A variety of colleges and universities offer summer programs and courses for high school students. The pre-college courses usually cover a specific major or interest for students to study and learn. One type of program that students participated in this summer were art-related programs.
Syracuse and Michigan both have several art courses to choose from, UCLA has an acting and performance program and Cornell has a drawing and media program. According to the bestcollegereviews, “Syracuse, UCLA, University of Michigan, and Cornell have some of the strongest pre-college summer art programs.”
Senior Emma Fischer spent one month studying photography at NYU this past summer. The selective program consisted of several classes a week. Students were given the opportunity to spend the month living in the school’s dorms. “Within the program, there were several different art majors: music, performing arts/theatre, photography and other forms of art. My roommate was in the theatre program so I became friends with her and her friends, and as I spent more time at NYU, I became friends with people in all programs,” Fischer said.
Pre-college summer programs can range from being a week to four weeks long. Specific types of arts that pre college summer programs focus on are 3D art, architecture, performing arts, drawing, new media, creative writing, dance, design media, digital filmmaking, fashion, liberal arts, interior design, graphic design, game development and journalism.
Actor Ben Stiller has a teenage daughter who studied at a summer program at NYU and Fischer had the opportunity to meet Stiller on her last day at the program. “I met a lot of friends from different parts of the country and made amazing friendships that I will never forget. I had an amazing experience and I got to feel like an actual college student. Being in the city, I felt like I had a lot of freedom. I explored parts of NYC that I never knew existed and I even made photography connections with photographers that I met when I was shooting pictures at a park,” Fischer said.
At the program, Fischer was able to learn different types of photography and she got to work in groups with other aspiring photographers. “Working with other photography majors was really cool because I got to learn different techniques from others. We all shared ideas and gave each other feedback. It was neat to have several perspectives viewing my work because I like to hear others opinions and I like to hear their thoughts about my work,” Fischer said.
Pre-college summer programs can create opportunities for students that can help them get into a certain school or major easier because of prior experience. Prices can range from around $400 to $6,000. “I think that if anyone has the opportunity to enroll in a pre-college summer program, they should, because these programs let students experience what college life is like as well as let students gain their own independence,” Fischer said.