Carnegie Mellon University

  Summer Coursework at CMU

The summer term offers a great opportunity to enroll in Carnegie Mellon’s innovative courses and programs in fine arts, business, engineering, technology, liberal arts, and more. Summer classes allow more flexibility to focus on studies outside the typical fast-paced campus environment. Spending the summer at CMU is the perfect way to enrich your academic experience, stay on course to graduate in four years, and pursue research and internship opportunities. 

Whether you're a current CMU student trying to stay on track or learn more about a particular field, a visiting student who wishes to take a course while you're home for the summer, or a high school student looking to explore pre-college programs, summer courses can help you reach your educational goals no matter where you are in your academic career.

Thinking about your summer opportunities? Learn more about summer employment opportunities available through Conference & Events Services and Pre-College.

Check out a sample of the exciting course offerings available for summer 2024! 

Conference and Event Services

The department of Conference and Event Services (CES) is currently seeking qualified students to assist the professional staff in the daily operations for the summer 2024 camp and conference season. CES provides students the opportunity to enhance their academic learning experience in a work environment by learning the operational aspects of our department and to broaden their communication, social, listening and writing skills, all while providing superior customer service for one of the leading universities. Please visit our website for additional information on both opportunities below:

Summer Program Assistants

The Summer Program Assistants (SPAs) will deliver superior customer service to our clients and guests by providing assistance with logistical, planning, operational and check-in services. Interested students can apply through Handshake.

Employment dates: May 20 - August 4, 2024
Rate: $11.75 per hour
Free On-Campus Housing

Pre-College Programs

The Office of Pre-College Programs seeks to hire student leaders to support its robust summer programs, which include 12 academic programs, with over 700 high school students, and offers a life-changing immersive college experience, inside and outside of the classroom. CMU undergraduate and graduate students are hired as Resident Assistants (RAs) and Community Advisors (CAs) to provide a well-rounded offering of programming, support, and community development to enhance the Pre-College Programs' residential experience. 

Pre-College RAs and CAs receive a financial stipend with room and board, ongoing training, professional development, and time off.

Students can apply directly for the positions, or students, faculty, and staff can nominate students for the rolesVisit the Pre-College website for more information. Contact Meg Pryor at pclife@andrew.cmu.edu with any questions you may have.

RA and CA Applications and Deadlines:

03-121 Modern Biology

Summer Two

 This is an introductory course that provides the basis for further studies in biochemistry, cell biology, genetics and molecular biology.  This course emphasizes the chemical principles underlying biological processes and cell structures as well as the analysis of genetics and heredity from a molecular perspective. This is the introductory biology course for all science and non-science majors.

03-132 Basic Science to Modern Medicine

Summer One (REMOTE) and Summer Two (In-Person)

The goal of this course is to give students an understanding of the biology that impacts their everyday lives. Disease can be a tragic part of human life, a fact that is even more apparent during a global pandemic. To understand how specific diseases like COVID-19 or cancer affect the human body, and how modern medicine can tackle them, this course includes a fundamental study of the basic molecular biology, genetics, and cell biology that underlies disease. This is a topics-based course, with topics chosen to cover aspects of biology and health that students are likely to encounter in their daily lives. The topics for summer 2024 will include COVID-19, genome editing, and cancer. We will explore these topics from both a basic science and a modern medicine perspective. Students will gain the expertise to critically evaluate media reports about biology and health, and to ask the questions that will help them to make educated decisions in their lives.

03-133 Neurobiology of Disease

Summer Two

This course will explore the biological basis of several neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases, with an emphasis on medical diagnostic tools and techniques. It will include discussions of the anatomical basis of neurological diseases as well as recent research into understanding the mechanisms of disease. This course is intended to broaden students' understanding of how diseases are diagnosed and studied.  Students will also learn how basic neurological and psychiatric evaluations are conducted.  We will discuss neurobiological research to serve as a basis for understanding brain structures and functional alterations in a variety of developmental, degenerative, neurological, and psychiatric disorders.

