Massachusetts·Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations·SOC 27-1025

Best Interior Designer programs in Massachusetts, ranked by enrollment

Plan, design, and furnish the internal space of rooms or buildings. Design interior environments or create physical layouts that are practical, aesthetic, and conducive to the intended purposes.

6 schools in Massachusetts run programs that feed this job, graduating 96 people a year. The job pays a median of $80,110 in Massachusetts across about 1,580 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).

Also calledDesignerInterior DesignerInterior Design ConsultantInterior Design CoordinatorStylistDecoratorHome DesignerRoom Designer
Graduates / yr
96
in Massachusetts
Median pay · Massachusetts
$80,110
BLS OEWS May 2025
Jobs in state
1,580
people employed
Schools
6
with a feeder program
Avg graduation rate
46%
across those schools
Median net price
$32,713
per year, IPEDS

Fields of study in Massachusetts that lead to this job

Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.

3 programs in Massachusetts that lead to this job

Ranked by graduates per year in Massachusetts (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Massachusetts page.

Degree programs that lead to this occupation, ranked by graduates per year
#ProgramGraduates / yrShare of pipelineSchoolsGrad earnings (1 yr)Median debt
156
58.3%
4$31,611$26,000
233
34.4%
3$44,811$23,250
37
7.3%
1$40,176$22,844

Top 6 schools in Massachusetts

Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 2 of the 6 schools in this state.

Schools ranked by graduates per year into this occupation
#SchoolGraduates / yrTop feeder programGrad earnings (1 yr)Grad rateNet priceAcceptance
1Suffolk University
Boston, MA Private not-for-profit · 2 feeder programs
23Interior Design$47,41561%$28,89582%
2Wentworth Institute of Technology
Boston, MA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
19Interior Design$50,59968%$32,71391%
3Boston Architectural College
Boston, MA Private not-for-profit · 2 feeder programs
16Interior Architecture32%$41,647
4Massachusetts Bay Community College
Wellesley Hills, MA Public · 1 feeder programs
16Interior Design17%
5University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth
North Dartmouth, MA Public · 1 feeder programs
16Interior Architecture52%91%
6Bay Path University
Longmeadow, MA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs
6Interior Design44%$16,85985%

All 6 schools in Massachusetts

Every school in Massachusetts with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.

All schools in Massachusetts that feed this occupation
SchoolCityControlGraduates / yrFeeder programs
Suffolk UniversityBostonPrivate not-for-profit232
Wentworth Institute of TechnologyBostonPrivate not-for-profit191
Boston Architectural CollegeBostonPrivate not-for-profit162
Massachusetts Bay Community CollegeWellesley HillsPublic161
University of Massachusetts - DartmouthNorth DartmouthPublic161
Bay Path UniversityLongmeadowPrivate not-for-profit61

What interior designers earn in Massachusetts

What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.

Median annual in Massachusetts
$80,110
Mean annual
$83,670
Jobs in state
1,580
What the range looks like
10th pct$52,230Median$80,11090th pct$123,100
Versus the national median
+19.2%

U.S. median $67,190. Massachusetts pays above the national figure.

Job concentration
0.95×

1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.

Metro areas in Massachusetts

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
$81,480median
1,290 jobs
Barnstable Town, MA
$67,660median
90 jobs
Springfield, MA
$70,910median
40 jobs
Worcester, MA
$62,180median
110 jobs

Job outlook

Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.

Projected growth 2024–34
+3.2%
About as fast as average
Openings per year
7,800
new jobs plus replacements
Employment change
2,800
87,100 → 89,900
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.

How to get in

The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Interior Designers page.

How to become a Interior Designer

Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0
Typical entry education
Bachelor's degree

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Top skills

Active ListeningReading ComprehensionCritical ThinkingSpeakingWritingMonitoring

The same job in other states

Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.

Related careers in Massachusetts

Every major mapped to this job

The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.

All 7 majors mapped to Interior Designers7 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
  • 04.0402Healthcare Environment Design/Architecture
  • 04.0501Interior Architecture
  • 19.0604Facilities Planning and Management
  • 19.0699Housing and Human Environments, Other
  • 19.0904Textile Science
  • 30.3701Design for Human Health
  • 50.0408Interior Design

Common questions

Answers for people weighing interior designers programs in Massachusetts.

What degree do you need to become an Interior Designer?+

Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Interior Design, which awarded 56 degrees in Massachusetts in 2024-25, 58.3% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.

Which college majors lead to becoming an Interior Designer?+

The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 3 programs to this occupation. The largest are Design and Applied Arts, Interior Architecture, Environmental Design. Together they graduate about 96 people a year in Massachusetts.

How much do interior designers earn in Massachusetts?+

The median is $80,110 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 19.2% above the U.S. median of $67,190. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.

Is demand for interior designers growing?+

BLS projects a +3.2% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 7,800 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.

How many schools offer programs for this career in Massachusetts?+

6 institutions in Massachusetts reported graduates from at least one of the 3 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.

What other job titles do interior designers work under?+

Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Designer, Interior Designer, Interior Design Consultant, Interior Design Coordinator among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 27-1025.

About the data on this page

Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).

  • BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics

    May 2025

    Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.

  • BLS Employment Projections

    2024–34

    Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.

  • IPEDS Completions

    2024-25 (provisional)

    Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.

  • College Scorecard, Field of Study

    2020-21 cohorts

    Median graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.

  • Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes

    latest available

    Graduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.

  • NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk

    CIP 2020 / SOC 2018

    Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.

  • O*NET Database 30.3

    30.3

    Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.

    Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA

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