I originally wanted to be an architect, I applied to three “main” schools and three safety schools. My main schools were Virginia Tech, Auburn, and Penn State.
Virginia Tech: applied to the architecture school, got deferred to regular university (undeclared major) admission, got accepted to the university but not the architecture school.
Auburn: got in no problem
PSU: Accepted but not to the main campus, and their architecture program does not accept transfers even from branch campuses. Crossed that one off my list real fast.
George Mason University, Christopher Newport University, and James Madison University were my safeties. If I didn’t get into VT, AU, or PSU I would’ve gone to one of those and transferred out after a year.
I was all set and ready to go to Auburn to be an architect, I had my deposit sent in and was filling out housing forms when my parents got cold feet about the out of state tuition. So off to VT I went. While re-applying to the architecture school during my freshman year I stumbled across ID by accident and was like “hey this looks a lot cooler than architecture, I think I’ll do that instead”. Applied to ID, got in, did my four years of ID, graduated with a BS, had a job offer in hand before graduation.
Academics-wise, I might’ve gone about the college application process differently if I’d known I wanted to do ID from the start. I probably would’ve applied to Art Center or looked more seriously at RIT (they sent me an acceptance letter with a scholarship and I hadn’t even applied… they’re THAT desperate for women I guess). While VT is an excellent school for ID, I feel like they fall short in some areas simply because it’s a young and still growing program. I might pop on over to the other thread about schools and do a full write-up on my time in the ID program at VT.
Experience-wise, I wouldn’t trade my time at Tech for anything. I don’t think I would’ve been happy at an art school full of artsy people. I like having “normal” friends and football games.