ND Admissions LIVE: School of Architecture

Great.

All right, we have 27 participants. I think we're live.

Great, well first of all I want to say thank you all very much for being here with us this evening. We are in a very snowy South Bend area this evening, but it's quite beautiful outside even though it has been quite cold. So we want to thank all of you for coming and joining us this evening. My name is Carol Kraus. I'm the assistant director for student services in the School of Architecture. One of my main responsibilities is to serve as the academic advisor for undergraduate students. So if you decide to join us.

You will be.

Meeting with me every semester until you graduate. I'm so excited to meet you all with us tonight. Our one of our faculty members and two of our students and I will now turn it over to them and invite them to introduce themselves. And then we'll open it up to your questions if you will just pose your questions in the chat box, that would be great.

Alright Elizabeth, don't we start with you?

OK, my name is Elizabeth Hanley. I'm a fourth year architecture student here at Notre Dame and I am originally from Rochester, NY.

You're muted Miranda.

You're good.

Good evening everyone. I'm John Miller. I'm a professor in the School of Architecture. I've been teaching on the faculty for nine years now. I actually have a lot of connections to the university. I have two degrees in architecture from Notre Dame. My first degree Bachelor of Architecture was in the 1990s, and then I had my Masters of Architectural Design and urbanism from Notre Dame that I got in 2010.

And in addition to that, my wife is a doomer. My father in law is a doomer and I have two of my own. Children are currently enrolled in Notre Dame. One of them is a senior in the engineering school, the other one is a junior studying in the College of Arts and Letters, studying history. So if any parents are joining us tonight, do you have any questions about having students enrolled in Notre Dame in the whole process that that the parents might have questions about? Feel free to go ahead and pose those questions tonight as well.

So while we wait for some questions to come through.

Elizabeth and Miranda, one shall see each once you each tell us a little bit about your experiences in school and what made you choose to come here.

I can go first, so as far as what made me come here, the Rome program was a big draw and then also just all the opportunities and the whole university to travel not only abroad but just across the United States and do different projects was really intriguing. Was definitely a big reason that I ended up choosing Notre Dame.

And then also there was very good financial aid and it was a lot better than a lot of other universities. And it has been very good so far.

I'm so for me. My journey to Notre Dame. UM, was really based on, UM, kind of the type of education I was looking for. I really wanted something that was very holistic and well rounded, which I thought a liberal arts school offered me, which was really great. UM, and with regard to the School of Architecture, I personally was not like an art student in high school. I didn't really do a lot of art and so I think the approach that the school takes to teaching artistic skill like made it really approachable to me and I really enjoyed that.

Aspect of it.

Alright Carol, there's a few questions. Question tab. You see him there.

Excellent.

Yep, Yep I do so. One of the questions that we have is do architecture students typically have multiple meinders, and if So what are a few of the common ones? Well, I'll let you all speak to that.

Uhm?

I'm not sure how popular it is to have multiple minors, but I know a lot of our keys have minors in sustainability and also real estates are very popular one. And then there's also the concentrations within the School of Architecture that a lot of people have as well.

Yep.

Yeah, those concentrations by the way, those are in what do we have? Furniture design. We have concentrations in historic preservation we have is business at concentration of real estate finance. There is a concentration in that, so there's all sorts of ways to get additional education or training outside of the School of Architecture. You're not obligated to do it. You're certainly not all of our students get minors or things like that, but there's certainly opportunities for you to expand from the base of education.

We offer to look into lots of different things. I'm particularly intrigued with the furniture program. It's it's a really fantastic opportunity for students to get a chance to actually design and build furniture. As part of that particular concentration.

And yeah, and I was just going to mention I didn't say at the beginning and then Miranda did and I was like, darn, I should have mentioned that. But I have two minors as well in Italian in real estate which I would say are two of the more common minors in the School of Architecture. You do have to take 2 semesters of Italian right to go to Rome and so then to fulfill the rest of the minor is pretty simple and so a lot of students do do that as well.

Thank you guys so very much students take.

