Top 15 Architecture Programs for High School Students

If you’re considering majoring in architecture in college, one of the best ways to demonstrate that interest is by joining a summer architecture program for high school students. The summer programs at Cornell and Carnegie Mellon introduce you to modern design practices while immersing you in design thinking and 3D modeling. These experiences also strengthen your college application by showing admissions officers that you’ve explored your interests outside the classroom.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through some of the top architecture programs available this year— what they cost, where they’re located, how long they run, and what hands-on skills and design experience you’ll gain once you’re actually inside the studio.

• What Are the Best Architecture Programs for High School Students?
• Cornell University Summer Architecture Program
• Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Architecture
• USC Summer Pre-College Exploration of Architecture
• Georgia Tech Pre-College Architecture “Be the Future” Studio
• Boston Architectural College Summer Academy
• BAC Pre‑College CityLab / Summer Academy Urban Design & Planning Studio
• Teen Fellows by Chicago Architecture Center
• University of Houston From the Ground Up Summer Architecture Program
• Syracuse University Summer College Architecture Program
• embARC Summer Design Academy (UC Berkeley)
• NSLC on Architecture
• Camp ARCH by Texas A&M University
• The Build San Francisco Summer Design Institute
• Architecture Discovery Program by WashU
• Design Immersion Days by Southern California Institute of Architecture
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Takeaways

What Are the Best Architecture Programs for High School Students?

Architecture programs for high school students are hands-on and immersive, giving you the space and time to design, sketch, and model buildings, so you can watch your ideas come to life.

These programs can also elevate your future college portfolio and show admissions counselors just how serious you are about the field. Below, you’ll find ten standout architecture programs along with where they’re held and when they run, so you can compare them side-by-side and find the one that matches your goals and interests best.

Now, let’s discuss each program one by one.

1. Cornell University Summer Architecture Program

• Dates: 6-week summer session (2026 dates are not available yet)
• Location: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Cost: $1,940 per credit + housing/dining ($2,879 for 3 weeks or $5,714 for 6 weeks)

Cornell’s Summer Architecture Program is basically a preview of life as an architecture student, which involves early sketches, scale models, studio critiques, and long design sessions.

You’ll earn 6 college credits, receive an official Cornell transcript, and spend your days in the studio developing drawings, exploring 3D modeling, attending lectures, and learning how to turn a concept into something visual and presentable.

This architecture program for high school students runs in person, full-time, so you’ll live on campus, work with Cornell faculty, and spend plenty of time collaborating with other student designers. To attend the residential program, you need to be 16–18 years old, and you must have completed at least 10th grade before it starts. Admission is selective, so strong academic performance and clear interest in design definitely help you stand out.

2. Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Architecture

• Dates: 6-week summer program
• Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
• Cost: $8,253 (commuter), $10,744 (residential)

Carnegie Mellon’s Pre-College Architecture experience feels a lot like stepping into your first real architecture studio. Over six weeks, you work in-person on campus, dive into design studio sessions, attend lectures, explore Pittsburgh on site visits, and build ideas through 2D, 3D, digital, and analog techniques. 

The program’s core goal is to help you grow as a designer by building foundational architectural skills, architectural literacy, analytical thinking, conceptual development, and spatial representation techniques. You also gain experience in model-making, drafting, 3D software, and creative exploration.

To apply, you need to be in high school and ready to handle a fast-moving studio environment. Admission is selective, and the program, like the other summer programs CMU hosts, is not free.

3. USC Summer Pre-College Exploration of Architecture

• Dates: June 22 – July 17, 2026
• Location: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
• Cost: $11,570 (residential)

USC’s Pre-College Exploration of Architecture is a 4-week, in-person studio program, where you’ll spend your days designing, drawing, building, experimenting with materials, and learning how architects translate ideas into space. 

The goal here is simple: help you build your portfolio, understand architectural thinking, and develop skills in spatial reasoning, conceptual design, representation techniques, and visual communication. You also get guidance from USC faculty, access to fabrication spaces, and plenty of feedback through critiques.

To qualify, you need strong academic readiness, including a minimum SAT Critical Reading score of 600 (previous SAT), 650 Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (new SAT), or ACT English score of 27. You must also be in high school and ready to handle an intensive studio workload.

