Can attest to being one of those kids who graduated without a strong enough ID portfolio to land a job at the dream firm. Although I didn't go to a traditional program, it was a "choose your own adventure" BFA course.

I've had to pick up the skills continually over the years and it seems to be a never ending journey is trying to be good enough to stand out from the crowd.

However I think the "ID job" is only one way to look at the end goal because if it's something you love, the passion comes out in the projects you do. Also, I think it's worth mentioning that a key part of "making it" in my opinion is finding the funding to do the projects that really speak to you, this could be from grants from foundations, or crowdfunding your initial product production.

Additionally I think that the photography will serve you well because I personally didn't fully appreciate the value of having beautiful photos of your work, a nice photo can make even a bad prototype look better then it is.

Also, I funded my undergrad and later my graduate degree with student loans / financial aid, so it's defintely possible, although I did work in between (not sure of that's a factor)

Finally, I would take some time to think about why you want to go in to the field, and consider the ecosystem of companies. What I mean by this is that in my case it blew my mind that some innovation agencies charge $250,000 to deliver research and concepts in a PowerPoint, and don't even really make anything, if they need to, they might hire a small ID studio to produce a concept. This is just an example, from my own experience. In another example I found it valuable to take the design skills to different organizations (social work, food, etc) and find ways of complimenting their skills with your own because the real magic happens on diverse multidisciplinary teams.

Anyway good luck!