I'll let others comment on your post's content.

Regardless of your eventual choice, don't worry too much about your writing.  Your skill there is much greater than many of your American counterparts.  (I read a lot of student papers, and I know.  It can be excruciating.)  Keep working on it, and any remaining problems will soon be corrected.

Good luck!

There's more money to be had in interior decorating.

But you have to be a hottie, or at least gay (for boys). Definitively no fatties. If you're a fatty, stick with Architecture. 

rusty, come on.  Not funny.

hegelian, what do you like to do?  Are you more interested in fabrics and tile or concrete and steel?

OMG... Is interior more feminine thing in America? I didn't know that...

I am just searching something more professional than writing philosophical essays...

I have thought interior design/ architecture is a kind of spatial planning...

like researching better spatial plan or sustainable materials...

I'm definitely have less interests in fabrics...

Then do you think interior design is not suit for men?

hegelian, not more feminine per say. There's more women in interior design than architecture. By a large factor. Interior designers also tend to be a lot hipper and trendier than their architectural counterparts. It's part of their job to be on top of most recent cultural trends. Architecture has the freedom to be a decade behind on everything, and still be relevant.

Interior designers also get to do a lot more schmoozing and partying, and still call it work.

Sorry Donna for offending you. Perhaps looks don't matter to a firm that is doing your local ihop, but for cutting edge modern stuff image consciousness is everything.

hegelian, as you progress with english, perhaps this chart will be helpful:

It's like fashion design, right?

Wow, maybe that's the reason most of professors have M.Arch rather than interior design degree in interior department.

Then I should reconsider everything again...

Anyway, Thanks!

I like your chart! lol

Yeah, so reverse those two people and you'll have my partner and me and our relationships to color.  My partner is a man.

hegelian, rusty's post above the picture is very accurate. Interior design does tend to have more women, does tend to pay better, and does rely more on stylishness.

Space planning and sustainable materials are both aspects of both architecture and interior design.  Before you make any decision about school, think carefully about how much debt you will be in when you graduate.

"It's like fashion design, right?"

If you drew a line between architecture and fashion design, somewhere in the middle of it would be interior design. Now, there are all kinds of interior design projects that are decisively architectural in nature. Likewise, there are projects that resemble the process of decorating a Christmas tree. 

I like interior design, but could never cut it myself. Too fat (in the head).

Yes, you're right. Honestly I don't want to get in extremely competitive private schools.

Moreover, I'm an international students so I should consider it very carefully.

Thanks. It's harder to make a change in my life than I expected.

Hegelian my aunt is an interior designer, she does her share of space planning and every now and then needs an architect to stamp her drawing. Her advice to an employee that wanted to get a masters degree in interior design was that getting an M. Arch would make it easier to get licensed so you wouldn't have to pay an architect to sign your drawings.

@r75!

Thanks for your advice. I've read some articles about interior designers' realities. Like you said, the articles said most of interior designers have limited opportunities and lower reputation in their workplace. If I want to study about spatial things after reconsideration, I'd better get M.Arch rather than interior design degree.

yay!

I did a BS in Interior Design and Now doing a M.arch so That I can become licensed. since you have a undergrad I think you should do the M.arch not to limit yourself, a architect can do interiors but an interior design is not an architect. while there is a large overlap between them, from what I got with my school is interiors become much more detailed. being you go farther in to selecting materials furnishings, fixtures and equipment but you do also space plan and learn more about kitchen, bathrooms, and other more detailed spaces. You do not go into detail as much on building systems and technical detail or design theory as much, however you do a bunch of perspectives and I dd a lot of rendering by hand and computer which has proven valuable. I feel the combination of a ID and M.arch but I would say do both or just do the M.arch and take ID elective studios. Plus I am definitely not gay or remotely feminine, outdoorsy guys guy, so no they  are not gay but you will get a little shit from your friends but thats what friends are for...PS most your class will be smoking hot women just a thought

"outdoorsy guys guy"

Nothing gay about bunch of guys alone in the woods. :)

@Louis Kahn

Yeah!

@shimmyshaw

Thanks. That's what I want to do. Then first of all I should start to find out some M.Arch programs with reasonable prices...

sometimes we bring women...

perhaps you are asking the wrong people this question.  Many architects believe that interior designers wanted to be architects but weren't good enough.

The important thing to keep learning about both careers and figure out what you really want  to do

Interior designers aren't the *only* ones who are hipper and trendier *snicker* >:)

Seriously Hegelian, do the job where you can imagine yourself turning up for work, at least moderately enthusiastic, every day of the week for the next 10 years. The deciding factors should NOT be:

(1) Money alone

(2) Women (Seriously, we both know all the hot ones tend to end up in what you're already doing)

(3) What architects think (Because most of the time, even their clients don't care what they think. No offence guys.)

(4) How effeminate / masculine people think it is. (Once they get to know you they will dissociate you from the archetype anyway)

Or you can come and be an Interior Designer in Singapore, where most Interior Designers speak mandarin, swear at people, join triads, and get into a gang fight at some point.

