Interior Design Schools

Accreditation and professional pathways

Six different things are often blurred together. This directory keeps them separate and records each with its source and check date.

The layers

  1. Institutional accreditation: review of a whole college or university by a recognized accreditor. It says nothing about an individual interior design program.
  2. Program-level accreditation: for professional-level interior design programs, accreditation by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA). It covers a named program at a named location, not every program at an institution.
  3. The academic award: the degree, diploma or certificate itself, with its exact title.
  4. NCIDQ examination eligibility: set by the Council for Interior Design Qualification (CIDQ), based on education and experience. CIDA accreditation is one recognized education route and is not the only one.
  5. NCIDQ Certification: issued by CIDQ after meeting its requirements and passing the examination. A degree or a school certificate alone does not grant it.
  6. State registration, certification or licensure: set by each state and different from state to state.

What the directory records

160 program-level CIDA accreditation records currently verified against the CIDA register. Each shows the exact program and location named by CIDA, the status text, the source and the date we checked it. Candidacy is never merged with accreditation, and a claim made only by a school is labelled as stated by the school.

We do not state that a program makes graduates eligible for the NCIDQ examination or for registration in any state unless an official page for that specific program says so.

What these terms do not mean

  • CIDA accreditation is not the only possible route to examination eligibility.
  • A certificate does not automatically satisfy any eligibility requirement.
  • A degree alone does not grant professional certification.
  • Professional requirements are not identical across states.
  • An interior architecture degree does not automatically qualify its graduate as an architect.

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Last updated 3 November 2026.