Best Fashion Designer programs in New York, ranked by enrollment
Design clothing and accessories.
13 schools in New York run programs that feed this job, graduating 1,313 people a year. The job pays a median of $98,640 in New York across about 5,760 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in New York that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
3 programs in New York that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in New York (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 New York page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 50.0407In New York → | 1,193 | 90.9% | 12 | $31,611 | $26,000 |
| 2 | CIP 19.0902In New York → | 116 | 8.8% | 2 | $36,635 | $24,750 |
| 3 | CIP 19.0904In New York → | 4 | 0.3% | 1 | $36,635 | $24,750 |
Top 13 schools in New York
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 8 of the 13 schools in this state.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fashion Institute of Technology New York, NY Public · 2 feeder programs | 761 | Fashion/Apparel Design | $14,361 | 81% | — | 60% |
| 2 | The New School New York, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 325 | Fashion/Apparel Design | $24,804 | 69% | $54,185 | 63% |
| 3 | Pratt Institute - Main Brooklyn, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 55 | Fashion/Apparel Design | $36,040 | 74% | $49,088 | 73% |
| 4 | SUNY Oneonta Oneonta, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 37 | Fashion/Apparel Design | — | 69% | — | 70% |
| 5 | SUNY Buffalo State University Buffalo, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 30 | Apparel and Textile Manufacture | — | 33% | — | 73% |
| 6 | CUNY Kingsborough Community College Brooklyn, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 27 | Fashion/Apparel Design | $19,146 | 28% | — | — |
| 7 | Marist University Poughkeepsie, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 25 | Fashion/Apparel Design | $28,336 | 80% | $33,867 | 57% |
| 8 | Nassau Community College Garden City, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 14 | Fashion/Apparel Design | $18,107 | 23% | — | — |
| 9 | Syracuse University Syracuse, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 14 | Fashion/Apparel Design | $46,181 | 84% | $28,851 | 46% |
| 10 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY Private not-for-profit · 2 feeder programs | 11 | Fashion/Apparel Design | — | 95% | $17,613 | 9% |
| 11 | SUNY Westchester Community College Valhalla, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 9 | Fashion/Apparel Design | — | 25% | — | — |
| 12 | CUNY Queens College Queens, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 4 | Fashion/Apparel Design | $19,349 | 53% | — | 64% |
| 13 | Ulster County Community College Stone Ridge, NY Public · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Fashion/Apparel Design | — | 34% | — | — |
All 13 schools in New York
Every school in New York 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.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fashion Institute of Technology | New York | Public | 761 | 2 |
| The New School | New York | Private not-for-profit | 325 | 1 |
| Pratt Institute - Main | Brooklyn | Private not-for-profit | 55 | 1 |
| SUNY Oneonta | Oneonta | Public | 37 | 1 |
| SUNY Buffalo State University | Buffalo | Public | 30 | 1 |
| CUNY Kingsborough Community College | Brooklyn | Public | 27 | 1 |
| Marist University | Poughkeepsie | Private not-for-profit | 25 | 1 |
| Nassau Community College | Garden City | Public | 14 | 1 |
| Syracuse University | Syracuse | Private not-for-profit | 14 | 1 |
| Cornell University | Ithaca | Private not-for-profit | 11 | 2 |
| SUNY Westchester Community College | Valhalla | Public | 9 | 1 |
| CUNY Queens College | Queens | Public | 4 | 1 |
| Ulster County Community College | Stone Ridge | Public | 1 | 1 |
What fashion designers earn in New York
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $80,960. New York pays above the national figure.
Concentrated here: New York employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.
Metro areas in New York
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
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 Fashion Designers page.
How to become a Fashion Designer
Job zone 3 of 5 · SVP 6.0 to < 7.0- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in New York
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 5 majors mapped to Fashion Designers5 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 19.0902Apparel and Textile Manufacture
- 19.0904Textile Science
- 19.0906Fashion and Fabric Consultant
- 50.0407Fashion/Apparel Design
- 50.0510Costume Design
Common questions
Answers for people weighing fashion designers programs in New York.
What degree do you need to become a Fashion Designer?+
Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Fashion/Apparel Design, which awarded 1,193 degrees in New York in 2024-25, 90.9% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Fashion Designer?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 3 programs to this occupation. The largest are Design and Applied Arts, Apparel and Textiles. Together they graduate about 1,313 people a year in New York.
How much do fashion designers earn in New York?+
The median is $98,640 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 21.8% above the U.S. median of $80,960. 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 fashion designers growing?+
BLS projects a +2.0% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 2,300 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in New York?+
13 institutions in New York 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 fashion designers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Designer, Apparel Designer, Costume Designer, Fashion Designer among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 27-1022.
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 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected 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 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, 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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