Education Abroad
APDesign offers many opportunities to study abroad. The experience of studying in unfamiliar environments heightens cultural awareness, improves self-reliance and broadens professional horizons.
Option List
Program Details
Experience Details
Alternative Education Abroad Process
Semester Abroad
Interior design students may choose to study abroad any summer and the fall semester of their final year in the program. When students choose to enroll in a summer program, they typically earn credits for substitutions to professional electives or general education degree requirements. Students may request approval to enroll in an academic program for a summer or semester abroad with the approval of the interior design faculty. Because each studio and semester in our curriculum includes learning objectives that prepare students for successful entry into the profession of interior design, students interested in petitioning for a semester abroad must plan for this experience to occur during the fall semester of their fourth year and must ensure all fourth-year coursework required for graduation is completed prior to, or during, the semester abroad. We recommend students interested in this option begin planning their petition no later than the second semester of the second year. It is the responsibility of the student to coordinate enrollment, course details, and transcript requests with their institution of choice, and ensure that all credit transfers and substitution requests are coordinated in a timely manner for their degree completion and expected graduation date.
Interior Design students who have studied abroad individually have found success with the following programs in recent years:
- DIS (Copenhagen, Denmark)
- SRISA (Florence, Italy)
Interested students should contact their advisor, Grace Meindl, for information regarding how to begin a petition.
Study Tours
International faculty-led annual study tours are a long-standing hallmark of the Interior Design program. One tradition is to visit our partner institution in South Korea, Inje University, in early summer of even numbered years. In addition to a study tour of Seoul and Busan, our students visit Inje University in Gimhee and participate in a workshop with Interior Architecture students on their campus. We also typically offer faculty-led tours in other locals. Recently, study tours have been to Great Britain, France, and Italy. Interior design students may earn professional elective credits toward degree requirements by participating in coursework related to the study tour and the expertise area of the faculty member leading the tour. Interior design program faculty plan to expand offerings to different countries in the future. These experiences usually have a duration of two weeks and are facilitated in collaboration with the Office of International Programs.
Priority for participation in Interior design study tours is given to Interior design students with enrollment open to other majors. Interested students should contact their advisor, or a member of the Interior design faculty to see what international opportunities are upcoming.
Contact your Academic Advisor and the APDesign International Studies Committee for resources to help make your education abroad experience a success.
APDesign International Studies Committee:
- Jessica Canfield, Chair & LARCP
- Otto Chanyakorn, ARCH
- Lauren Fitzpatrick, IAID