College & Programs

• We’re one of the most comprehensive design institutions in the U.S. Everything you see around you, every minute of every day, is likely to be a product of disciplines that live and work together “under one roof” in the College of Design.
• We offer 10 undergraduate majors; 8 undergraduate minors; 1 post-baccalaureate certificate; 10 graduate majors; 2 graduate certificates and 3 graduate minors.
• We’re accredited through the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), and our programs are accredited individually by their professional accrediting organizations.
• Our undergraduate Landscape Architecture (10th), Interior Design (15th) and Architecture (22nd) programs are ranked in the top 25 nationally by DesignIntelligence. Our graduate Landscape Architecture program is ranked 22nd.
• For 2019-2020 (the most recent rankings available), our Landscape Architecture and Interior Design programs are 7th and our Architecture program is 10th “Most Hired From” by professional design firms, according to DesignIntelligence.
• Planetizen ranks our Community and Regional Planning graduate program 4th in the US among programs that do not grant a PhD in planning.
• College Values Online ranks our undergraduate Community and Regional Planning program 3rd and our undergraduate Industrial Design program 8th in the nation for value and excellence.
• College Choice ranks the Bachelor of Industrial Design program 14th among the 25 best drafting degrees.
• 94% of our undergraduate and 99% of our graduate students gain employment or continue their education within 6 months after graduation.
• Our annual student-run Design Career Fair attracts more than 100 employers from around the nation.
• We connect design students with learning communities (Design Exchange, Design Collaborative, Savanna Studio) to provide a supportive network of faculty, classmates and peer mentors.
• Undergraduate studio sizes range from 15 to 20 students, with an average of 16.
• We offer a broad array of hands-on, experiential and service-learning opportunities.
• Our students can study abroad almost anywhere, with semester, summer and spring break options offered through the college and university. Regular locations include Australia, China, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Uganda. Other recent sites have included Austria, England, Ghana, Morocco, Peru, Rwanda, Scotland and Turkey.
• We’re one of only 4 North American universities to participate in the 2021 Venice Biennale Sessions in Venice, Italy. This is our 7th appearance at the Biennale, one of the most famous and prestigious cultural exhibitions in the world.
• The US Department of State Cultural Heritage Documentation Project is a unique partnership between the College of Design and the US Department of State Office of Cultural Heritage that provides students and faculty with opportunities to work on projects at diplomatic sites around the world. Initiated by Ted Grevstad-Nordbrock, assistant professor of Community and Regional Planning, the partnership has included travel to locations including Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Prague, Tangier and Stockholm.

Faculty

• We have 140+ faculty dedicated to teaching, student achievement, research and community outreach.
• Our faculty have received highly prestigious grants and fellowships:
  • Art and Visual Culture Assistant Professor Johnny DiBlasi, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in Creative and Performing Arts – Visual Arts Award to Austria
  • Community and Regional Planning Assistant Professor Ted Grevstad-Nordbrock, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award to Norway
  • Architecture Associate Professor Ulrike Passe, co-PI, National Science Foundation Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) Grant
  • Architecture Associate Professor Kimberly Zarecor, PI, and former Community and Regional Planning Assistant Professor Sara Hamideh, co-PI, National Science Foundation Smart & Connected Communities Planning Grant
  • Art and Visual Culture Associate Professor April Eisman, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers
• Francis Owusu, professor and chair of the Department of Community and Regional Planning, received a Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship from the Institute for International Education in collaboration with the United States International University-Africa.

Students & Recent Graduates

• Two teams of College of Design students and recent graduates were among four finalists in the student category of the 18th Hospitality Design Awards competition in 2022. They included 2019 interior design alumna and current graduate student Nastassja Degarmo; 2021 architecture alumni Danica Dewitt, Diandra Duenser, Ben Olsen and Caleb Sturtz; and 2021 interior design alumni Francisco Ordaz, Bailey Sinclair and Meghan Whitlock.
• Samuel Nordmeyer and Cody Goedken, fourth-year undergraduate architecture students, were named to the 2021 AIA COTE Top Ten for Students.
  
• Laura Maschino, then a senior in interior design, was selected as one of the top 50 undegraduate interior design students graduating in North America to be featured in the 2022 Metropolis Future100. Angelica Lebron Aponte, then a senior in interior design, and Julia Schettler, then a graduate student in interior design, were named to the inaugural Metropolis Future100 class of 2021.
• Megan Adams, who received a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture in May 2022, was named one of only three undergraduate National Olmsted Scholar Finalists.
• Architecture students Brenna Fransen, Dai “Bill” Le and Tarun Bhatia, and industrial design students Joe Fentress and Ryan Fransen collaborated with architecture and industrial design assistant teaching professor Reinaldo Correa on the “Ripples (aka “Big Fish”) public art commission for the Johnston (Iowa) Town Center.
• Miranda Moen, who received a Master of Architecture in May 2019, received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Open Study/Research Award to Norway for the 2020-2021 academic year.
• Collin Powell, who received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design and German and a concurrent Master of Arts in Interior Design in August 2019, received a Fulbright Community-based Combined Award to Austria for the 2019-2020 academic year.
• Zoey Mauck, then a senior pursuing degrees in Landscape Architecture and Community and Regional Planning, was named a 2018 Udall Scholar.