Albuquerque, NM (population: 535,923) has three design schools within its city limits. The Art Center Design College-Albuquerque, the highest ranked school in the city with a design program, has a total student population of 252. It is the 3539th highest ranked school in the USA and the 13th highest in the state of New Mexico (#1 is New Mexico State University-Main Campus). To learn more about design programs in Albuquerque, ratemyprofessors.com has reviews of design professors at The Art Center Design College such as Joe Chavez, Brian Fuller, and Bill Platz.
Design students from Albuquerque schools who go on to become interior designers, architecture designers, designers, graphic designers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 46,010 people working as interior designers alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $51,990. Also, Floral designers make on average $24,940 per year and there are about 51,470 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Albuquerque area alone, there are 70 employed floral designers earning an average salary of $23,640. Interior designers in this area earn $47,480/yr and there are 100 employed.
Albuquerque lies in Bernalillo county, which is one of the 23 counties in New Mexico. Overall, the Albuquerque area has 381,870 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.6% unemployment rate, $19.31/hr average worker wage, and a $40,170 average annual salary. Thus, about 0.266 out of every 1000 jobs in Albuquerque are held by interior designers, and 0.172/1000 are held by floral designers.
Of the 3 design schools in Albuquerque, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, The Art Center Design College-Albuquerque comes out as the most expensive ($34,902/yr) for design students, with Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute as the lowest, reported at only $4,195/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Albuquerque |
| Albuequerque | NM | - | 1 | 4.18669 | 13 | 3.0 miles |
| Rio Rancho | NM | 85,837 | 1 | 10.6625 | 12 | 10.6 miles |
| Santa Fe | NM | 74,019 | 6 | 20.0822 | 127 | 54.1 miles |
| Grants | NM | - | 1 | 9.85236 | 40 | 69.7 miles |