?

Specialization is key, and those with a BS can get a certificate in patent law. That doesn't mean that you still can't specialize in patent/IP law with a BA.

[CWO]

[Ruffdaddy]

Seems anecdotal, at best, but likely applicable to a fresh grad with no life experience. Where did you get your JD?

Specialization is key, and those with a BS can get a certificate in patent law. That doesn't mean that you still can't specialize in patent/IP law with a BA.

He had been working about 2 years, so yes pretty fresh.

I don't have a JD (or want one), I wasn't actually looking for law positions either but just ran across him since he was waiting to speak with us. I do work with patent attorneys quite a bit however, and they all seem to do quite well with a lot of them being in their mid 30s.

And you're correct, you only need the technical degree to sit for the uspto exam. You actually don't need a law degree to if you're ok with just being a patent agent. I've considered taking it just for shits and gigs.

[Strychnine]

If you're Going into it now, don't expect it to be nearly what it used to be. Pay is pretty damn low,

I have no vested interest here as I am staying far away from law, but what time frame is "used to be" ?

http://www.nalp.org/new_associate_sal_oct2011

How Much Do Law Firms Pay New Associates? A 16-Year Retrospective

Table 1 provides a 16-year overview of law firm starting salaries based on NALP's annual Associate Salary Survey. The figures in these tables thus reflect salary figures reported by law firms, rather than salaries reported by law school graduates obtaining jobs in private practice




Salary medians in the largest firms in the four largest employment markets are shown in Table 2.

http://www.nalp.org/privatesectorsalaries

For reference the US inflation rate over that same period was 43.4%