03-232 Biochemistry I

Summer Two

Prerequisite coursework: 09-105 Modern Chemistry I or 09-107 Honors Chemistry

This course provides an introduction to the application of biochemistry to biotechnology. The functional properties of amino acids, nucleotides, lipids, and sugars are presented. This is followed by a discussion of the structural and thermodynamic aspects of the organization of these molecules into higher-order structures, such as proteins, nucleic acids, and membranes. The kinetics and thermodynamics of protein-ligand interactions are discussed for non-cooperative, cooperative, and allosteric binding events. The use of mechanistic and kinetic information in enzyme characterization and drug discovery are discussed. Topics pertinent to biotechnology include: antibody production and use, energy production in biochemical systems, expression of recombinant proteins, and methods of protein purification and characterization. The course is an alternate to 03-231.

 

54-191 Acting for Non-majors

Summer One

This course is designed to develop the students' awareness of the actor's process and to foster a general sense of theatre as an area of human endeavor. Students will be introduced to basic communication skills, including physical and vocal presence in front of an audience. The course will also develop an introductory level of acting skill through the use of regular warm-ups, theater games, improvisation, and simple scene study. Scenes will be selected from a diverse range of playwrights and students will examine the political, cultural and social context of each play. The course will also provide an introduction to basic theater terminology and foster the ability to respond to and reflect on theatrical performances.

76-270 - Writing for the Professions 

Summer One and Two

Strong writing and communication skills are expected across the professions, from computer science to data science, from healthcare to engineering. This course is designed to help students in these and other professions build skills and confidence in written, oral, and team communication. Our guiding, research-based premise for the course is that readers in professional contexts are busy, actively look for the information they need, and deserve to get that information in a clear and accessible way. In this course, you will strengthen your writing and communication skills through a series of projects that put real readers and users of documents at the center of your writing process. Through genres like job application packages, proposals, presentations of complex information for non-experts, and team-based technical documentation, you will practice the skills you will need as you move from student writer to professional. The course is writing intensive, and requires regular participation and attendance. This course is designed for all undergraduates pursuing majors and minors outside English, and has no pre-requisites beyond First Year Writing. 

76-221 - Books You Should Have Read by Now: Asian American Literature

Summer Two

What defines Asian American literature, and how do Asian American authors aesthetically explore Asian American identity within their works? How is Asian American identity constructed, and in what ways does Asian American literature illuminate, challenge, or perpetuate this identity? This course offers an overview of the history of Asian American literature, delving into how contemporary Asian American literary works reflect and respond to pertinent sociopolitical issues. To explore a diverse range of Asian ethnicities and Asian American experiences, texts are drawn from writers of Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean descent. We will be reading Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange (1997), Ken Liu’s The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories (2016), Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019), Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay (2019), and Jhumpa Lahiri’s Translating Myself and Others (2022).

76-241 - Intro to Gender Studies

Summer One

remote/online

Intersectional feminism. Structural oppression. Biological sex vs. gender roles. LGBTQIA+ rights. Consent. Masculinity. #metoo and gender-based violence. Sexual politics. Global feminism. This course offers students a scholarly introduction to these social and political issues through critical readings, literature and film. In this discussion-based class, students read and discuss contemporary gender studies that speaks to questions of identity, race, nation, sexuality, and disability. Critical readings include work by Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Judith Butler, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Sara Ahmed, Eve Sedgewick, Rosemarie Garland Thomson, and Kate Bornstein. Fiction might include Alison Bechdel. 

76-245 - Shakespeare: Tragedies & Histories

Summer Two

remote/online

In the closing decades of the sixteenth century, enterprising cultural producers in early modern London began to develop a new commercial venture called ‘playing’: a business that offered ordinary people a few hours of dramatic entertainment for the price of one penny. In addition to watching the professional players onstage, spectators also participated in a form of play themselves (in a sense) because theatrical experience provided a unique opportunity to engage imaginatively with otherwise inaccessible people, worlds, and ideas. More than four hundred years later, the drama of the period now ranks among the most esteemed texts in all English literature, and the name ‘Shakespeare’ has become a byword for literary genius. This course will offer an overview of Shakespeare’s tragedies and histories. As we read through these works, we will endeavor to understand what, and how, they meant in their original context, thereby developing a historically informed perspective on their influence over our own cultural landscape.Texts: Hamlet, Macbeth, Antony & Cleopatra, Richard II, and Othello. All required readings will be available on the course website.