OK.

Many different minors across campus. So thank you guys for sharing that John. This is probably a question for you. What path do architecture students typically take post graduation?

Excellent question, actually. I one of the courses that I teach is a class called Professional Practice which IOFFER we offer to students in the final semester of their education. So this would be the spring semester of the fifth year. Or if you're in the graduate program, maybe the last semester of your graduate degree and so we spent a lot of time talking about in that particular class. We talked about what to expect after you graduate. What's the professional like in the typical path for our students at graduation just to go?

Directly into the profession, students that complete a five year degree at Notre Dame and Architecture receive a professional degree. They receive the degree called Bachelor of Architecture that makes them eligible to begin the licensure process. To be to begin getting a license to practice architecture in the United States. In order to get a license to practice architecture in the United States, you have to have a professional degree. You have to complete an internship and you have to complete a series of examinations and so that degree you get from Notre Dame is the first step that you'll take.

Towards that path of becoming a registered architect, United States and the vast majority of our students actually go on into the profession at graduation. Some of the students do elect to go into graduate studies after graduation. Some students actually look for jobs outside of the field of architecture. I've can think of a few students off top of my head that have done a couple of years of service after architecture education and then got into the profession after that. But there are certain most of our students are become architects after graduation, but that's not.

Necessarily a case across the board.

So students, what did what would you say a normal day as an architecture student? Looks like what is a normal class schedule like.

I think that most days my classes usually will start around 9:00 or 9:30 and it's basically a lot of class morning classes and then once you get to sophomore year studio will take up your Monday, Wednesday, Friday afternoons and then after classes are done I either will go back studio and work on projects, especially if it's a deadline week or I'll.

Go back to my room and study for other classes and then also I'm involved with a couple of different clubs and organizations on campus so I have meetings throughout the week as well as other events and stuff.

Elizabeth, what's your day like?

Uhm, well, I think Miranda captured it pretty well. Class around nine 930 studio from 1:15 to 5:00. Monday, Wednesday Friday.

Sophomore year through fifth years pretty much.

No.

The bulk of your time, but I also feel like I found a lot at UM, especially in the beginning. My Tuesday Thursdays were more like classes outside of the School of Architecture when I was younger, which was kind of nice to have that, like balance. And that's also like one thing that's still pretty much true, and it's nice to be involved in, like minors outside of the school, because it is good to branch out to come because we do spend a lot of time there. But I love being there so similar to Miranda.

Yeah, I'm not sure I have much more to say.

So there are a couple of questions that came up about students, applicants who've been accepted into one major and want to transfer into architecture. Can you guys speak to that for them?

I can I actually came in as a business major and almost immediately switched to architecture so I didn't have any issues with that. I think over the summer when they send out the page to register for your classes, I just said I was intending on doing architecture and then chose the architecture courses as the ones that I prefer. And ever since I've been here so it worked out.

Yeah, I think also a lot of people what they do is like especially for semester of freshman year you can just take the graphics class and like kind of get if you're not completely decided about architecture you can take like graphics one and like be in a different major pretty easily so that then you're still set up to be on track to switch in if you decide that that's what you want to do.

Then the next couple of questions kind of go along with what we were already discussing about what your typical day is like. One question is, does the architecture workload feel easy to manage? And then a follow up question is can you explain what the five year process looks like? How much time students spend in the architecture building each year, and if you're available to participate in things like dorm, sports and dorm activities.

So I would say the architecture curriculum definitely takes a bit of a knack for time management. There is a lot of work obviously being in class for 12 hours a week essentially takes up a lot of your time, but there's definitely time to be involved in other things, and because studio being a four hour class sounds really intense, but it's not like it's a four hour lecture. It's like you go into the studio and you're working.

And then you get to talk to your professor at some point in that time. So it's a really great work period. And depending on like if you manage your time and work really effectively in that period, you can get a lot done, but you will. You should expect to be in the building outside of that time also to work on this project, but I definitely participated in my dorm. I always went to our hall council and I was like our big little Commissioner and played in our male sports, so I definitely had time to like hang out with my friends too.

