This summer my oldest, Grasshopper and Sensei, will be working a summer internship at Carnegie Mellon. My middle child, PickyKidPix, also visited Carnegie Mellon as part of her college tours. She liked it so much that she was planning on applying there if she didn’t get into her Early Decision (binding) college.
What impresses me most about Carnegie Mellon is the breadth and depth of its excellent programs. I’ve always known Carnegie Mellon to be a top college choice for engineering and other STEM subjects but it also has a really excellent theater program. And that’s not the only creative arts program it is known for! Carnegie Mellon also has a School of Fine Arts AND a School of Design.
My oldest is an Industrial Design major at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and Carnegie Mellon does a really good job integrating Industrial Design with mechanical design. When we wandered in and out of the buildings (no security or passcards needed during the day!), I asked a student where the Industrial Design building for undergraduates was located. It turns out that there isn’t a specific program for undergraduates; more of a scattering of classes. I think Industrial Design is more robust as a graduate program.
Still, we were able to see the student art in a long gallery space in the School of Fine Arts. There is some serious talent here! Notable alums include Andy Warhol, Nancy Hagin, Philip Pearlstein, Joyce Kozloff, Raymond Saunders, Diane Samuels, and Deborah Kass to name a few.
Carnegie Mellon’s School of Design enrolls approximately 250 undergraduate and graduate students and focuses on an integrated approach where design, arts, sciences, and humanities converge.
At its heart, design is about solving problems. It’s no wonder businesses and institutions are embracing the value of design, and the demand for design professionals has never been greater. Organizations are actively seeking new approaches to problem solving in the face of escalating business, social, and environmental challenges.
We took a tour of Carnegie Mellon for undergraduates and you need to apply specifically to one of the schools. It isn’t necessarily that easy to switch schools once you are enrolled, particularly for STEM including computer science and engineering which are wildly popular. Ditto for the performing arts school!
This was my second tour of Carnegie Mellon. My first tour was during Covid when school tours were canceled but we had a student from my daughter’s high school’s home room give us a tour. He runs cross country for Carnegie Mellon and also studies engineering. He’s very happy here!
For those students who love both art and STEM, Carnegie Mellon offers options for both fine artists and commercial artists.
p.s. Related posts:
Top Art & Design Colleges for Undergraduates
Boston Performing and Visual Arts College Fair
How to Prepare for the College Admissions Interview
Committing to a College: Cost Comparison Chart
RISD Industrial Design Students Win BlueGreen Innovation
Science Internships for High School Students
4 Tips to Support Your Kid when They Apply to Competitive Art and Design Schools
California College of the Arts (CCA) Visit
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My books:
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
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