AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University's undergraduate programs in interior design and architecture are among the nation's best, according to a survey of practitioners by DesignIntelligence.
DesignIntelligence is a monthly publication for leaders in design professions. The magazine's annual ranking, "America's Best Architecture and Design Schools," is the only national college ranking survey that focuses exclusively on design.
Iowa State's interior design programis ranked in the top 10. It tied for seventh with Auburn University, Ala., and Syracuse University, N.Y. There are 144 accredited programs in interior design/interior architecture in the United States.
Iowa State's architecture program tied with the University of Kansas, Lawrence, for 13th place in the survey. There are 117 accredited architecture programs in the U.S.
In a separate ranking, employers in 12 Midwestern states were asked to rate all interior design programs in the U.S. They ranked Iowa State's undergraduate program second and graduate program first. When asked to rank programs only in the Midwest, they again rated ISU's undergraduate program second and graduate program first.
Architecture employers in 12 Midwestern states ranked Iowa State's undergraduate architecture program second and graduate program fifth among all U.S. architecture schools. When the Midwestern firms ranked programs only in the Midwest, Iowa State's architecture program was ranked second overall and second most innovative.
In addition, in a ranking of all U.S. landscape architecture schools by employers in the Midwest region, Iowa State's undergraduate landscape architecture program was rated No. 1.
The 12 states included in the Midwest region were Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The DesignIntelligence rankings are based on information provided by schools and on rating by practitioners. The publication contacted practitioners in leading professional firms and organizations that have direct experience with the hiring and performance of graduates. They were asked to indicate which schools graduated their firm's best-prepared hires of the past five years.
Architecture, interior design and landscape architecture are in the College of Design.