01-08-07

Three Iowa State College of Design programs ranked high by practitioners

AMES, Iowa-Iowa State University's programs in architecture, interior design and landscape architecture are among the nation's best, according to a survey of practitioners by DesignIntelligence. All three Iowa State programs ranked in the top 15.

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. Rankings cover programs in architecture, industrial design, landscape architecture and interior design.

Iowa State's graduate interior design program tied for 10th place with Ohio State University, Columbus. This is only the second year interior design graduate programs have been ranked in the survey. According to the Interior Design Educators Council, there are 52 interior design and related graduate programs in the United States.

Iowa State's undergraduate architecture program tied for 14th place nationally with three other insitutions-Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N.Y.; University of Oregon, Eugene; and University of Southern California, Los Angeles. There are 66 accredited undergraduate architecture programs in the United States.

Iowa State's undergraduate landscape architecture program tied for 15th place with University of Oregon, Eugene, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. There are 44 accredited undergraduate programs in landscape architecture in the U.S.

The DesignIntelligence rankings are based on information provided by schools and on ratings by practitioners. The publication contacted practitioners in 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.

Architecture, interior design and landscape architecture are in the College of Design.

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