Hi, I’m 17 and almost done with my junior year of high school. I am hoping to go to college for industrial design, and am looking for good schools and summer programs to help me get ahead. I live on the east coast so I’m looking more around there. IF you could give me any information, that would be great!
It’s great that you are looking at a summer program to attend. It can be very helpful in preparing you for college.
My son is an Industrial Design major at U of Cincinnati. He attended a 2 week summer ID camp at Syracuse. It was a very good experience for him- it confirmed ID was his preferred major and he was able to use his design project as a major item in his design portfolio. He continued to develop and work on his design project for several weeks after the camp ended.
He was disappointed in a few things:
- he thought the students at the camp were not serious about learning design
- he crossed Syracuse off his list of schools. He was not a fan of the vibe of the school. Granted this may not be totally representative of Syracuse since it was a summer session with high school students from all over the country. Partying and sports were very high priorities on campus.
- The design studios are located a few miles away from the main campus and felt isolated. ID students spend many hours in the design studio so this was an important factor for him.
I have heard good things about Carnegie Mellon’s Summer Pre-College Design program. You can search CC for discussions on this camp.
U of Cincinnati also has a DAAP Camp. I believe it is not focused on just ID. If you look it up you’ll see it covers many design areas including Architecture, Interior, Fashion, etc
Good luck with your research!