I’ve got some time to kill at work waiting on some stuff, so here’s an unsolicited writeup on Virginia Tech’s current ID program:
VTs ID program is growing and getting stronger, even from when I was a freshman to when I graduated five years later (only cool kids go to college for five years). All the faculty members are passionate and truly care about the advancement and education of the students, and for the price you can’t really beat it (in-state, anyway).
Faculty: All of them have practical real-world experience from a variety of backgrounds, several are active IDSA members. I had classes with each and every one of them, and while all of them are different I didn’t meet one that I truly disliked. Some I liked better than others, but overall all of them were excellent educators and all would set aside time (and even be in the studio late into the night if needed) for meeting with students.
Coursework: Now that I’ve been out in the “real world” as a designer, I’ve only run into one issue where I was wishing I’d learned more in school: 3D modeling programs. Virginia Tech teaches SolidWorks with an optional 6 week class in Rhino, and that’s it. If I had not had internships that used Rhino and taught it to myself, I probably would not have gotten my job. We also use 3DS Max at my company, and I have no earthly clue how to use it and the other designers learned it in school. When they asked what I was taught in school as far as 3D modeling goes, they were appalled that all they teach is SolidWorks. Yeah you can learn the others on your own time, but honestly who has that kind of time/money to buy a license and learn while not working on actual school projects?
Space: You can’t really beat Burchard Hall for an awesome studio atmosphere. Everyone has their own desk that they do not have to share with anyone, and it’s a fully open collaborative space. A recent addition is the Kiva, a round whiteboard room used for pinups, discussions, group work, etc. The only downside of the Kiva is the acoustics since it’s round so it’s hard to hear people presenting sometimes, and noise from outside is amplified. The studio space is open 24/7, although it requires swiping your student ID to get in after certain hours and on weekends as a security measure so if you forget to bring your student ID on a 3 AM trip to studio you’re kinda SOL.
Campus: Virginia Tech is set in the mountains of SW Virginia in a little mountain town. Blacksburg is one of the best college towns out there, and VT is a huge school so there’s always something going on and stuff to do. At Tech you can have a good design education but also have the typical college experience of football games and school spirit that you might not get at an art school. You also meet and interact with people who are not designers, which I believe is beneficial. My roommates in college were not designers, which was nice because I could come home and escape the design school bubble and talk about stuff entirely not design related.
Here’s the big flaw I wish VT’s ID program would work harder to address:
Internships/co-ops.
As of now, students are 100% on their own to find their own internships and co-op opportunities. Being in the middle of nowhere in Appalachia means that making design connections is very difficult, and therefore getting internships is not an easy feat. And let’s face it, if you don’t have at least one internship under your belt by graduation you are sunk when it comes to getting that “entry level” job that requires 2-3 years of experience. I was lucky, I got two internships just through knowing someone who knew someone, but not everyone is that fortunate. I was also lucky in that I had a full-time industrial design job offer in hand at graduation. Guess how many other people could say the same? 1. There were 30 in my graduating class. Several more have gotten ID jobs since then and even more have settled for internships, but the majority still are not working in the industrial design field.
The faculty is trying hard to establish connections out in the real world to help more students find internships, I’ve already had one or two reach out to me to keep in touch to send internships/job postings their way. They’re making progress but it’s a slow journey.
So in conclusion, VT’s ID school is a very strong and growing program that produces a lot of talent, but it falls short in helping their students get their portfolios out there and getting their talent out into the world. The internships and jobs are there, you just have to work harder for them than if you’d gone to a school with established partnerships with companies that just plop co-ops (and the experience that goes with them) into your lap.