Art & Design Coursework
During the Pre-College Program, you will attend morning and afternoon classes, Monday through Friday. You'll work in our beautiful, spacious studios in the historic College of Fine Arts building and Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall.
The Pre-College faculty at Carnegie Mellon are accomplished artists, designers and educators who share their expertise inside and outside the classroom. With small class sizes, you'll benefit from their individual attention, intense instruction and substantial constructive feedback. Instructors provide written evaluations of your work upon completion of the program.
Your instructor to student ratio will be about 1:13, promoting opportunities for questions and discussion. Although the pre-college program has its own particular aspects, the underlying philosophy is similar to the first year of our regular undergraduate art and design curricula. At the end of the program, each student meets with a faculty member to discuss his/her performance in the program, and to address questions regarding documentation and presentation of work and portfolio preparation. The program concludes on a celebratory note, inviting parents and friends to see the unique work produced over the course of the three-week or six-week session.
Studio Environment
Students work together in a large studio with individual workspaces. Sessions include individual instruction, in-class work sessions, critiques, lectures and field trips.
There is an array of events and opportunities to enhance and supplement studio work, including:
• Weekly figure drawing
• Visits to local galleries such as the Carnegie Museum of Art
• Visits to Pittsburgh based design firms
• Evening presentations by faculty on their own art and design work
• Exhibitions of Carnegie Mellon student work
• Portfolio preparation and critique sessions