So.

Yeah, I think I'll pretty much second that, especially the first semester of sophomore year when we first started taking studio classes. It did take me awhile to adjust to the workload 'cause it was just a lot higher than what I'd had freshman year, but I think after about one semester I kind of started to get the hang of it a lot better and you just sort of start getting better at estimating how long it'll take you to do certain tasks and then with that you'll just be able to manage your time overall better. But I'm also involved in multiple clubs on campus.

And did play sports at one point and was able to do that with the architecture schedule. So as long as you plan your time and make sure that you're staying focused, especially in studio, if you can work the full 4 hours, it's a very good time to get work done. But if you're not as focused and kind of our bouncing around, then you'll end up with a lot more to do out of class, which will make it harder to do other activities.

And we do work with you as a faculty working with students to help you improve your work, study habits and to to be better at time management. We try and facilitate work periods during studio so you can get work done during studio time. There is an expectation that you will do work outside of class. That being said, I think it's unusual if you don't participate in extracurriculars. I think almost everybody in the school is involved in a club or an intermural sport or some other activity like that we have.

We have students that are in the marching band I. I can attest to students that are actually we're actually varsity athletes and completed the program at Notre Dame I few years ago I had a fencing student as part of one of my classes, and not only did he get his degree in architecture when he left, he walked away with two national championships, and so he found time to do both of those things. So it's definitely manageable. It's definitely doable, and you will definitely have time to do those things that you want to do another day, because one of the reasons you would want to come to Notre Dame.

Isn't isn't just because of what we're doing in the classroom, it's all the other things that are available to you outside of the classroom, and I think it would be a mistake for you to spend all of your time in Walthall and not out on campus. And experiencing college, you know the college life that you would expect to experience when you come here.

I would also say just kind of like a fun thing, but UM, the building being closed on football Saturdays is I kind of like it.

Yeah.

The building is like you can't go into work on your projects on a football Saturday when it's a home game at Notre Dame, so you can always go to the game, so that's fun.

Thank you guys. So there are a couple of questions about.

Prerequisite courses and things like our first year students required to take calculus and physics. Can you guys speak to those?

So I don't know exactly how it works because I didn't come test out of either of those courses, but I know people that did come, so I think that you can test out of both elements of calculus and physics, but I do think that you have to then fulfill that science and math requirements within another course, which then could be a course that maybe picture interest more or something of that nature.

I think that's also true. I also do not test out of either of those. I tested out of other university requirements and you do have to take a different kind of class of fulfills the same requirement. But yeah, sometimes that can allow you to go into something that is more interesting, or something that you are particularly really excited to study, so that can be a good way to explore a little bit.

Yeah, the university has students at the university have to complete what's called a core curriculum requirements. These are classes that all of the students at Notre Dame have to take, and then you have the classes that you're required to take in order to get the degree in the major that you've selected. And so the core courses include the math courses of science courses, the philosophy that theology there's a Fine Arts requirement. There's a whole list of core requirements that all the students have to take, but there's a huge variety of classes that you can take to fulfill these requirements.

And so usually isn't any trouble for you to first of all, to take the classes that you need and to find classes that are interesting and it will end.

It might be something you might not get in the school of architecture, gives you a little sort of a broader picture of what's available from the university level.

Thanks guys, so I've got an interesting question here. Can you give us an example of what some of your projects have been like?

Yes, so I think our very first design project, near which design was rough, but it was a small Chapel to be like next to the architecture building and then sophomore year we did an art gallery in South Bend and then a townhouse also that ours was in Bath England, but they they dump them in different locations in the past.

And then junior year we designed a palazzo in Rome, 'cause that's the wrong year. And then our second semester. I don't think this is what they usually do, but we did a project in South Bend since we were here because of the pandemic and then junior year is the hotel. Do a hotel that's set in Washington DC and a lot of these are also before we start the building project. We'll do a sort of urban planning project with the area that the building is to be set in, and that's kind of how we're introduced to the area and our little like prep before the project. Yeah, I think.