 

17-656 Leadership and Digital Transformation

Summer Two

Gen AI, ChatGPT, LLMs, XR ... what, when and how should I use these for my business? Will I be left behind if I do not embrace it? The technology landscape is full of acronyms and buzzwords, and that is rapidly changing.

Digital Transformation is more about re-imagining business models and consumer experience than just technology, which is indeed a potent enabler. Transformation is no longer just an option for consideration but an urgent call for action. Organizations need to transcend beyond point technology solutions to a holistic approach that anticipates consumer needs and delivers value.

This course is crafted to equip leaders with the strategic mindset required to lead their organizations through a seamless digital transformation. Transformational Leadership is pivotal to navigate the challenges and opportunities provided by digital economy. The course will introduce a framework for digital transformation and discuss best practices. Participants will explore strategies to manage stakeholders, drive change and innovation. Case studies and guest speakers from the industry will provide practitioner's perspective and experiences.

79-115 - The Jewish Peoples: A Global History

Summer Two

remote/online

This introductory-level class will survey the long and varied history of the Jewish peoples, from Biblical antiquity through medieval Europe and the Middle East, to the histories of Jewish people in Eastern Europe, migrations to the New World, the rise of Zionism, the Holocaust, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the contemporary history of Jewish communities around the world. Across all of these, we will explore topics and themes like religion, collective memory, antisemitism, political violence, genocide, and national identity. Readings will be a combination of secondary academic literature, along with a smaller selection of relevant primary documents. Students will be assessed via a mid-term quiz, a final exam, and a participation grade. This class does not require any prior knowledge of Jewish history.

79-150 - Medieval Science, Magic, and Wonders of Nature

Summer Two

remote/online

Why do monsters exist and lurk on the margins of our maps? What do animals symbolize--are they God's creations or merely arrangements of the elements? What is the meaning behind a comet--it is natural, a miracle, or something far more sinister? Contrary to popular belief, people in the Middle Ages asked themselves questions about the world around them and sought definitive answers. This course explores the shifting boundaries between science, magic, and religion as defined by thinkers residing in medieval Europe and the Mediterranean between 900 and 1500 C.E. Their observations--and sometimes, experimentations--laid the foundation for the philosophy of nature, which in turn became science as we know it today. In particular, we will address the medieval universe and its cosmology; the physical world and the supernatural; the rationale behind transmutations in alchemy and shapeshifting; the invisible and sacred forces in the heavens and from planetary bodies; contemporary attitudes towards medicine and the human body; and the cross-cultural exchange of knowledge within Christian, Islamic, and Jewish circles of scholarship. As a final project, students will research their own medieval artifact(s) that will be showcased as part of the class's digital "cabinet" of collected curiosities and, ultimately, wonder.

79-155 - Introduction to African American Studies

Summer Two

remote/online

This course introduces students to some of the critical themes, concepts, and contemporary issues surrounding Black Americans in the United States with an underlying interdisciplinary framework. The emphasis of investigation in this course will be comparative--this is, historical, sociological, and literary in scope. We'll engage with questions of difference and cultural representation as each relates to the construction and deconstruction of essentialized categories of racial, ethnic, cultural, and national identities. Examining the relationship between historical and contemporary policies and representations of Black Americans will be central in our understanding of their lived experiences during the twenty-first century. Overall, we will gain an understanding of the complexity of the African American identity and socio-cultural issues as they relate to economic and political resources/organizing/activism, and sociological engagement with current and emerging issues of race, nationalism, and power.