4. Georgia Tech Pre-College Architecture “Be the Future” Studio

• Dates: June 14 – June 26, 2026 (Session 1) | July 5 – July 17, 2026 (Session 2)
• Location: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
• Cost: $3500

Georgia Tech’s “Be the Future” Studio is a summer, in-person program, and the whole setup runs like a condensed architecture studio. 

Throughout the program, you build skills in spatial thinking, visual representation, digital and analog modeling, concept development, and crit-style presentation. You also explore the campus, meet Georgia Tech faculty, and collaborate with other design-minded peers while you build portfolio-worthy work from scratch.

To apply to this architecture program for high school students, you need to be a rising junior or rising senior when the program begins. Admission is selective, but you don’t need prior architecture experience.

5. Boston Architectural College Summer Academy

• Dates: Typically runs mid-summer (2026 dates are not yet posted)
• Location: Boston Architectural College, Boston, MA
• Cost: $2,000 (for 3 college credits) or US $1,800 (non-credit).

Boston Architectural College’s (BAC) Summer Academy lets you pick between two tracks: Exploration or Investigation. The Exploration Track is ideal if you’re just getting started; you learn the fundamentals and dabble across multiple design disciplines. The Investigation Track is better if you already have design experience and want to dive deeper into more focused, challenging studio work.

Regardless of your track, expect to spend your summer working through curated design challenges that push your creativity and problem-solving. Throughout this architecture program for high school students, you’ll explore Ideation, Iteration, Sketching, Drawing, Digital Design, Digital Fabrication, Model-Making, and Presentation Skills—all while building physical and digital work for your design portfolio.

To join, you must be entering grades 9–12 and at least 14 years old. No portfolio is required for beginners, and you can choose either the Credit-Bearing Option (CBO) or the Not-For-Credit (NFC) path.

6. BAC Summer Academy: Urban Design & Planning Studio

• Dates: Late June–early August (2026 dates are not yet posted)
• Location: Boston Architectural College, Boston, MA
• Cost: $4,000 (credit-bearing, 6 college credits) or $3,600 (not for credit)

If you’re drawn to how cities function, why neighborhoods look the way they do, how transportation affects communities, or how design shapes everyday life, the Urban Design & Planning Studio is a strong fit. 

This studio runs as an add-on track to BAC’s Summer Academy, meaning you’re technically enrolled in two interconnected programs at once: the main Summer Academy studio plus a specialized Urban Design & Planning curriculum. You’ll explore urban systems, housing, land use, transportation, economic development, and policy—areas not commonly covered in most architecture programs for high school students.

You also dig into current global planning issues like climate resilience, community-based planning, green design, sustainability, and how development impacts human health and wellbeing.

7. Teen Fellows – Chicago Architecture Center

• Dates: June 22, 2026 – May 8, 2027 (15-month program)
• Location: Harold Washington College, Chicago, IL
• Cost: Free + stipend (fully funded)

Teen Fellows runs for more than a year, where you start with a full-time summer session, then continue through fall and spring with weekend studio work, workshops, and design challenges across Chicago. Because it’s fully funded, you don’t pay tuition, and you also receive a stipend, which is extremely rare in architecture programs at the high school level.

Throughout the 15 months, you build real technical skills such as working with SketchUp, AutoCAD, Rhino, Revit, and other software while tackling urban design issues, planning problems, and community-based projects that eventually become part of your portfolio. You also visit firms, learn directly from architects and planners, and see how design decisions actually affect neighborhoods and real people.

To apply, you should be a Chicago-area high schooler, typically entering or currently in grades 10–12, and ready to commit to the full duration of the program, a level of rigor not always expected in most architecture programs for high school students.

8. University of Houston — From the Ground Up Summer Architecture Program

• Dates: June 15 – July 17, 2026
• Location: University of Houston, Houston, TX
• Cost: $1,500 (includes supplies + field trips, excludes parking)

If you want to step into architecture for the first time without feeling like you need fancy software experience, From the Ground Up is the kind of program that meets you exactly where you are. This is a month-long studio experience on the UH campus, making it perfect if you’re exploring architecture as a future major and want more than a short crash course.