That's most of them.

What are you doing right now?

Oh yeah, sorry, right now we are all in different studios. I think there's four or five options that we get to pick from. So I'm in building the affordable house and we are designing an affordable house for Habitat for Humanity in South Bend.

Not only is she designing it that one of the houses that the students in her class are working on is going to be constructed. We're actually going to build it next fall, and so it's part of a two part sequence where students not only get to participate in the design of that particular project, but they get to follow through on its construction.

As well, not all this. Not all the design studios end up with a construction component, but we do try and pick design projects that have sort of real world implications that on real sites with real programs that have a real sort of client base. So that's because we believe that when you graduate, you should be able to design real buildings. We go ahead and practice that in these design studios as part of the process. I think one of the things that Miranda started to allude to is that more often than not, when we when we assign a design project that's not.

In South Bend we usually have a travel component associated with that. So for example, the hotel project we designed in Washington DC.

Let I let it at the class of 4th year students on a trip out to Washington DC as well as Philadelphia. And where else do we go? We went downtown Monticello's as well as part of that trip down in Charlottesville, VA and we stopped at falling water too. So it was. It was a week long trip we took over fall break that allowed them to visit the site where they were designing the project and to really study. Sort of the urban condition that the hotel project was going to be in. Obviously all of you that are interested in architecture are interested in our room program in the junior year and so you're going to spend the entire year enrollment do role based projects at that time.

Sophomore year it's not unusual for sophomore year professors to assign projects in the Chicago area and so easy to take trips to Chicago. As part of that curriculum, and I think our fifth year studio is also have some travel component and that's worked into it as well. The really nice thing about the travel component is that it's no additional cost to you at all. The university covers the cost for this travel if it's required for your degree, all you have to do is show up and be interested, and we take you all over the place. Let me show you some great stuff.

Thanks John. Would you all speak a little bit more about Rome and the Rome requirement as part of the curriculum?

I know Miranda and Elizabeth had a very different experience than our typical student, but if you all would speak to that.

So the third year of the program is usually spent in Rome in its entirety, so I know you go to Rome and do your design projects and studios as normal. And then there's also a Rome or architectural history courses each semester where.

You'll learn about the history, of course, but you also get to travel to a lot of the areas that you're talking about in the class and see those. And then we also take an urbanism course to study Roman urbanism, and then freehand drawing and watercolor painting to better our presentations.

So can you to tell him what it's like to live over there? You know what kind of the living accommodations are like, how you eat, you know, sort of day-to-day life while you're in Rome.

Sure, so uhm, we live in a villa that new Ramon so it's converted Villa. It's basically like dorm style type of rooming. Uhm I think that the room sizes range anywhere from like eight people to a room to like 3 maybe a man and so you have suites in some cases that have like 2 rooms with a shared bathroom so the living situation is really nice. The building is incredibly beautiful.

And it has really nice like outdoor spaces too. And it's set in a really nice neighborhood, so there's like a great community aspect. And it also has a really large kitchen and everyone that lives in the villa gets a space to store food that they buy at the grocery store. There's a grocery store like, I think 2 blocks away, maybe from the villa. And so you have a cubby to store dry foods in and then also afraid access to fridge space. And then there's a really large kitchen.

And I think, like.

Six people can be cooking at a time or something like that, so you can cook your own food.

And it's located really close to like the villa is located really close to the global gateway where you would be taking classes from and starting class from.

I'm also with regard to the classes. One thing that I think is really cool about the classes is just that so many of them take place like in the city, and so you get to spend a lot of time being out in.

Roman like experiencing it, which is really cool.

So with these two are forgetting because they were so close to it they spent the summer in Rome because they weren't allowed to go during their junior year because of Kovid. Normally the students go during their junior year, what they're forgetting to tell you is that the studio facility and the resident facility are basically next door to the Colosseum. It's right in the Coliseum area of the city, so.

