There’s a great podcast from Feng Zhu on self education for people trying to get into Concept Art.
Not directly ID related but a lot of similarities.
My 2 cents on the topic: I think there are a lot of ID programs that are graduating a lot of students that are ill-prepared for the industry. A degree does not guarantee a job by any stretch.
That being said, I do not think I could have come even close to achieving the same growth over 15 years of self education as I achieved in 5 years of in school/internships.