Photo by Kyle Oldfield

We'd like to start this post by saying thank you to everyone who submitted pictures to our call for photos of life in design school! You guys came up with some fantastic shots, from winsome candids to artfully composed campus scenes, and they definitely brought us back to our own student days. We enjoyed all of your images, but one recent grad went above and far beyond our modest expectations. There was no single winning image, but Kyle Oldfield stood out in terms of both the quality and the quantity of his submissions, nicely documenting his experience at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (UC DAAP) in an album's (or camera roll, perhaps) worth of snapshots.

Indeed, all of our winners wisely chose to submit multiple photos to depict student life at their university; second place goes to Valdemar Haugaard Olsen who portrayed the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in black-and-white photos, and Nick Althouse of Arizona State University is our third place winner. Congrats to Kyle, Valdemar and Nick, and thanks again to everyone who participated.

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design in Copenhagen. Photo by Valdemar Haugaard Olsen

The photographer's father's once-reliable electric drill lies in pieces alongside various materials and Easter eggs after a final presentation's deadline. Photo by Nick Althouse

Honorable Mentions: Dan Rucker and Jaineel Shah

A shot of RIT's Vignelli Gallery—designed by the man himself. Photo by Dan Rucker

Students sketching in a classroom at the DSK International School of Design in India. Photo by Jaineel Shah

Bonus photos - DAAP alum Patricio Silva sent in a few 'vintage' photos from his University of Cincinnati days circa 1996, check 'em out:

Photo courtesy of Patricio Silva

Photo courtesy of Patricio Silva

Photo courtesy of Patricio Silva

And a few more for good measure:

Photo by Kyle Oldfield

Photo by Kyle Oldfield

Students hard at work (or maybe just taking a gossip break?) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts // Photo by Valdemar Haugaard Olsen

L: Students admiring an Astral Projection exhibit at ASU; R: A first-year color coordination project alongside a livestream of President Obama announcing that we "got" Osama. Photos by Nick Althouse

Stay tuned for more of our back-to-school Discussion Board Digests, which will feature more of these crowdsourced glimpses into student life.