A lot of schools of architecture have programs in Rome, but they're not located anywhere close to the middle of the city. They're all in the periphery where it's not quite. It's not quite the same experience. This experience puts you right in the center of the city puts you right down next to the Colosseum, so you're in the middle of the action. It looks like one of you is asking whether Rome was a requirement, and technically it's not, but it's impossible to go through the program without going to Rome because some of the classes that we offer are only taught there so indirectly. Yeah, it's a requirement to go to Rome, but I don't.

Uh, in the nine years I've been teaching in the program and the other years I've been associated with it, I haven't had anybody that complained about having to go to a room for a year. It's just it. I don't wanna say. It's the highlight of the program, but it's certainly the one thing that our freshmen and our sophomores are looking forward to that can't wait to do their Rome year. They can't wait to study over there and then, when the students come back into their 4th and their fifth year, that's really kind of all they talk about. I remember when we did that in remember these fantastic experiences. We had it in. When you go to Rome, you change when you come back. You're a different person.

It's there's there's something about being in that city that just just. I think it's fascinating to watch the transformation from a faculty POV because I've taught students in the freshman year sophomore year. And then I've had them back again after they were Roman. They're just different people in there, in there, more worldly, and they're better. And they're smarter and they just. It's just a great fun to watch that transformation. And so it's not a requirement, it's a highlight. It's something you should be looking forward to.

Can you speak a little more John about why we go to Rome for a year?

Absolutely, I will explain why we go to Rome. I can't tell you exactly how many universities require their architecture students to go to Rome, but I suspect it's a very small number that actually require them and we are the only ones that require an entire year of study in Rome. Most other schools will do it in a semester. They'll do it over a three week period. They'll do it during the summer. We believe very strongly that the Rome Year is foundational to your understanding of architecture.

Simply because the city of Rome itself and then the other European experiences we show you is.

It's sort of the cradle of Western civilization as the cradle. It's the cradle of this classical architectural program that we've crafted here at Notre Dame. It's it's a very. It's a particular attitude about how we design, architecture and how we design cities in Rome provides us that three dimensional model of really good buildings and really good places to live. That's worth studying in depth and worth, but more so actually experiencing it and being there long enough to understand what it's like to.

To actually to live there, you know you're not a visitor. You're not a tourist, you're actually because you're there for two semesters. This is your home. This Rome becomes your city, and so being able to understand how to live in a place like that, that's tremendously different in a lot of regards to how we live here in the United States and so being able to have that experience.

Yeah, it opens your worldview when it comes to other cultures, but it also opens up the sort of worldview about how we design architecture and how we design cities. And so a lot of the things that we are focused on as a program itself or just reinforced by being in Rome and being able to see things first hand. We do have a tradition of teaching classical architecture as the basis of our program, so we have focused principally in the early years of the study freshman year, sophomore year, and then while you're in Rome.

Looking at Ancient Greek and ancient Roman architecture is foundational to how we study architecture.

And that approach has been in place since boys since even before I was a student since the late 1980s, the former chairman and Dean of the program, Thomas Gordon Smith, founded this classical approach that's actually based on a system that was taught in the 19th century at the Golden buzzer in Paris. And it's a very particular approach of getting to know the ancient Roman and ancient Greek way of making architecture to study its proportion to study its orders, to study how it's actually.

Employed.

Because it's proportional because it's based on sort of anthromorphic approaches the human body. Things of that nature, and because it's foundational to even understanding architecture that has gone on since then, that that you can't really understand modern architecture and what's happened with modern architecture without understanding the foundations of classical architecture and the traditional architectural styles that preceded it. So from a purely academic point of view, the classical approach is the one that we've had in place.

For more than 30 years now, and we've had a lot of success with that because it trains our students to think critically, it trains our students to think, sort of. Proportionately, it trains our students to actually understand how to assemble buildings and the one thing that it does that we, I think we do better than most modern programs, is it actually prepares our students to make to make real buildings because they are participating in a tradition they're participating in a living tradition, meaning that good ideas from the past aren't immediately rejected.

