Regarding Viz, I will agree with the person who said it is one of the hardest majors at A&M. And honestly it isn't even close. I say this because my son is a graduate student and instructor in the Vis Lab and has his BS in Viz.
First off you are in the College of Architecture so you will be spending hundreds of hours in studio. One week he pulled five all nighters in a row. And he wasn't the only one. Over the last seven years I have had frequent Skype sessions with him at all hours of the day or night and all but a handful were in the studio or lab. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most holidays are spent in the lab.
I remember going to an Aggie Mom's meeting prior to his freshman year. Lots of people kept asking him if he was going to go into the Corps. Every time he said, "I'm in Architecture/Viz" they would nod, say, "Oh" and walk away. It was weird. But they knew at that time the two didn't work together. The Corps of Cadets finally created a special unit (A-2) that is specifically for Architecture and Viz majors that gives them the free time required to spend it in the studios. Prior to A-2, the Corps folks were pretty much out of luck. This year's incoming class of Viz majors only has four Corps members.
The degree is a Bachelor of Science so you are taking Physics, two semesters of Calculus and two semesters of high level programming. Many people transfer out of Viz into other majors, quite a few transfer into engineering. It's easier. Certainly less time consuming. In seven years my son has made it to one football game. That was the first game of his freshman year. Every game after that one was skipped because he was too busy in the studio and he wasn't there by himself. Common saying in the lab were, "You can have a life or you can graduate" or "We can always sleep later."
As far as the Viz Lab, getting in is harder than we thought. They only let in about 20-30 a year. Depends on how many graduate the prior year. Only a third of those will be from the Viz undergrads. The rest are from other Aggie undergraduate programs (they get some from Computer Science) and other schools around the country and world. Getting into the Viz undergrad program is easy if you are a high school top 10%. Unlike Texas that admits you to the University but then stack ranks you prior to admission into the College of Architecture, A&M puts you into the College of your choice when you are admitted. The top 10% folks usually completely fill the ranks because they are admitted as high school juniors.
Anyway, this is way more info than anyone here is interested in about Viz. Especially in a football thread. I expect my son will get his Masters next May. He is already working pretty much full time at an educational game startup company that is backed by IBM and several textbook companies. It has been a long hard slog but he loves it.
