A Day in the Life of a Design Student

Being a design student is like signing up for a thrilling rollercoaster — late nights, wild ideas, intense critique, and constant learning. It’s tough, creative, exciting, exhausting, and insanely rewarding. Still interested?

Here’s a look into what a typical day actually looks like in design/architecture school — the good, the chaotic, and the creatively charged:

8:00 AM — The Not-So-Glamorous Wake-Up

You probably stayed up tweaking your model or fixing your line weights until 3 AM. But still — you wake up. Why? Because every day is a new challenge. Every studio, a fresh problem to solve. Sleepy but driven, you grab your sketchbook, laptop, a power bank, and head to campus.

9:30 AM — Studio Culture = Your New Home

The studio is not just a class. It’s your lab, your testing ground, your second home. You’re assigned a brief — maybe designing a café, a hostel, or a tiny home — and you’re expected to think. Really think. Like what does privacy mean in a space? How does light move here? Then comes the crit. Your professor will question everything. But this is where you grow. This is where ideas turn into design.

12:00 PM — Theory Meets Real World

You might shift gears to a lecture — architectural history, construction technology, environmental studies, or furniture detailing. It’s not just about designing pretty things; it’s about knowing how things work. You're introduced to codes, structural basics, sustainability, even psychology.

2:00 PM — Canteen Break = Brain Break

The canteen is where design debates, peer reviews, rants, and midnight collab plans happen. You talk about materials, deadlines, or how on earth you're going to finish that model in 2 days. It’s chaotic, but it’s community.

3:00 PM — Model Making, Rendering, or Running to the Workshop

Your afternoons might include:

• CAD drafting

• 3D modeling in Rhino, SketchUp, or Revit

• Physical model making with cardboard, wood, or literally anything available

• Learning to laser cut or 3D print

• Running between the workshop, the printing room, and studio

6:00 PM — Creative Burnout or Breakthrough

You hit a wall. Your form’s not working, the structure makes no sense, and you’re questioning all your life choices. Then suddenly — BOOM. An idea hits. You sketch it. It works. This is the high that keeps us coming back.

8:00 PM Onwards — The Real Hustle Begins

Design students are night owls by nature. The world is quiet. Music’s on. Your mind’s flowing. You’re photoshopping your sheet, adding scale figures, aligning fonts, or just building… because this is when you feel the most alive creatively.

12:00 AM — Submission Madness & That Sweet Feeling of Done

Your work is exported as “FINAL_REV4_LASTONE_USETHIS_PLSSS.pdf.” Your model is glued. You send it. You breathe. And somehow, you’re ready to do it all again tomorrow.

So, Is Design/Architecture School Worth It?

Absolutely. It teaches you how to see the world — like really see it. From materials and space to people and emotions. You learn to blend logic and creativity, art and science, dreams and reality.

If you’re someone who:

• Likes challenges

• Loves to create things that matter

• Can take feedback and turn it into fuel

• Wants to change how the world looks, feels, and works…

Then this is your place.

And no — we don’t just sit and draw. We imagine, build, fail, rethink, and design the future. One all-nighter at a time.