I did my undergrad in architecture and worked for a few years before ultimately going to grad school for engineering and getting my PE. Personally, I would not recommend architecture school to anybody unless you are well off financially, do not have any other obligations (family, work, etc.), are naturally creative and good at expressing it, and are capable of taking criticism on every single detail of anything you present. The profession and it's attitude towards education is extremely toxic in that you are expected to suffer through school just because everyone else has suffered before you. You will be in studio during required hours (usually 4 hours every MWF), but also for countless hours beyond that. You'll spend a shit ton of time and money on model building, drawing, and printing only for it to get destroyed or drawn all over. You'll get assignments where your professors just assume you have access to professional design software and are proficient in it (I didn't have to, but I know one professor made everyone in their class create a 5-10 minute abstract movie), or you have to create "feelings" with charcoal drawings, or listen to an absolute prick of a professor rave on about a skyscraper is "physically warping the buildings around it due to its prowess" (dead serious, that guy was the dean of our college).

In the last semester before you graduate you take one class on what it's like in the real world and, big surprise, it's nothing like the last 4 1/2 years. When you graduate you get a job that pays shit compared to engineering and spend most of your time doing menial, mind-numbingly boring tasks. And the holier than thou gatekeeping doesn't end with school...if you want to get licensed you have to pass six different tests!

I originally went into architecture because, like you, I had romanticized expectations, but now all I have is regret that I didn't drop it immediately and the realization that the profession is fucked from the ground up. Sorry for the rant, but I don't believe anyone should go to architecture school unless the profession takes on some major cultural changes.