79-172 - Race, Caste, Class, and Difference in the United States and India

Summer Two

remote/online

This course covers the marginalization of Black Americans to the social exclusion of Indian Dalits throughout the duration of the twentieth century, with emphasis on how race intersects with caste, capitalism, and class. We will compare the struggles of both Black Americans and low-caste Indians against mass incarceration, police brutality, criminal and racial stereotypes, and their quest for civil rights. In this global history course, we will explore the histories of the South Asian diaspora in the United States, compare their analysis of the racism Black Americans experience, and evaluate how they connect their findings back to the marginalized experiences of low-caste Indians in India. We will begin with an overview of the History of Racial Formation and White Supremacy and then shift to the 1890s with the Plessy v. Ferguson court case in 1896, which legalized the existence of a "caste society" through racial segregation. Finally, we'll analyze the development of "criminal castes" and mass incarceration in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as the contemporary manifestations of racial caste in the United States as well as caste and gender discrimination in India.

10-301 / 10-601 Introduction to Machine Learning

Summer-All

Machine Learning is concerned with computer programs that automatically improve their performance through experience (e.g., programs that learn to recognize human faces, recommend music and movies, and drive autonomous robots). This course covers the theory and practical algorithms for machine learning from a variety of perspectives. We cover topics such as Bayesian networks, decision tree learning, Support Vector Machines, statistical learning methods, unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning. The course covers theoretical concepts such as inductive bias, the PAC learning framework, Bayesian learning methods, margin-based learning, and Occam’s Razor. Programming assignments include hands-on experiments with various learning algorithms. This course is designed to give a graduate-level student a thorough grounding in the methodologies, technologies, mathematics and algorithms currently needed by people who do research in machine learning.

10-301 is recommended for undergraduates who are not SCS majors and counts towards the Machine Learning Minor. (SCS majors should instead take 10-315 in Fall or Spring.) 10-601 is recommended for quantitative master's students & PhD students outside MLD.

57-149 - Basic Harmony I

Summer One

This course deals with common-practice harmony. It includes triads and their inversions, tonality and modality, non-harmonic tones, cadences, and the basic concepts of modulation.  It includes work on fundamentals for inexperienced students.

57-173 - Survey of Western Music History

Summer One

This course surveys the development and contexts of European art music and its global adaptation. While keeping in view the chronology from Gregorian chant to the present, this survey emphasizes key personalities and issues, particularly issues relating to period style.

57-188 - Repertoire and Listening for Musicians

Summer One

This course is the required co-requisite listening component for Survey of Western Music History (57173).  In this course, students listen critically to music which has stood the test of time and to superior performances.  It features 2-3 hours of listening online per week.

 

80-211 - Logic and Mathematical Inquiry

Summer One and Two

Since ancient times, mathematical arguments have served as a paradigm for rational inquiry. We will study fundamental mathematical concepts and informal proofs as they occur in everyday mathematics. We will also use the methods of mathematical logic, which provides formal symbolic languages, to help us understand the structure of a mathematical argument. Finally, we will make use of a computational "proof assistant," called Lean, to develop fully rigorous, machine-checked proofs.

Visiting Student Information

Visiting/Non-Degree Students

If you are a non-CMU college student striving to enhance your academic background, a CMU staff/faculty member or a local professional looking for professional development, please visit the Visiting/Non-Degree Student webpage to learn more about taking Carnegie Mellon coursework. 

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Teacher Development

The Leonard Gelfand Center provides professional development programs to teachers. All programs are eligible for Act 48 status. 

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CASOS Summer Institute

In June of each year, the Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems Summer Institute provides an intense and hands-on introduction to network analysis and computational modeling of complex socio-technical systems. Participation is open to graduate students, faculty and personnel from industry, education, and government. 

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K-12 Student Information

Pre-College Summer Session

Carnegie Mellon offers a variety of summer Pre-College Programs for high school students. In Pre-College Summer Session, high school students enroll in CMU collge courses, earning credit and receiving a Carnegie Mellon Transcript. Courses are from subjects across the entire university, including science, humanities, social science, engineering, computer science, and technology applied to the arts. Students interested in pre-college opportunities in a specific area not listed should contact the appropriate department for more information.

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Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences

The Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences (PGSS) was established in order to provide a summer enrichment experience in the sciences and mathematics for talented Pennsylvania high school students and to encourage them to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering or mathematics. The program provides instruction in biological sciences, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and computer science, with emphasis on collaborative learning and team research.

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