Hey guys,

My name’s Asim and I’m looking to find some valuable advice regarding transferring into car design from architecture next year.

I’ll try to not be too verbose and let you spend more time responding than reading some lengthy post.


I just finished a semester of architecture at the university of Illinois in Chicago, and have decided that I won’t stay my second semester. The career outlook didn’t appeal to me very much, nor did the very minimal base pay as an undergrad.

Because I was always interested in cars, and enjoyed the aesthetic and creative aspects when doing any sort of work…I decided then that I should go into automotive engineering. With the hope of that, I wanted to possibly find a way to end up as a studio engineer.

However, I came to the conclusion that I’m honestly not a very math or physics oriented person. I’m not bad at it, but I don’t think I could spend hours doing the work. But I can spend hours upon hours designing, modeling and drawing. I learned this the past couple of weeks as our final reviews in architecture were coming up, and I spent late nights working on my projects.


So now I am pondering whether I should’ve gone into car design when I started college. I’ve wanted to since childhood, but I thought it was a big risk going far away for a career I didn’t know much about. I still have hundreds of car drawings lying around when it used to be a daily thing for me. In the past couple of years my devotion to drawing was limited because of school and intercurricular activities. But I think I want to go in that path. Car design I feel is the only career that I can justify not making insane money when coming out of school. Its something I truly like.

And with this comes looking at schools. By simply scouring every page of this forum subcategory (yeah all 30 something of them)…I’ve ruled out AAU, Pratt, and ACC. AAU seems not developed enough in car design as a field of study, Pratt is overly expensive and also not as developed. ACC is the obvious choice for most, but it’s a school that I just cant afford, and moving several thousand miles away to Cali isn’t an option for me ATM.

So this leaves CCS in Detroit. This is where I would like you guys to help me out. Can you tell me any pertinent information as to what the school is like, the campus, the requirements, etc. I remember someone saying 19/21 ACC seniors got jobs in the field…are there any statistics like that for CCS?

I also have a couple of pictures of recent designs that I’d like you to look at. I can’t say they would be acceptable portfolio work, but I’d like to know whether or not my skills are anywhere suitable for being accepted to CCS. They vary from graphic arts to models to sketches.

I highly appreciate it for anyone that actually read through all that. Thanks,

Asim


15 minute sketch page of cars:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/lancerevoapd/DSC03712.jpg

Recent Architecture Model:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/lancerevoapd/DSC03669.jpg

3+year old drawings:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/lancerevoapd/murcielagoist.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/lancerevoapd/csuno.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/lancerevoapd/untitled2.jpg

Personal postcard design assignment for architecture:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/lancerevoapd/jpeg-camera.jpg

High school graphic arts CD jacket (sorry about the quality)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/lancerevoapd/final-cd-jacket.png

you have drawing skil you just need to work on your own design skills a bit more, push boundaries and break the rules somemore, as for ccs thie site speaks for itself:http://www.ccscad.edu/

quote:

Originally posted by Hexagone:
I remember someone saying 19/21 ACC seniors got jobs in the field…are there any statistics like that for CCS?

I

Hey Asim, welcome to CDN. As for that statistic, I'm pretty sure that person was referring to CCS, and i'm pretty sure that person was me. Normally statistics like that aren't posted on the school's website, for whatever reason. The students who attend the school are usually very well-informed about who gets hired where, as the student secure website actually lists such things. It was 19/22 just to be clear, and another one from that class joined GM about 7 mo. ago. So 20/22, whatever.

I am EXTREMELY busy right now (finals week), so I'll PM you with all the pertinent information as regards to CCS in a week or so. The school's website doesn't have half the useful info I could give you (or anyone else).

modsquad, I highly appreciate you willing to help out. I just spent 2 hours talking to my parents about this issue, and well...I was lacking some important facts to tell them. Hopefully you, or anyone else here will be able to clear them up.

I'm heading out to Phoenix for two weeks starting thursday, so you can PM me...but what would be even better is if you could drop me an email. My address is aprses at gmail dot com. Thanks in advance once again.

20/22 is a really good number. art center has fewer available. maybe only three or less of a class of 10+ graduates gets a job. car designers don't get paid that well either. Don't rush things... try to stay another year or so and see if things get better.

I am not sure if i lead you down the wrong path by my suggestion here, but let me say a thought anyway. Have you thought about finishing your studies as an architect first, and then doing a masters in transportaion design. I suspect that if you show good skills as a car designer, as well as having training in another field, it may make you more attractive as a potential employee. I say this because I know many companies are looking for people with fresh ideas and ways of thinking. A slightly varied background may give you this edge in the employment market. I do understand that this is a finacial risk given the cost of studying, I feel that it was worth mentioning though. Best of luck whichever route you take.

Although its not a bump to the top, I'm still very curious if there is anyone else that has any information available. I read through what was posted in the link but I'm still in need of some specific numbers (graduation/job placement/costs etc.) Thanks again,