Auburn University wins national accolades for fashion-design program (list)

AUBURN, Alabama -- Make no mistake, Auburn University still ranks among the top schools in the country for its expertise in agriculture, science and engineering.

But it is also winning accolades for a less well-known program.

The writers, designers and researchers behindwww.fashion-schools.orgranked Auburn's fashion program second among the top 15 fashion schools in the South.

"These rankings provide great recognition for Auburn's program quality and are already serving as a valuable recruitment tool for our programs," said Carol Warfield, head of Auburn's Department of Consumer and Design Sciences.

To prepare its rankings, the website examined more than 200 schools across the country on the basis of academic reputation, admission selectivity, depth and breadth, faculty quality, and proximity to cities considered industry meccas.

In its rankings, the website noted Auburn's undergraduate and advanced-degree options, its 10-week professional internship requirement, and its study-abroad program that sends students to Italy for a semester.

The website also ranked Auburn's program -- known as the Apparel Merchandising, Design and Production Management program -- seventh among the top 75 fashion merchandising schools in the U.S. and 20th among the top 75 fashion design schools nationally.

The rankings come as Auburn's fashion program continues to gain notoriety in the industry. Auburn brought Dawn Robertson, president of Nygard Interanational, a privately owned Canadian women's fashion apparel company to speak at its spring commencement.

Robertson is a 1977 Auburn graduates with a bachelor's degree in fashion merchandising. She began her retail career at Macy's in Atlanta and is the former president of Old Navy and the former managing director of Myer Department Stores, the largest store in Australia.

The website's rankings for the South are as follows: 

Rank	School	Location
No. 1	Savannah College of Art and Design	Savannah, Ga.
No. 2	Auburn University	Auburn, Ala.
No. 3	University of Georgia	Athens, Ga.
No. 4	University of Kentucky	Lexington, Ky.
No. 5	University of North Carolina-Greensboro	Greensboro, N.C.
No. 6	East Carolina University-Greenville	Greenville, N.C.
No. 7	West Virginia University	Morgantown, W.Va.
No. 8	Louisiana State University	Baton Rouge, La.
No. 9	Georgia Southern University	Statesboro, Ga.
No. 10	Meredith College	Raleigh, N.C.
No. 11	Middle Tennessee State University	Murfreesboro, Tn.
No. 12	Brenau University	Gainsville, Ga.
No. 13	Clark Atlanta University	Atlanta, Ga.
No. 14	Eastern Kentucky University	Richmond, Ky.
No. 15	Appalachian State University	Boone, N.C.

The article is from http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/06/auburn_university_gets_accolad.html