But they're studied to find out what works and what doesn't work, and for those things that do work, we include them our work. We pull them forward and we make them modern. We actually we make them part of the curriculum part of the thing that we do as students and as designers, and so being in Rome is actually critical. A critical component to that particular aspect of the program.

I wanna come back to that.

This question about classical architecture and how it might relate to contemporary modern firms, but there was a question that kind of goes along with Rome that I'd like to to have you guys respond to and that is what is it like outside of the classroom? What do you do on weekends in Rome?

I think that for Elizabeth and I, a lot of our weekends since it was a condensed program almost all the weekends were spent traveling, and some of these were sponsored by the school and it went along with our class work and what we were studying. And then we also had the chance to take a couple of personal trips. So that was definitely really fun. I think in normal years a lot of people will go to other places in Europe as well, so it's just a really good chance to kind of see a lot more of the world than Indiana, so that's always a good thing. And then even.

During the week around classes there are so many things to see in Rome that every day you can go find a new site or a new monument to look at and there really is never never a boring time. There's always some to do. It's very, very exciting.

Yeah, I think Miranda captured it.

Entirely, UM, one thing that we really enjoyed doing was going to like Art Gallery is in museums, UM, as well as seeing the sites that we have learned about previously in different classes come because it's like you spend. We spent our third year learning these things as well, but you learn a lot about Roman architecture in your second year as Professor Miller was explaining. And so to go and see those places in person is really incredible experience.

Great, thank you. I want to point out that I did actually get to attend to go to Rome with these these young ladies and their class. It was a very amazing experience for me and I hope to get to go many more times in my career at Notre Dame.

But I'd like to touch back on this topic about classical architecture training offered at Notre Dame and how it prepares a student for working if they want to look for a contemporary or modern architecture firm.

I would argue that it does prepare you to work at a contemporary or modern architecture firm just fine, because we're not so while the basis of our of our education is classicism, what we're doing is we're actually teaching you we're teaching you how to learn. We're showing you how to learn. One thing really well, and we're showing you how to do it in depth, but there are always a number of our students, particularly in the 4th and the 5th year who want to explore architecture outside of classicism, and we certainly allow those explorations to happen as part of the program, so it's.

It's not strictly classical from your freshman year three or fifth year, you have opportunity to explore all different kinds and styles of architecture as part of your training and education. As far as after graduation, our students don't all just go work for classical architecture firms. They work for architecture firms. They work for firms that do work all over the United States and all over the world. Whether they're designing in a classical or traditional Adm or not, our students have a lot of success working at firms that do contemporary architectural designs simply because they're so well trained.

That they have the ability to learn and they have the ability to operate in at that different type of environment. That is not necessarily classical. In fact, most of the original modern architects. If you go all the way back to the beginning of the modern movement in early 20th century, they were all trained in the classical programs. They were all trained in programs like the Ecole in Paris before they went on to become modern architecture and modern design, and we kind of take the same approach we. We strongly believe that a student that gets their education at Notre Dame and has that.

Basis in classical design has that foundational learning is prepared to go and explore those things that they're actually interested in doing post graduation, and to have great success across the industry regardless of the style of architecture that's being designed and built.

So since our students aren't at this point yet, I think this is going to be another John question.

Can you explain the 5th year project a bit and does it extend to the whole year? I'm assuming they're talking about the thesis project, so if you could kind of explain what the 5th year thesis looks like.

Sure. So in the 5th year.

The 5th year thesis project is actually just the spring semester, so the fall semester, our fifth year students.

We have a number of different studios to choose from, again similar to the spring semester of the 4th year. But as you progress through the program the the projects become more complex and become more in depth. So by the time you get to the fifth year, you're taking on some pretty challenging type work. In the fall semester, and then you also spend a little bit of time doing some preparations for your thesis for your individual study that you're going to need to complete before graduation. So each of our students select their own thesis, they select their own building design.

That they are interested in pursuing in the final semester of their studies. But in addition to that, we asked them to take. We asked them to.

