>>1515511Well one of the things to look into is if the program is more theoretical or hands-on. I took a more hands-on program that had us owing actual projects for actual clients. There is still some room there to be creative and theoretical but it is restrained to an extent by your "client", but generally they were understanding that your a student and you want to flex some creative muscle. The opposite side of the coin is the super theoretical uni's. I have a colleague that was in one of those programs. We compared notes and experiences a lot. I did dozens and dozens of design projects, some were a week long and some were term projects. they did 3 over the whole program, but wrote several papers and had more access to support for extra-curricular academic initiatives, but they wanted something more hands on and felt like they were taught very little.
Student-teacher dynamics are also super crucial to find out about. Ideally you want a university that hires talented faculty that will kind of "riff" with you on your projects, like in a collaborative, mentor relationship almost. There is so much to cover and so much of design carries based on context that you can't learn much of value from lectures beyond the basics.
Try to talk to some people in the program regarding those details because advisors will always give you a really generic response intended on not alienating any potential candidates.
