Maximus Fletcher, senior, faced the issue that many architecture majors at Benedictine College face: stay in the program or drop it. He ultimately decided to drop it.
Benedictine College has many programs with rigorous schedules, some even set up for a five year plan. The architecture program being one of the many. Many students’ schedules are completely planned out with little room for choice.
The classwork does not get easier either. The students go through a series of engineering and art courses as well as general requirements for the college outside of classes that are purely dedicated to architecture. These other courses were the reason Fletcher started questioning his major.
“Essentially it was because I’m so bad at math that some of the required engineering courses were putting me in a real tough bind in terms of graduating on time,” said Fletcher. “It makes some sense that you need to take these courses as they all pertain to the physics and materials used to make a building stand, but it’s a little more advanced from what we would actually need in an architecture firm so it got to be a little more than I could handle a little too fast.”
Fletcher ended up changing to a double major with art and history after talking to others. He wanted to switch to a program of study he still enjoyed without the worry of graduating on time.
Besides these engineering programs, the architecture program faces many other issues that deter students from the program. One of the other main issues Fletcher talked about being the available workspaces.
“As the program gets bigger it is getting more difficult to find enough studio space for everyone,” said Fletcher. “It might be nice to have our own space, but that would require a lot of finagling or an entirely new building so the likelihood of it is low.”
As for time, a current student in the program talked about the hours architecture students put into their classes. Josh Newton, senior, is currently in the program. When asked about the difficulties in the program, his only answer was about the hours students put in.
“It is the most time consuming degree provided, even more than engineering,” said Newton. “The workload should be scaled to represent what the professional world will be like.”
Newton was also asked if he ever thought about dropping the architecture program.
“Yes,” said Newton. “I could choose almost any other degree and get it significantly easier than architecture. But that’s not what I’m called to do.”
Newton sticks with the program because this is the most fulfilling work he has done and it is a passion he can actively improve on.
The same could be said for Fletcher, however, his architecture studies are to be continued after his graduation at Benedictine College.
“I’ll be moving from history to a more architectural slant after graduation,” said Fletcher.