Interior Design Program at OSU Ranked Among Top Ten in Nation

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

DesignIntelligence magazine listed Oklahoma State University’s interior design program among the top ten undergraduate design schools in the country.  The OSU program was ranked 6th among its peer institutions.

“I think this ranking speaks to the dedication and commitment of the interior design faculty, and continued support from the College of Human Environmental Sciences,” said Randall Russ, the interim department head of design, housing and merchandising at OSU.  “We are pleased that our program has been recognized as one of excellence in design education.”

The 11th annual America’s Best Architecture & Design Schools study was conducted by DesignIntelligence on behalf of the Design Futures Council and allowed the industry’s leading practitioners to rank accredited undergraduate and graduate programs.  The professionals who ranked the schools were chosen based on their experience in hiring and evaluating the performance of recent architecture and design graduates.

“The interior design program in the College of Human Environmental Sciences is celebrating its 100th anniversary and this award represents a century of excellence,” said CHES Dean Stephan Wilson.

Over 380 of the leading design firms from across the country were also surveyed about which colleges and universities have best prepared recent graduates and new employees for professional practice.  The participants were also interviewed about admired educators, how programs rate in teaching various skill sets, and sustainability education trends.

Deans and chairs from 166 academic programs participated in the ranking survey, along with 1,978 design and architecture students who completed questionnaires about their satisfaction with design education.

The rankings were compiled using data from surveys conducted and analyzed by DesignIntelligence with supplemental information from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the National Architectural Accreditation Board, the American Institute of Architecture Students, and design organizations in each discipline.

Other schools among the top ten undergraduate programs included the University of Cincinnati, the Pratt Institute, Kansas State University, Arizona State University, Cornell University, University of Oregon, the Fashion Institute of Technology, High Point University, the New York School of Interior Design, Syracuse University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Woodbury University.

The rankings were published in the November/December issue of DesignIntelligence. To view interior design graduate program rankings, results of the dean and student surveys, skills assessments for the top schools and rankings of top architecture, landscape architecture and industrial design schools visit http://www.di.net to purchase the magazine.