Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated: In 2012 I finished a B.A. in Media Studies/Art History and always planned to continue my education. After much thought and research, I decided on interior architecture. I'm currently interested in exhibit design, set/production design etc. I live in LA and started classes at Woodbury, in their B.F.A program recently. My college fund is now completely drained at this point and I'm not receiving great financial aid so I am looking at winding up in insane debt if I take out student loans, as Woodbury is so costly. I feel nervous and stressed about finding the right path and considered quitting school for awhile to work full time but I'd rather get school out of the way as soon as I can. Doing research, I read that it's possible to sit for the NCIDQ exam if you have a Bachelor's in something unrelated and then have a certain amount of extra units (resulting in some kind of certification/diploma/associates) and a certain # work hours. I read that Santa Monica College has a good program for IA and also a set design emphasis. Does anyone know if this is a good program to take? If I switch schools, SMC would be affordable, but if it's an Associates, I'm not sure if there are "upper division" equivalent courses that would result in me getting as good of a job as if I had a bachelors in IA. But then again- a school such as SMC is common for returning students or people switching professions, so there must be some kind of academic plan for students in this kind of situation to get what they need to start a specific career..

What I'm wondering is if anyone knows enough about SMC's program or thinks it could be a great idea for someone like me who has an unrelated degree already? Thank you!