Throughout the program, you work through two multi-week design projects, each pushed from idea to physical form using a range of materials and building methods—especially study models, which become the heart of how you test and develop your ideas. There’s no expectation that you know digital modeling or CAD, and you won’t need it here.

This program is for high school-aged learners who want structure, challenge, and portfolio-ready material without needing prior architecture training. The field trips, studio work, and physical building processes give you a grounded and surprisingly real look at what architecture school feels like, far more immersive than most architecture programs for high school students.

9. Syracuse University Summer College Architecture Program

• Dates: Summer (2026 dates are not posted yet)
• Location: Syracuse University (On Campus)
• Cost:  $6,295 (residential),  $4,831(commuter)

If you want a true studio-style introduction to architecture, Syracuse’s Summer College Architecture course is known for being one of the most popular ways to experience it. 

The first half of the program puts you through seven rapid-fire design exercises, each centered on composition, representation, spatial hierarchy, and relationships. During this stage, you’ll get hands-on with basswood + wood-block model-making, orthographic drawing (plans, sections, elevations, axonometric), digital 3D modeling, digital collage, and digital drawing.

The second half shifts to digital production, with most of your work in Rhino for 3D modeling and in Adobe InDesign for assembling drawings into presentation-ready layouts. You end the course with a final project, a pavilion design for downtown Syracuse, pulling together everything you’ve learned into a single architectural proposal.

Eligibility is limited to rising juniors, rising seniors, or recent high school graduates (class of 2025).

10. Camp ARCH by Texas A&M University

• Dates: July 6–11, 2026
• Location: Utah A&M (on campus)
• Cost: $1,500  (includes meals, dorm housing, activities, souvenirs, and class supplies)

Camp ARCH is a week-long pre-college experience that immerses you in real studio work guided by faculty, and teaches you how creative decisions shape cities, buildings, and landscapes—something that sets it apart from many other architecture programs for high school students.

You choose one specialized track for the week based on interest and availability:

• Architecture: studio-style design projects, visual thinking, first-year tools + methods
• Construction Science:  management, LEED, estimating + scheduling, safety + tech
• Landscape Architecture: collaborative studio work, visualization, design + data analysis
• Urban Planning: site analysis, workshops, presentations, community + city design challenges

Eligibility is limited to incoming 10th–12th graders, and those graduating in spring 2026 cannot apply. If you want a fast, intensive dive into design with structure, studio work, and campus life in the mix, this is a strong way to spend a summer.

11. embARC Summer Design Academy — UC Berkeley

• Dates: July 6–31, 2026
• Location: UC Berkeley campus
• Cost: Domestic: $5,193 (domestic), $8,233 (international)

embARC is a four-week, college-level dive into architecture, sustainable city planning, and urban design. You spend the month working like a first-year architecture student: sketching, drafting, building models, testing ideas in digital and physical forms, and exploring Berkeley and the Bay Area as a living design lab.

The curriculum is broken into five core components:

• Architecture + Urban Design Studio: 2D/3D idea development, sketching, drafting, modeling
• Environmental Design Conversation Series: talks with professionals + faculty
• Materials Exploration Workshop: building systems, tiny house design
• Sustainable City Planning Workshop: research + community-focused design questions
• Digital Design Workshop: software skills for college-level studio work

You also go on field trips, get one-on-one reviews, complete a design/build project for a nonprofit, finish with portfolio-ready work, and receive credit on an official Berkeley transcript. Eligibility to this architecture program for high school students requires rising seniors or exceptional rising juniors, age 16+, with a 3.0 GPA or higher, and no design experience is needed.

12. NSLC on Architecture — Georgetown University

• Dates: June 12–20, 2026 & June 24–July 2, 2026
• Location: Georgetown University, Washington, DC
• Cost: $4,395 Residential

NSLC on Architecture gives you eight days of fast-paced design work where you learn how creative vision turns into real structures people live, work, and move through. You’ll explore how architects balance aesthetics, function, and sustainability.

The experience is hands-on from the start, so expect collaborative projects, design simulations, and workshops that push you to think like a problem-solver instead of just a designer. A big focus of this architecture program for high school students is understanding how architecture influences the world around us: the way buildings shape communities, the role design plays in everyday life, and how sustainability fits into the built environment.

