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I find it depressing that only three people post on this thread regurally... What can we do to encourage other people to post here?

If I understand your question correctly, you seem to be asking whether a composer will make a small ensemble version of a piece before expanding it to full orchestra. In general, orchestral pieces are conceived as such and so the composer might make a piano score before orchestrating it, but the intention is always to produce a work for full orchestra or other large ensemble. In other words, the piano score is not intended to be performed or even be performable; it is more like a sketchbook. Although chamber versions of orchestral scores exists, they are always arrangements/reductions and rarely the other way round. It would be very complicated to write a symphony in a version for string quartet or piano quintet or whatever and then expand it for larger forces, for several reasons. Firstly, the orchestra contains a large number of instruments with very different sounds and technical capabilities available. This means that orchestral music often contains features that are well-suited to it but not to other ensembles even if they are playing an arrangement of the same piece. For example, the sound made by an entire violin section playing tremolo cannot be reproduced exactly by the violins in a string quartet and cannot be reproduced at all by a piano. Secondly, chamber music as a form has different requirements, strengths and weaknesses to orchestral music and so this must be considered. A work for orchestra must be conceived and worked out as an orchestral work, otherwise there is no point writing it for these forces. Also, plenty of composers go straight to full score without making a piano score.

I wouldn't rush into a university yet. If you claim to lack motivation as much as you do and don't do so great in school (yet) I would suggest spending time getting a crappy as hell job, until you have the motivation to do better in life in general. Not to be mean or anything, but if you lack motivation to learn, probably wont get very far in your goals.