Summer Opportunities
The campus is in full operation during the summer, populated by students and faculty from a variety of programs. The university continues to have outstanding, innovative educational programs extending beyond regular involvement with its degree candidates. Six such programs are offered during the summer for high school students: the Pre-College Programs in the Fine Arts (Architecture, Art, Drama and Music), the Advanced Placement Early Action Program and the Summer Academy for Mathematics and Science. Three sessions of summer school are held for college students who wish to make up or advance their degree program studies. Every service and support organization is available to summer students: the Computer Center, the Health Center, the Counseling Center, the libraries, the Office of Admission, the Career Center, Student Activities, etc.
Summer Pre-College Programs for High School Students
Office of Admission, Warner Hall 2nd Floor
The Pre-College Programs are designed to preview an actual college experience. Our programs afford high school students many opportunities for personal growth and development within a university setting. A wide range of social, cultural, and recreational activities are planned by a staff of resident counselors to fully integrate the students’ lives on campus and in Pittsburgh. Movies, dances, museum and gallery visits, field excursions or attendance at professional theater productions, concerts, and Pittsburgh Pirates games are just a few of the sponsored activities.
Summer Academy for Mathematics and Science
Students with diverse backgrounds who are entering their junior or senior year and considering careers in engineering, science and other math-based disciplines are eligible to participate in this rigorous program. Traditional classroom instruction, along with creative “hands-on” projects will allow students to apply concepts and principles.
Advanced Placement Early Action Program
The Advanced Placement Early Admission (APEA) Program is a challenging summer program intended for high school students who want to enrich their educational experience by taking college classes identical to those that a Carnegie Mellon undergraduate student would take. The program is designed for mature, motivated students who seek to gain college credit and who are eager to sample college life early by living in a residence hall and participating in educational, social, and recreational activities.
Each summer the faculty, who teach at the university during the fall and spring, offer approximately three dozen courses from across the university in the natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences, humanities, engineering, computer science, and the arts. During the six-week program, resident students are required to choose two full courses with material that would otherwise be covered during a semester. The APEA summer courseload is therefore roughly equivalent to a typical semester courseload, allowing students to measure their abilities as college students.
APEA classes typically meet daily. Class sizes are kept small, giving students a personal environment in which to learn. Although a substantial amount of homework is inherent in the program, it will naturally vary from course to course and from student to student.
Students who complete two full courses in the APEA Program are exclusively eligible to apply to attend the university as degree students via the Early Action program. Under Early Action, students apply in September and receive a decision from the Admission Office in October. Those who are accepted can wait until the following April to decide whether to attend Carnegie Mellon. While successful participation in the APEA Program does not guarantee admission, students in the APEA Program have historically a higher acceptance rate to the university.
Whether students are admitted early or not, the credit earned in the APEA Program and the experience gained can be an advantage. For students who eventually enter Carnegie Mellon, the six credits form a head start, but these credits are also accepted as college credit at other universities. In order not to prejudice any application for admission in the future, no record of marginal or failing work is released. In this regard, APEA provides students with a risk-free method to measure the extent to which they are prepared for college in general and Carnegie Mellon in particular.
Aside from its strong academic orientation, the APEA Program affords both residents and commuters many other opportunities for personal growth and development within a university setting.
The hard work, the independence, the pleasure of accomplishment, the interaction, the cultural and intellectual setting and, in a good way, the pressures of academic life, are combined in the APEA program to closely approximate the full rewards of a college experience.
Pre-College Architecture Program
The Pre-College Architecture Program is an opportunity for those high school students who have completed their junior year to discover whether they have the necessary aptitudes for further study at the college level. The students learn the nature of professional training, discover if they enjoy this type of concentration and most importantly, realize the degree of their individual talents. At the conclusion of the period of study, each student’s work is evaluated indicating the level of aptitude in this field.
The program is divided into three components which occupy the entire day. In the morning, students attend lecture–style courses covering a range of topics, including architectural history, technology, and the architecture profession. Students will attend drawing classes, teaching both hand–drawn and computer drawing techniques. These are introductory courses, assuming no prior experience.
Each afternoon, students meet for design studio. The studio is a hands–on environment, challenging students to design solutions to given spatial problems. This course teaches fundamental design skills, modelmaking and drawing craft, critical thinking, and creative speculation.
Field trips will be to local cultural institutions, construction sites, and to local architecture firms.
At the conclusion of the program, the student will receive a private consultation with faculty, as well as a written letter of evaluation on the student’s progress and aptitude.
Pre-College Art Program
Carnegie Mellon is a place where creativity grows. Learn more about yourself and the world while making art and making friends. Combine your visions with passion and discipline and make art that matters.
