New Mexico State University's Clothing, Textiles and Fashion Merchandising program has been named as one of the "Top 10 Fashion Schools in the Southwest" by Fashion-Schools.org. The university was ranked No. 8.
The program is offered through NMSU's College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and includes courses such as applied clothing design, fashion illustration, clothing buying and promotion, management and marketing.
"It is very exciting that we were ranked," said Esther Devall, Clothing, Textiles and Fashion Merchandising department head. "Our faculty tries very hard to offer the students a good academic experience."
Fashion-Schools.org is a website that helps students interested in fashion design, merchandising and retail connect with resources to start or grow in a career in the fashion industry. This is the first year that the NMSU program has been ranked by the fashion website.
"I did not know that this was going on," Devall said. "I did not find about our ranking until the article came out, it was a nice surprise."
According to fashion-schools.org, the criteria that must be met in order to be named a top school consists of academic reputation, admission selectivity, a variety of the programs and faculty and geographic location.
The list was released in May and included schools from Texas and Colorado. NMSU beat out Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas, and Texas A&M-Kingsville.