Cad Architectural Drafting

Q: I am a high school student who will be choosing architecture as my major/carrer. I am a junior who has just recently decided on this after years of being asked "what I want to be when I grow up" and only being able to blindly shake my head. I am wondering if anyone knows of any good web sites or people to mail to help me out. I am trying to learn all I can. Because I have just recently decided I am going to have to fit 9 courses into an 8 course schedule my senior year. This means I will either have to drop a course or take one outside of school. I am definately going toward the latter course. I will be putting these courses into my senior year: Honors AP Calculus (2 semester course) College physics 2-D art 3-D art AP English (2 semester course) Architectural Drafting I also wanted to take CADD. The program offered at my school does not seem to be very in-depth or for serious students. I also figured that because CADD is offered as a minor and sometimes a major in many colleges I would have a better chance of finding that outside of my high school. So my question is, does anyone know of some great online courses I could take? Or , Does anyone know of some great courses I could take in the Concord or Manchester, New Hampshire area? If I had to take an offline course it would need to be in the evening, or in the summer. My other question is, Are those courses I listed above good for an aspiring architect?

A: -Architecture can be an interesting career but don't get tunnel vision just to aviod being asked what you want to be when you grow up. Realize that college is a place to discover what you enjoy, afterall if you're taking AP English you may be better served by a degree in Enlish Literature than a degree in architecture, then again maybe not ... but that's what you're going to college to discover. As for CAD it is moderately convienient in architecture school if you are proficient, but a distraction if you are not. If you really want to learn something useful for Architecture School, learn CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, or other 2D graphics software and a 3d modeling package such as 3d Studio Viz or Form Z.

These tools are more conducive to design rather than drafting ... To disabuse you of a misconception, CADD is not a major at any university, it is often offered as a focus of study for technology based programs at the level of an associates degree or as vocational training. In your case I would look at the drafting class rather than Cad, and look at design and graphics software rather than a CAD package. But again, you're still young so don't feel as if you have to lock yourself into a course of action ... some people have gone into architecture in their 30's and 40's. -If you are interested in learning ArchiCAD, you can get a student subscription ($150) here: