Looking for an Education That Isn't Just about Numbers

Vy Nguyen was three years into a Bachelor's degree program at one of Florida's best-known schools. It also happened to be a rather large school where Vy felt like little more than a number while she bounced from class to class. Even though she was well into her degree, Vy decided to start over at a school where she would be more than a nine-digit number and where smaller classes and more interested instructors might better help her figure out exactly what she wanted to study. "I could have wasted years at [the first school] trying to figure out what I wanted to do," she says.

Thinking she might be interested in studying interior design, Vy started her hunt for a new school on the Internet. She did a search, typing in "best interior design school Tampa." The International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa popped up. Vy emailed the school, and an admissions representative called her the next day. Vy says that call was just the first of many actions on IADT's part that made her see IADT students were more than mere numbers. A visit to the IADT campus sealed the deal: Vy enrolled in the school's Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Interior Design.

Now that she has more than two years at IADT under her belt and just two quarters to go, Vy is understandably looking towards life after graduation. Ideally, she wants a job with an architectural firm where she can do commercial projects with a concentration in hospitality design. "I speak with conviction when I say I know I'm going to get a job coming out of this school," she says.

That's a pretty bold statement coming from someone who started at IADT with no interior design or art experience. "I couldn't draw to save my life," Vy says, laughing. Vy says her lack of experience made her want to work all the harder, especially since her IADT instructors made themselves so available. "At IADT help is basically at your fingertips. I've had instructors give the class their cell phone number and even encourage us to call it after the class is over. There are instructors I had months ago who I still harass, but they never make me feel uncomfortable for calling and they always help me out. They never make me feel like just a number."