Home Study Interior Design-Interior Design Program

Interior Design Program

Are you interested in the arrangement of physical spaces? Do you frequently make suggestions on how to improve your surroundings? Do you like to design or redesign your personal space? Are you creative and artistic, great at teamwork and enjoy solving problems and overcoming challenges? Do you want to take these talents and apply them to the design world? If you answered yes, then its time to check out the available interior design programs.

When searching for an interior design program, industry leaders recommend attending one of the over 100 schools and institutes with CIDA (Council for Interior Design Accreditation) accreditation. CIDA accreditation guarantees that all areas of the design discipline have been taught, that the interior design professional is sufficiently trained to perform the job in the real world. A comprehensive list of accredited interior design schools can be found on the CIDA website.

An interior design program comes in three types: a two year associate degree, a certificate program and a four year bachelor’s degree. Certification can be obtained at a design school or university, such as the University of California at Berkeley Extension. This program is a post bachelor’s program. Which means that to be admitted a student must already have a four year degree. The program requires taking 29 courses for approximately 77 semester units, and one of the prime focuses of the program is for the student to build a portfolio. Associate programs are also offered at design schools, and often at community or small technical institutes, like the New England Institute of Technology. The interior design program is a two year degree, which can be completed in as little as 18months.

The standard in the United States, however, is for interior design professionals to have a bachelor’s or four year degree. An interior design program exists at several universities, including Purdue University, Florida State University and several of the California State Universities. In fact, California has the most interior design schools in the country. The bachelor’s programs can be either a Bachelor of Arts, or a Bachelor of Science degree. Design schools, most notably, The Art Institute (which has campuses all over the country), also offers a four year degree in interior design. Many of these universities and institutes also offer degrees online.

Interior design program, like most bachelor’s degree programs, require a certain number of general courses, plus a certain number of field-specific classes. For instance, California State University in Fresno offers a bachelor of arts degree with an interior design major. To complete this program, the student is required to take 51 units of general education courses, both lower and upper levels, (math, English, history, etc.) and 82 units of courses related to interior design. 15 of the 81 are designated as basic art and design core classes, with specific classes required. The other 67 units are more in depth, major-specific interior design courses. A total of 124 units, with a grade of C or better, is required to obtain the degree and graduate.