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Major · Family & Consumer Sciences

An umbrella credential for design, merchandising, and textiles

Apparel and Textiles, General (CIP 19.0901) is a broad bachelor’s and associate’s pathway covering design, textile science, and fashion merchandising. About 1,581 students complete it across 77 institutions, with bachelor’s graduates earning roughly $57,922 in five-year tracked wages.

Schools offering
78
Annual completions
1,715
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$57k

About this major

Apparel and Textiles, General (CIP 19.0901) is a broad bachelor’s and associate’s credential covering the development of textile products and their distribution and use, framed by the psychological, social, economic, and physical needs of consumers. The CIP code is genuinely an umbrella: at one school it may anchor a studio-driven apparel design degree, at another a retail-buying and merchandise planning track, and at a third a textile science and product development program. Coursework typically blends textile fundamentals, apparel construction, design or pattern-making, consumer behavior, and merchandising electives — but program emphasis varies enough that two graduates with the same major title can end up in very different industries.

The major rewards visual judgment, comfort with both quantitative work (merchandise math, costing, spreadsheets) and creative work (sketching, draping, color), and an interest in how products move from concept through factory through retail floor to consumer. Students who land well are usually those who use the bachelor’s years to build a portfolio or accumulate retail and product-development internships, not those who treat coursework alone as the credential.

About 1,581 students complete this CIP across 77 institutions, with bachelor’s graduates earning around $57,922 in five-year tracked wages and associate’s holders around $45,907. Cal State Long Beach (99 bachelor’s graduates), Arkansas (79), and Iowa State (79) anchor the top of the list. The packet names family and consumer sciences postsecondary teachers ($77,280, 3.4% growth) and farm and home management educators ($58,120) as education-tier destinations, while real industry placements span apparel designers, assistant buyers, merchandise planners, and visual merchandisers — with design roles concentrating in New York and Los Angeles and buying roles distributed across retail headquarter cities.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Farm and home management educators $58k -2.5% Master's degree
Family and consumer sciences teachers, postsecondary $77k +3.4% Doctoral or professional degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$57k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$46k

Bachelor's

$58k

Who this major is for

This major fits students who sketch, sew, or shop with an analytic eye and want a credential that touches design, retail, and product development without committing early to one. Strong signals include a working portfolio or pattern-making practice from high school, comfort with merchandise math and spreadsheets alongside studio work, willingness to chase internships at brands or retailers during the bachelor’s years, and a target city — New York or Los Angeles for design, or a retail-headquarter city for buying — that matches the program’s placement record. The bachelor’s wage of $57,922 tracks reasonably for entry-level merchandising and product-development roles in most regions, less so for high-cost design hubs.

Reconsider this route if your goal is studio fashion design without a clear plan for portfolio building and design-house internships, since entry-level studio roles are competitive and modest in pay relative to the credential cost. Pause if you’re drawn purely to the marketing-and-buying side without the textile and design coursework — Apparel and Textile Marketing Management (CIP 19.0905, 451 completions) is the more targeted credential there. Also weigh that retail buying is shifting toward algorithm-driven assortment planning at large retailers, so a program light on quantitative coursework can leave graduates underprepared for the buying-office roles that pay best.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Apparel and Textiles, General

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
California State University-Long Beach Long Beach, CA 0 117 117
Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN 0 93 93
University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR 0 87 87
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Pomona, CA 0 80 80
University of Delaware Newark, DE 0 73 73
Iowa State University Ames, IA 0 69 69
San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA 0 63 63
The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL 0 59 59
Florida State University Tallahassee, FL 0 56 56
Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, KY 0 55 55
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Child Development

2,537 completions/yr

Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences, General

1,605 completions/yr

Family Resource Management Studies, General

533 completions/yr

Apparel and Textile Marketing Management

391 completions/yr

Business Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences

340 completions/yr

Family Systems

313 completions/yr

Family and Consumer Economics and Related Services, Other

225 completions/yr

Apparel and Textile Manufacture

158 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What does an Apparel and Textiles, General degree actually cover?
The CIP definition centers on the development of textile products and their distribution and use, framed by the psychological, social, economic, and physical needs of consumers. Coursework typically spans textile science, apparel construction, design fundamentals, consumer behavior, and merchandising or retail buying. Programs vary widely by emphasis — some lean toward studio design and pattern-making, others toward retail buying and merchandise planning, and a few toward textile science and product development.
Bachelor’s or associate’s — which is the realistic path?
Both appear in the data, but the bachelor’s dominates. Top-producing schools like California State University-Long Beach (99 graduates), University of Arkansas (79), and Iowa State (79) are all bachelor’s programs. Bachelor’s graduates earn around $57,922 in five-year tracked wages versus $45,907 for associate’s holders — a roughly $12,000 gap that reflects the bachelor’s being the standard credential for design studios, corporate buying offices, and product-development roles.
What jobs do graduates actually land?
The packet lists family and consumer sciences postsecondary teachers ($77,280, 3.4% growth, doctorate typical) and farm and home management educators ($58,120, master’s typical) as named education-tier destinations. In practice, most graduates head into industry rather than teaching: apparel designers, assistant buyers, merchandise planners, visual merchandisers, and product developers at retailers and brands. Design studio roles concentrate in New York and Los Angeles, while merchandising and buying roles are distributed across retail headquarter cities.
How competitive is the fashion design side?
Fashion design is portfolio-driven and structurally competitive, with entry roles often paying modestly relative to credential cost. Internships at design houses, brands, or retailers during the bachelor’s years are typically the gating factor for studio offers, not GPA. Many graduates who entered with design ambitions land in adjacent roles — assistant buyer, merchandise coordinator, technical designer — that pay more reliably than entry-level studio work and use the same skill base.
How does this compare to Apparel and Textile Marketing Management?
Apparel and Textile Marketing Management (CIP 19.0905, 451 completions) is a narrower sibling focused specifically on the retail and brand-marketing side — buying, merchandise planning, and brand strategy. Apparel and Textile Manufacture (CIP 19.0902, 236 completions) leans into the production and supply-chain side. The general code (19.0901) is the umbrella that some schools use for any of these tracks under one degree title — read the curriculum carefully to know which emphasis a specific program actually delivers.
Is the merchandising and buying side changing?
Retail buying and merchandise planning are shifting toward algorithm-driven assortment and demand forecasting at large retailers, which raises the bar for quantitative comfort — spreadsheets, basic analytics, and merchandise math. Graduates who pair the design or merchandising training with data fluency are better positioned for buying-office roles at scale retailers. Pure-creative tracks remain viable but concentrate in smaller brands and design studios where taste and portfolio matter more than analytics.