V-Ray is very good and relatively easy to use.

I would go with the v-ray/photoshop/illustrator combo. Some of the best renderings are those that are well crafted like a painting. I would much rather spend time putting together layers on layers of graphic in photoshop than assigning materials to objects and hitting the "go" button to wait for a rendering from v-ray or 3ds alone to finish.

V-Ray is by no means easy to use. It is stable, well supported, and can handle extremely large models relatively easily. I use it almost every day and like it a lot.

If you want ease of use, however, there are better options out there.

If dealing only with small models, Keyshot is the simplest and fastest renderer out there. 

If you want great quality, and are not short on time, Maxwell produces stunning renders much easier than V-Ray. It's physically accurate lighting, unlike V-Ray and others that essentially cheat.

There's also the new GPU based 'realtime' renderers like Arion and Octane. These are relatively new, and use the GPU rather than CPU (way more processing cores in GPU) to work way faster than traditional renderers. They're still young and not very well supported or known, but try them out if you're so inclined.

I strongly suggest you use V-Ray. It is definitely not easy to use and take a very long time, but the results are worth it. I usually render in V-Ray and touch it up with Photoshop

I can suggest Luxology modo. Very easy, good quality, and very good interface especially if you are a photoshop user. The material system is like photoshop layers.

I agree with mega_pointe. What I like to do is use Vray with Rhino. I'll produce the model and create accurate lighting. Sometimes I'll use some basic metals/glass to get the desired reflection and refraction. Then I'll use Photoshop for the majority of materials/post-processing. 

Though Vray/Maxwell/other rendering platforms are great, a TON of people are learning to use them. As mega_pointe pointed out, using Photoshop can allow the user to apply their own, unique artistry to rendering. It allows you to take a much more personal approach to your visualization methods. Maybe you would like things more ephemeral, maybe more whimsical? The more you rely solely on modern rendering programs, the more you are limiting the possibilities of conceptual and critical work. Separate yourself from the crowd!

As many people have suggested in other threads, check out Alex Hogrefe. He's probably the most published/thorough author of architectural visualizations online. He's helped me immensely in fine tuning my craft with rendering. 

However, if your shooting for realism, or if you're presenting works to clients who want to see exactly what it will look like upon determining materials/textures/lighting of the project, then by all means use Vray/Maxwell/etc. to their fullest extents. Just expect the rendering times to be huge, especially if you are doing animations. 

But for the sake of being a student, I'd stick with the Vray/Photoshop combo. Render a basic scene with accurate lighting, then let your creativity flow with Photoshop!

Also check out Ronen Bekerman's blog for samples and tutorials.