Form an opinion about architecture. A thesis in the traditional thesis sense that they come up with a defendable statement about what they think architecture is, and they use the design of this particular project to try and defend that particular point of view. And so our students invariably choose architectural design projects all over the world, and they all choose different sort of theoretical approaches to how they think architecture should be designed, and they spend that last semester studying independently.

Under the guidance of a studio faculty member, the project that they've chosen so they're responsible for doing their own research. So discovering what site it would be built at and doing any sort of relevant research related to the building type related to where it's located in the world, precedent buildings that they want to use to help them design their project, things like that, and so the process ultimately leads to a completely designed building on a site in a city of their choosing.

And also includes a demonstration that they have some technical ability that they can lay out a structural system that they can understand how a building works for accessibility, that they can. They can demonstrate other things like heating and cooling and ventilating and all those things that architects are responsible for get layered onto this project. So by the very end of their final semester they will have this complete thesis project that they then have to present and defend in front of a jury.

And in front of the public because anybody is invited to come watch these thesis presentations and those presentations usually last. I want to say there are 35 to 45 minutes in length.

And and at the end you have a fantastic project. You have. You've achieved something monumental and then you walk away with your degree and go on to your career. So it's kind of really, really short version as to what happens, but we've been doing the thesis project since before even I was enrolled as a student at Notre Dame and it's something we all do, and that's what we have to do to get our degree.

Elizabeth Miranda, you guys excited about upcoming thesis project next year?

I am yes, a little nervous. It seems like a lot of work, but I'm also really excited to get to pick my own project and really get into something I'm interested in.

I agree, I'm super excited about the prospect of the project. Uhm, my indecisive nature makes me a little nervous about choosing what I want to do, but it should be fun.

So there was a question in the in the questions about.

If you're not a particularly artsy person and have not taken art classes in high school, is it possible for one to succeed in the architecture program without a solid background in art?

Yeah.

100% Yes, we do not expect anyone to have any prior training in art classes. We don't expect you to take in any kind of drafting classes. We don't expect that you've learned any computer programs or anything like that. We take whatever wherever you're at when you start in the program. That's where we start from. And by the time you leave, you have everything you need in order to be successful. And so no, I have no.

I would have no hesitation whatsoever, even if you've never had taken an art class in your life to go ahead and sign up, we can. We'll show you everything you need to know.

We definitely tested that as when I came into this program I could not draw at all and have improved in that a lot, so they definitely will teach you everything and you have time to to develop your skills to get to where you want to be by the end of the program.

Yeah, I was in the same boat. I also had not taken art classes in high school and I feel like I'm in a really good position now and the one thing I would say like if I was gonna give you a piece of advice would be just to be open to like putting yourself out there in terms of your artistic skill and just like trying, just give it a go like whatever it looks like it doesn't really matter and like you will get better and there's a lot of sketching involved in like those first classes like that are intended just to grow your skills because it's.

A practice and you learn by doing and you just will get better. And because it's really about.

Like what you're seeing and like processing that through what you're drawing, and so it's it's a skill that you will grow.

And I'm not sure exactly what it is about Rome, but it's kind of magical with a drawing artistic ability. I'm not sure what happened, but after that I can do so much better than I could before, so.

That's that's excellent feedback there, and I talked to 3rd year students all the time who are concerned. So thank you so very much. I'll just tell them to just wait it out. That's it's coming.

So we have about 5 more minutes and I've got a couple of hefty questions here, so the first one is, what would you say sets Notre Dame's School of architecture apart from others in the US beyond just.

Our classical architecture focus.

I.

One thing go ahead. Professor Miller you started.

Alright, I'm going to start with the academic side first. Yeah, obviously the classical program with this apart we're the only one in the country that's.

Graduating students with this classical training, so we'd like other universities to join us because we think it's a good way to do it. But I do want to offer you this and to any parents who are listening as well. We have a very high placement rate with our graduates. I believe over the last 10 years we've placed at least 95% of our students, if not more into full time jobs at graduation. In architecture, it's a very high placement rate that sets us apart from our peer institutions. The other thing that I can attest to.

