Texas Christian University
For a career in fashion merchandising, one must possess the abilities to handle development, buying and selling of merchandise. As a student in fashion merchandising you will be taught such skills, along with fibers and fabrics, computer-aided design, and quality assessment and control. As a student, you will experience retail in a full-time, 10-week internship alongside some of the country's uppermost fashion organizations. Some of the companies that participate in the student internship program include Kenneth Cole, Donna Karan, Nordstrom, Zale Corporation, Pier I Imports, JCPenney, and Neiman Marcus. To experience the economic, social and technological process of this country, you must work through the unique TCU costume collection of more than 2000 items.
The program's location allows students and teachers to immerse themselves in a real urban fashion market and stay abreast of the fashion industry's constantly changing trends and needs and to collect practical experience with classes that provide laboratory and studio application of strategies you will find in your real job.
TCU prides itself on offering laboratory and studio application of fashion industry procedures that offer hands-on experiences to students. The manufacturing, wholesale, and retail centers in New York, Dallas, and Paris offer bases for the off-campus portions of the fashion study programs. The actual classroom learning is augmented by required internships in New York City, Dallas, Fort Worth, California, and London. To develop the skills for a career position it's required that students take the Career Development class before taking an internship.
Fashion Merchandising majors can learn through the TCU costume collection by learning how costumes relate to economic, social, and technological progress. More than 2,000 pieces are catalogued in the collection for teaching and display purposes. The curriculum provides students with the tools they need to be able to succeed in this changing and global industry.
Students with demonstrated high standard of scholarship become eligible for membership in the Beta Zeta Chapter of Phi Upsilon Omicron, which is a national honor society. Professional organizations, such as the Fashion Group International, have student organizations that young people can affiliate with.
It will take a minimum of 3 years for incoming freshman or transfer students to complete the Fashion Merchandising major. Due to course prerequisites for merchandising classes, this time frame cannot be compressed. A student who majors in Fashion Merchandising must select a minor that will emphasize career objectives. Students may choose to minor in general business, journalism, communication, art, radio-television-film, foreign language or another approved minor. The semester hours must equal 124 hours in minor and major courses of University Core electives and requirements.
