Abstract

For the last several years design programs have not had to actively recruit new students. The media (i.e. HGTV) has been very effective in exposing the public and prospective students to the design industry. However, freshmen enrolled in interior design courses are often disillusioned by the technical and rigorous curriculum content required for a degree in interior design. To that end, one state university developed a survey to uncover specific demographic traits which could be correlated with students who progress into the upper levels of the Interior Design program. The faculty generated several hypotheses to predict future performance. One hypothesis was that students who stay in the Interior Design program (i.e. upper level students, post-portfolio review) would have a different set of responses than the lower level students (students pre-portfolio review) to questions such as why they chose interior design as a major and whether they researched other ID programs before selecting a specific university. Understanding how students select a university and/or program of study is critical to programs attempting to expand the quantity and quality of design students.