You might be surprised to learn that if you are choosing a career, there very likely is a school specific to that trade to assist you in a no-filler approach to educating for that employment field. Popular schools that cater to specific careers include anything from culinary arts to criminal justice. Perhaps one of the most popular of these are the fashion and design colleges.

You can literally spend hours sifting through "the best" of what fashion and design colleges there are. The truth is, that a lot of them simply claim to be the best and have no real evidence to support the claim. But through much research I believe that I have compiled a list of three of the strongest and most efficient fashion and design colleges in the country.

These schools all sit at the same level, and therefore there is no order to their listing here.

We can comfortably begin with LIM College. Centered in the heart of Manhattan in New York City, LIM has been creating leaders in the fashion world for many years. Their main draw lies with their undergraduate programs such as fashion merchandising, marketing, management, and visual merchandising. They also offer graduate MBA programs for those seeking a serious stake in the fashion industry.

Another institution that is making a lot of noise in the fashion community is FIDM or more informally known as the Fashion Institute of Merchandising. One of the best things about this school is that it is actually split amongst four campuses, all of which offer the same undergraduate degrees for prospective students. These campuses are located in San Francisco, San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles. An exciting factoid about FIDM is that they are the location for the shooting of Project Runway, a hit television show that airs on Lifetime.

The last school that deserves a spot at the top of the list of fashion and design colleges is the Academy of Art University. AAU won "Best Fashion Design & Apparel Design & Programs of 2008" for their above and beyond commitment to their students' future employment. Their commitment includes offering courses and programs online, so that students who cannot move or commute can still hope to have a serious shot at employment in the fashion industry. Some of the companies that pick up AAU graduates include: DKNY, Louis Vuitton, BCBG and many, many more.

These are three very strong schools to get you well on your way to a great job in the fashion industry. You can settle for the countless other schools that litter the internet, but these three have a reputation that make for quite a boost to your resume.