Architecture and Construction Management Frequently Asked Questions

While both careers are directly involved in the building industry, architects are primarily involved before construction begins and construction managers primarily during construction.

Architects work with clients to design and plan building and structures. Architects are primarily involved in the process before construction begins, focused on design and planning activities.

Construction managers manage the construction process during construction. Construction managers are responsible for oversight of all the activities related to the building of a structure, including project management, estimating, construction scheduling and construction safety.  

Many people think that architecture requires more math than it actually does. An architectural education is demanding and rigorous. You must be intelligent, creative and able to work very hard and you must be reasonably good at math.

Almost all architectural degrees require you to complete a calculus and college physics class. Many architects found these to be challenging classes but were able to complete them. More importantly, you must be able to think spatially and use logic to solve problems.

COD has a number of dual credit and articulated credit agreements with area high schools, which allow students to receive credit for their high school classes. If your school is not on the list, you may still be able to receive advanced placement within our architecture curriculum. You will need to speak with an architecture faculty member to determine your placement. Classes that may be available for advanced placement are:

1. Arch 1211, Basic Computer Aided Drafting - AutoCad
2. Arch 1141, Construction Methods I
3. Arch 2142, Construction Methods II

No, COD does not give credit for life experience, but we do value what it has taught you. Life experience may allow you to place directly into more advanced classes. You will need to speak with an architecture faculty member to determine your placement.

It depends on exactly what you want to do but the construction management degree is probably the best fit. It will give you the skills you need to organize and manage construction projects from concept through completion. With this degree, you will need to hire architects, engineers and contractors.

You can pursue this field a a career change, but it requires a large commitment from you.

If you already have an undergraduate degree, you can enter directly into special Masters of Architecture programs designed for students like you. All of the universities offer these programs, but admission is very competitive and the programs require you to be a full-time, day student.

These programs are typically three to three and one-half years long. Many students have used our design classes to prepare their portfolios, which are an important part of the admissions criteria.

Our students transfer all over the country, but the easiest and most common transfers are to our regional schools. Currently, the most popular schools for architectural transfer are:

• Illinois Institute of Technology
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Southern Illinois University
• Ball State University
• Judson University

Popular transfer destinations for Construction Management students are:

1. Purdue University Northwest
2. Indiana State University
3. Southern Illinois University

For both architecture and construction management, we do not recommend just taking general education courses for transfer preparation.

Both degrees will require you to match the freshman and sophomore years’ curriculums at the school to which you want to transfer. If you look at the architecture and construction management curriculum at any school, you will see specific math and science classes, but you will also see a number of specific discipline classes in architecture or construction management.

If you do not take comparable classes while you are here at COD, you may transfer 30 or more credit hours, but you will still be at the beginning of the university sequence and will need three or four more years to complete your undergraduate degree. Your best option for the highest placement after transfer is to complete our degree programs.  Talk to an architecture or construction management faculty member to determine the best selection of classes.

You can begin with the Intro to Architecture or Intro to Construction Management classes to get a taste of each of the fields.

Because of the prerequisite sequences and the breadth of topics within each field, we encourage students to take the recommended first semester of classes. See course sequence maps on our website for each degree and talk to a program faculty member to plan out your courses so that if you decide to continue with the full degree you will not be missing any prerequisite courses.

College classes differ from high school classes in the amount of independent work that is expected of the student.

For every credit hour you should expect two to three hours of homework per week. If you are taking a standard, full-time load of 15 credits, that would mean 30 to 45 hours of homework a week in addition to your class time.

You can begin with the Intro to Architecture, Intro to Construction Management or Basic Architectural Drafting to get a taste of each of the fields.

Because of the prerequisite sequences and the breadth of topics within each field, we encourage students to take the recommended first semester of classes. See course sequence maps on our website for each degree and talk to a program faculty member to plan out your courses so that if you decide to continue with the full degree you will not be missing any prerequisite courses