National ranking rates three Iowa State design programs among best in U.S.

AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University's programs in landscape architecture, architecture and interior design continue to be 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 report, "America's Best Architecture and Design Schools," is the only national college ranking survey that focuses exclusively on design. Rankings cover accredited programs in architecture, industrial design, landscape architecture and interior design. The report is aimed at design firms and organizations that recruit and hire recent college graduates.

Iowa State's undergraduate landscape architecture program tied with Ohio State University, Columbus, for eighth place in the survey (up from 15th last year). There are 44 accredited undergraduate landscape architecture programs in the United States.

Iowa State's undergraduate architecture program is ranked 14th, while the graduate program tied for 18th place with Texas A&M University, College Station; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The undergraduate architecture program has ranked in the top 15 nationally for the past five years. There are 50 accredited undergraduate architecture programs and 89 accredited graduate architecture programs in the U.S.

Iowa State's graduate interior design program tied for 15th place with the New York School of Interior Design. According to the Interior Design Educators Council, there are 52 interior design and related graduate programs in the U.S.

In a separate survey to determine national rankings, employers in four regions of the country were asked to evaluate all landscape architecture programs in the U.S. Landscape architecture employers in 12 Midwestern states rated Iowa State's undergraduate landscape architecture program fourth in the nation, tied with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Architecture employers in the 12-state Midwestern region ranked Iowa State's undergraduate architecture program second and graduate program first among all U.S. architecture schools.

The Midwest interior design employers in the same group ranked Iowa State's undergraduate interior design program fourth (in a six-way tie with Arizona State University, Tempe; Auburn University, Auburn, Ala.; Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.; the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; and the University of Wisconsin-Stout) and graduate program third (tied with Arizona State; Pratt Institute, New York; and Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Ga.).

In an overall skills assessment of recent landscape architecture graduates, based on hiring experiences of firms surveyed, Iowa State's undergraduate landscape architecture program earned high marks: second in computer applications (tied with University of Georgia, Athens); third in security design principles (tied with Purdue, University of Georgia, and Virginia Tech, Blacksburg); third in sustainable design practices and principles (tied with California Polytechnic Institute, Pomona; Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Kansas State University, Manhattan; and Texas A&M); and fourth in research and theory (tied with Texas A&M and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

The DesignIntelligence rankings are based on information provided by schools and on ratings by practitioners. The publication contacted practitioners in 270 leading professional firms and organizations that have direct experience with the hiring and performance of recent graduates. They were asked to indicate which schools graduated their firm's best-prepared hires of the past five years.

Landscape architecture, architecture, and interior design are in Iowa State University's College of Design.