Find Rankings for Fashion Design Schools: Fashion Colleges

Find Rankings for Fashion Design Schools: Fashion Colleges

Take fashion design courses at the best school.

If you are interested in pursuing a fashion career (whether in designing or marketing), you will definitely want to get into the best fashion colleges and institutes out there. So how do you know which are the best? Well, it will take some research on your part to find the top fashion schools. Here are some tips to help you get started:

1. Make sure it is accredited. First of all, it's important to check whether the fashion school you're interested in is accredited by the appropriate agency in your country (in the US, for example, it's the National Association of Schools of Art and Design). For a fashion institute to be accredited, it should meet rigorous standards in curriculum and teaching. This is the safest way to know that what you're learning is really within industry standards.
   
2. Check out annual “best colleges and universities” rankings. Many agencies release rankings of the best colleges and universities, and some examples of these agencies are the US News and World Report and the Princeton Review. Check out which fashion design schools rank highest within these rankings; or you could check whether the highly ranked colleges and universities have existing fashion design programs. You could also check out BusinessWeek's Top Design Schools list; find it at bwnt.businessweek.com.
   
3. Look for students' ratings and reviews. Go online and check out what students have to say about their fashion schools. You will get insider and unofficial information about what it's like to study in these academies. These ratings will include what current students think about the faculty, the student body, the school culture, the classes, and the job placement assistance. Be guided also by the numerical or letter rankings assigned to these schools.
   
4. Check out important factors about the school. Other factors you should check include the location (whether it's convenient for you), the tuition fees, the alumni (whether it has produced successful figures in the fashion industry), the classes and program emphasis (whether these are related to the specific fashion career you are interested in pursuing), the method of teaching, their technology (whether the school is capable of keeping up with the latest trends in fashion and design), etc. Remember that rankings should be taken as a guide only; in the end, you should compile your own research to make sure that the school you're going to enroll in is definitely the best for you.

There you have it! Now you can find the top fashion schools. To help you further, here are some that are regarded as the best in the world: Parsons The New School for Design in New York; California College of the Arts in California; Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, also in California; Istituto Marangoni in Milan, Paris, and London; Paris Fashion Institute and School of Fashion Design, both in Boston. Feel free to check out the websites of these schools, and hopefully they'll help you find the fashion design courses and the school that are just right for you. Good luck!