NSLC partners directly with The American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS), which means you’re learning inside a professional pipeline designed for future architects.

13. The Build San Francisco Summer Design Institute

• Dates: 2026 dates not yet released
• Location: Online (remote participation)
• Cost: $3,500

The Build San Francisco Summer Design Institute (SDI) guides you through hands-on work where you learn sketching, explore digital design platforms, and build original design projects from scratch. You also present your work, receive feedback from instructors, and collaborate on group activities that mirror how professional architects communicate and iterate ideas despite being online.

Studio sessions run online from 9 AM–12 PM, but you’ll continue your work independently. On top of that, you’ll meet twice weekly with an architect or design professional for mentoring.

SDI gives you the chance to create portfolio-ready content that can strengthen college applications, scholarship submissions, or early career exploration. Because this architecture program for high school students is fully remote, you’ll need a reliable computer and a quiet workspace for studio sessions and mentoring.

14. Architecture Discovery Program — Washington University in St. Louis (WashU)

• Dates: July 12–25, 2026 (2 weeks)
• Location: Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, WashU, St. Louis, MO
• Cost: Estimated $4,361

The Architecture Discovery Program is an intensive two-week studio experience built for rising juniors and seniors who want to explore architecture at a deeper level. The core of the program is Design Studio, where you move through short design exercises that introduce you to design thinking, sustainability, and the role of the built environment today. Everything you learn builds into a final architectural project, which you present to faculty and guest critics.

You’ll also take Drawing Studio, where you practice how to see, observe, and record the world around you. Through on-site sketching sessions, you work with proportion, light and shadow, material and texture, spatial relationships, perspective, and orthographic projection. By the end of the two weeks, you’ll also earn 2 college credits for completing the program.

Admission for this architecture program for high school students is rolling, and early applications are recommended. Applying requires an essay, one recommendation letter, and optional work samples. Scholarship support is available and can cover up to 100% of program cost.

15. Design Immersion Days (DID) — Southern California Institute of Architecture

• Dates: June 15 – July 10, 2026
• Location: SCI-Arc, Los Angeles, CA
• Cost: $3,350

Design Immersion Days is a four-week studio experience built to introduce you to the architecture and design culture that defines Los Angeles. You’ll spend full days on campus exploring how designers think and make, blending physical building, freehand drawing, and hands-on experimentation with cutting-edge digital tools.

You’ll work through a wide range of techniques and technologies from freehand sketching, architectural drafting, physical modeling, and 3D fabrication to digital design using Rhino, Photoshop, Illustrator, 3D modeling, and augmented reality workflows. You’ll also learn how to understand production at multiple scales, from small analog models to digital output and rapid prototyping.

The program ends with a public exhibition, where you present your work to a panel of architects, critics, and theorists.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the best architecture summer programs for high school students in 2025?

Some of the strongest options include Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, USC, embARC at UC Berkeley, BAC Summer Academy, WashU Architecture Discovery Program, and NSLC on Architecture.

2. Are there free architecture programs for high school students?

Yes, programs like CAC Teen Fellows and certain scholarship-supported pre-college programs offer full funding for eligible students.

3. What subjects do architecture summer programs typically cover?

You’ll usually study design studio fundamentals, drawing, model-making, architecture software, digital fabrication, sustainability, and urban planning concepts.

4. How can architecture summer programs help with college admissions?

They help you build a portfolio, earn college credit, gain real studio experience, and show admissions committees that you have a strong interest and ability in design.

5. When should I apply for architecture summer programs?

Most applications open in fall and winter; applying early is best, especially for programs with rolling admission or competitive spots.

Takeaways

• Architecture programs for high school students let you step into a real studio environment—sketching, modeling, designing spaces, and thinking like an architect.
• Top options like Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley’s embARC, BAC Summer Academy, and WashU Architecture Discovery Program offer intensive, hands-on learning, and some even provide full funding or scholarships.
• You get mentorship from architects, planners, and university faculty who guide you through critiques, projects, and real design challenges.
• Finishing one of these programs strengthens your portfolio, builds confidence with design tools, and gives you experience that admissions committees look for in future architecture majors.
• If you’re committed to architecture, getting guidance from a college admissions expert can be a smart way to level up your skills, expand your creative network, and prepare for design school long before college begins.