The older ones are excused the triad and gang requirements. Assuming they haven't become loan sharks. 

Ryan, for someone who was born in 2002, you are incredibly insightful!

Have you considered composing? We need our child prodigies to go back to basics.

"perhaps you are asking the wrong people this question.  Many architects believe that interior designers wanted to be architects but weren't good enough."

And others believe that architecture is one of the last hiding holes for bigots and women haters. The group of you are doing an awfully good job of confirming that. Shame on you.

I have always loved interior design and contemplated going that route in undergrad.

Overall, you'll find more quality interior design examples than architecture.  Not necessarily related to talent (money), but there is more good interiors work out there than good architecture projects.

So, if I were you, I'd do what you really wanted.  It is true you can have more options later with architecture, but you won't get a job at an interior design firm just because you are an architect, you still have to possess the skills of an interior designer.  

And about the 'more women', well, there are more women...you can look at it anyway you want, personally, that seems like a pretty good reason to like interior design!

Well interior designers do work at architecture firms, end up as project managers, job captains, etc... In the end you could go to architecture school and end up doing alot of interiors, or likewise, you could be an interior designer and work on a great deal of core and shell scope interiors work on architectural teams... And interior designers can advance their careers just as well as architects, become principals, etc... interior designers and architects are industry peers really... I've worked with alot of talented interior designers, creative people, and plenty of good architects as well, I don't think one is necessarily better or more difficult than the other, it's just a different focus...

Yeah, there are more women in interior design, but really, wouldn't you rather work in an office that had a good gender mix, diversity, etc. than in a firm dominated solely by a large number of big headed testosterone high guys?  One of my female classmates in architecture school used to call all male head to head crit sessions "walking into a male restroom"... IMHO, work (and projects) are more interesting because there's a diverse mix of people, from different educational backgrounds as well as from different cultures, gender and sexual orientation in the office... Better ideas and perspectives too, creativity comes from being able to look at things from different angles...  The built environment, and the design world would sure be a boring place if all of it was designed by straight middle aged men from the United States IMHO...

Do the M.Arch, learn about Interiors as much as you can, then you can do either.  

I have been a practicing interior designer for the past two years and I am going back to get my M.Arch because I found the world of Interiors (In LA at least) to be boring, all about fabrics and color and not so much on the space planning.  I love interiors and intend to still work in it during and after I have my M.Arch, but at least with the M.Arch I can choose what I want to do and not be stuck in one small realm of the A+D world.

Thanks, all of your advices are so helpful guys!

tbone - I honestly think it depends on where you work.  I do a lot more architectural work than I do interiors work.

hegelian89 - donna and the others have some really good advice. I think the most important thing is to figure out what you like.  Also, please keep in mind commercial interior design and residential interior design are two different animals.  I do commercial interiors.  I enjoy it because I like the space planning aspect and I like the code restraints.  Interior design is quite versatile actually.  You can do anything from just picking out pretty fabrics, to space planning, to working more in the construction realm (detailing and building systems).  The only downfall is that you cannot stamp your own drawings, though depending on what you want to do this may, in fact, not impede you, especially if you work at an architectural firm.   Again, just figure out what you prefer to do and follow that path.

Best of luck to you.

I know a pair of 'interior designers' in France, however they work mostly with remodels, rather than interior decorating which is the crap you see on HGTV.

Check out the University of Oregon, which has programs in architecture AND interior architecture (note: not design). You can get the M.Arch there, while also taking a few studios in the interior architecture program, so you can get a mix of the more detailed interior thing along with the larger scale spatial planning / design with architecture.

Although most of the people I saw in the Interior Arch program were ladies. But hey, thats not necessarily a bad thing!

About the interior designer being an feminine thing, I think a lot it have to do with US magazine. I notice that a lot of tend to gear women. In other places, it may be different. I, for one, wouldn't think of interior designer as very feminine because I came from Hong Kong, where there are a huge amount of apartment and single building mall, and where commercial interior work is a big deal. 

I am an ESL too. I also originally wanted to go into Interior Design with a slight Art History background in high school. Like the other said, you can be an architect and do ID, but not the other way around. I went into ID for same reason that you mentioned. My advice? Work or shadow with both an actual Interior Designer and an actual Architect first. There are some interesting opinions from sides. Architects tend to advice picking their own career over ID because their work do encompasses ID - but it also encompasses engineering, drafting, construction management and a variety of different subject. Specialization is different, and the education of ID do different from Arch to a degree.  You may not enjoy the education of Architecture, and it may left you feeling burnt-out or dissatisfied. You may not even go into architecture  - a lot of people who graduate from Arch went into other professionals. I ended up really enjoying my architecture education and want to go more into community planning, but it may not be the same for you.

So look into the course program, see what they are first. Find people who are solely architects, people who are solely IDs, and people who are both. Intern, shadow, or information interview - talk to and observe people in the profession directly. You have a Bachelor already, so take some time to explore.