The Pre-College Art Program motivates, stimulates and prepares you as an emerging artist. Exploring traditional tools and new technologies in a variety of media leads you to develop conceptual and technical skills as well as your portfolio — all excellent preparation for applying to and succeeding in college-level art programs. Challenging lectures and courses, museum and gallery field trips, and energetic interaction with dedicated faculty and talented peers immerse you in the spirit and substance of an art school culture and environment.
An array of events and opportunities combine to enrich your studio work including: visits to the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Mattress Factory (installation museum), evening presentations of artwork by the Pre-College Art faculty, a gallery exhibition of your artwork in the College of Fine Arts, a presentation by the Head of School to explain what a portfolio might contain for acceptance into the School of Art, weekly evening figure drawing sessions, an individual portfolio critique with a School of Art faculty member during the last week of the program and a personal interview with an Admissions Officer.
You choose a schedule of Core and Mini Studios. Core Studios include: Drawing, Painting, Animation, Sculpture and Comic Book/ Serial Imagery. Mini Studios include: Printmaking, Ceramic Sculpture, Head Studies and Digital Photography.
A written evaluation of your artwork is provided at the end of the summer.
Pre-College Drama Program
Carnegie Mellon’s drama program has an innovative and dynamic history that has produced graduates in every branch of theater, film, television and video.
If you’re a serious theater student, or debating whether to become one, you can come here with a good deal of experience or almost none at all, as long as you come ready to work hard and learn.
A Carnegie Mellon summer is a rich and exciting experience. The Pre-College program focuses on creative growth and preparation for actors, musical theater students and technical apprentices. Carnegie Mellon Drama faculty members will coach you, evaluate your work and help steer you into compatible studies, whether those studies take place at Carnegie Mellon or elsewhere. Outstanding students have a possibility of fulfilling the talent portion of our admission process through this program.
Pre-College Music Program
Carnegie Mellon’s School of Music is a stimulating, vibrant place where talented young performers, composers and conductors prepare for professional careers in music. At Carnegie Mellon, tradition and technology coexist. Building upon 75 years of excellence as a conservatory, turning out superb musicians who are known throughout the world as performers, composers, conductors and teachers, the School has become a leader in the field of computer music. New state-of-the-art computer music facilities challenge the most adventurous young musicians to learn more about acoustics and discover new sounds. Music theory software, developed at Carnegie Mellon, enhances the curriculum, and the finest composition software on the market is available to assist the young composer in creating new music. Expert instruction in sound recording provides yet another opportunity for young musicians interested in broadening their musical base. At Carnegie Mellon students are taught to appreciate, to understand, and to perform the music of the past, yet they are also expected to be comfortable with the innovative sounds of the future.
Becoming a professional musician requires extraordinary talent and versatility. The complete musician must be prepared to play jazz as well as classical and contemporary repertoire. Therefore, at Carnegie Mellon a full program of jazz studies is available to enhance the conservatory training. Singers learn to act, to dance, to perform in several languages. Composers learn to conduct, to prepare orchestral scores, to rehearse their own works. Pianists are expected to sight read, play chamber music, accompany singers, and play synthesizer. Music at Carnegie Mellon is more than practicing an instrument — it is an intense, exciting course of study, experienced side by side with other young musicians who share the same goals and aspirations.
The six-week Summer Music Program offers a unique taste of the life of a student musician at Carnegie Mellon in a low pressure environment of study and performance. This is an ideal opportunity to discover your potential for a career in music. Within the rich cultural life of the city of Pittsburgh and the varied activities on the Carnegie Mellon campus, the Summer Program is an extraordinary way for a young musician to spend the summer.
The Summer Program has four main concentrations: Performance, Composition, Jazz Studies and Music Technology. Each student follows an individual schedule designed to meet specific needs and interests. Private lessons are mandated for every student, and a group of music support courses is common to all four areas. Students are encouraged to explore courses outside their area of concentration to insure comprehensive music training.
Applicants to the Summer Music Program should send a statement describing their past musical training, and a recent audio recording (CD preferred) of two selections, representative of their level of performance, or copies of original compositions, with the application materials.
National High School Game Academy
The National High School Game Academy (NHSGA) is an intensive study of video game design and development. This six-week program includes an exciting blend of hands-on exercises combined with traditional lecture and discussion. If you are interested in exploring the world of video game development, the NHSGA may be for you!
Modeled after Carnegie Mellon’s graduate program in Entertainment Technology and corporate sponsored by Electronic Arts, the NHSGA is structured to give students a taste of the current state of video game development and guidance towards embarking on their own career in the video game industry.
Students are encouraged to expand their creativity in a unique blend of left- and right-brain college-level work. Students will be encouraged to pursue undergraduate studies in software engineering, design, creative writing or dramatic arts after the program after gaining an understanding of how their education can lead to a career in the interactive digital media field.
Requests for applications and further information should be addressed to:
Pre-College Programs
Office of Admission
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
(412) 268-2082
FAX: (412) 268-7838