Is that Notre Dame graduates who take the architectural licensing exam, pass that exam at the highest or among the highest rates of colleges and universities in the United States? They are very well prepared not only to go into practice to be successful and to have to have in order to gain licensure in architecture. And so we we really, fundamentally believe that we're on to something that that the way we have our program. Structured results in students have the ability to be good designers that have the ability to find work in architecture to contribute.

Immediately after graduation in their new jobs and then ultimately go on to licensure and into leadership positions in these architecture firms. And I think that sets us apart now. I think you'd rather hear what students think because I'm talking to the parents mainly, but I really like to hear it. Miranda and Elizabeth have to say.

So what I was going to say is that one of the things I think is really special about the School of Architecture at Notre Dame is how noncompetitive it is. It's almost incredible that like everyone just wants everyone else to be equally successful and you can walk around at the end of the project and everyone's just like, Oh my gosh, this is incredible, like you did such a great like. It's such a supportive community in terms of your classmates and your peers. And that's one thing I love.

And also in terms of the professors like your professors want you to succeed, they want you to get wherever it is you want to go and they wanna help you do that. And they also have an interest genuinely in like knowing you as a person and knowing what you're interested in in and what you're interested in learning and what you're interested in doing outside of architecture. And so I think what's really nice about like Walsh family Hall is that it's like a really tight knit community and like you can have a professor, freshman year, and then you continue to see them and like grow that relationship and you can reach out to professors you've never had and they'll still wanna help you.

And so I think that that's one thing that's like really special about it.

Yes, I'll definitely second that, especially with the non competitive nature of the program and I'm sure that you've either heard or you will continue to hear a lot about the Notre Dame community and we talk so much about it just because it's true, and I've met my best friends in the architecture program and Elizabeth right? It's just it's such a supportive environment. I've never felt that I'm competing with the other students or that I want someone to do bad or that they want me to do bad. It really is. Just everybody is trying to succeed and do the best they can.

And I think all of our projects are a lot better for it.

Is it?

Well, I would personally say that the staff is what makes the the whole school special. But you know, that's just personal.

It's Carol, it's just Carol.

It's just still.

Thanks, I wasn't fishing for compliments at all.

So the last kind of hefty question is what is? If you could give an incoming freshman looking to study architecture 1 tip.

What do you wish you would have known when you first came to Notre Dame?

I think I would honestly say that my one piece of advice would be like you'll get there because I had a lot of doubt freshman year that like I wasn't where I was supposed to be in like I wasn't. But like if you.

Are interested in doing architecture and you're like love the idea of architecture and you love learning about it. Then you will get there like Notre Dame will teach you everything you need to know to be successful and I feel like it's really overwhelming at times. But like you can do it and just like keep the faith.

I think mine is pretty similar and just to have some confidence in yourself, and I think it's really easy sometimes when you see other people's projects and you're like, Oh my goodness, these are so good I'll never be there. Just remember that you were admitted for a reason and that this university once you come here for a reason. So you do have something to offer and a lot of times maybe these strengths are different than the strengths of the people around you, but they're still strengths on the lesson. Everybody just has something different to bring to the table, so just always remember that you are good enough and that never needs to be a question.

Hello.

It looks like we have a minute left. I just want to make sure that all of you understand how just how proud you should be of the achievement you've already. You've already accomplished getting into Notre Dame is incredibly difficult to do, and I want to extend my congratulations to everyone that joined us here today. I really hope all of you strongly consider coming to Notre Dame and actually joining us in the School of Architecture. We can't wait for you to join us, and we really hope to see you all in the fall.

Thank you all very much for being here. Professor Miller, Miranda Elizabeth. We are so grateful for your time this evening. If any of you had questions that you weren't able to have answered your please feel free to reach out to me. You'll find me on the Notre Dame architecture website at my name is Carol Krauss and I look forward to seeing you all next year.

Thank you guys.