Architecture students at Andrews report heavy workloads, with most spending more than 20-40 hours a week in studio work on top of classes, according to a recent survey by the Student Movement. Students often struggle to balance their schoolwork with their personal life and overall well-being. The Student Movement polled students and interviewed one of the program’s professors/advisors, Mark Moreno.
The survey was presented in each architecture classroom, and later shared through group chats, receiving 23 responses. Most respondents were second- and fourth-year students, with smaller representation from first-, third- and fifth-year students.
Architecture programs are structured around studio courses, where students work on long, multi-step design projects that require constant development and revision. Other classes — such as history, structures and software — are meant to support studio, but they add additional deadlines to an already demanding schedule. A major part of the program is the critique process, where students present their work for detailed feedback, often requiring significant revisions afterward.
“There's a lot to learn in the profession — it’s demanding, licensed, and carries liability — but the workload still needs to be balanced,” Moreno explained.
According to the survey, most students spent upwards of 20 hours a week working on architecture assignments, with 39.1% of students reporting spending 20-30 hours on studio work or design projects outside of class every week, while several (34.8%) reported spending 30-40 hours.
An anonymous student expressed, “Architecture school is consuming. Even with 20-40 hours of studio work a week, it never feels like you’re caught up.”
The survey also aimed to explore the balance of common life aspects, including friendships, sleep, jobs and extracurricular activities. A majority of the students say that architecture school disrupts their social life, personal relationships and ability to work part-time, often leading to feelings of guilt, isolation and burnout. Students described how deeply the program affects their lives beyond school, saying:
“Architecture school has honestly taken a huge toll on pretty much every part of my life outside of studio.”
and
“My social life has been slowly disappearing the more I study architecture.”
In terms of overall well-being, most students report stress levels of 4 (56.6%) or 5 (26.1%) on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is the lowest amount of stress and 5 is the highest. With 60.9% reporting significant impacts on their physical and mental health. Including sleep deprivation as a common factor — many sleep 4-6 hours a night, and several note frequent (39.1%) or weekly (17.4%) late-night work sessions (all-nighters). One student explained, “There’s a constant baseline mental stress no matter what’s going on.”
From the faculty side, the professor and academic advisor, Moreno, explained that the intensity of the program is intentional, designed to mirror the realities of professional practice, where deadlines, iteration and long-term projects are common. He emphasized that the workload is meant to help students build discipline, critical thinking and the ability to manage complex tasks over time.
At the same time, he acknowledged that balance is important. He noted that architecture is demanding by nature, but stressed that studio work should remain the core of the curriculum, with other classes supporting it rather than overwhelming students. He added that professors should help students develop realistic strategies for prioritizing work when time is limited.
“If we’re a Christian institution promoting health and work-life balance, we need to do our part,” Moreno said.
He also clarified a common misconception—that the workload is meant to “break” students. Instead, he said the goal is to challenge them in ways that prepare them for the expectations of the field while still maintaining space for personal well-being.
At the end of the day, both students and faculty want the same thing: for architecture majors to learn well and graduate prepared for the realities of the field. Students suggested improvements, such as clearer expectations, better coordination between classes and more intentional pacing throughout the semester. On the faculty side, there’s an emphasis on helping students build healthier time-management strategies and keeping the focus on meaningful learning rather than constant output. Both groups agree that clearer communication — and actually listening to each other — could make a noticeable difference.
Architecture may always come with long hours and high expectations, but students are deeply committed to the craft, and there is a growing push to make the path more sustainable. Faculty and students alike recognize that rigor and well-being don’t have to compete — and that the program can evolve without losing what makes it meaningful. As one student summed it up, “I want to do my best work — but I also want a system that doesn’t wear us down in the process.”
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.