About

The Fashion Institute of Technology's Precollege Programs offer high school students in grades 9–12 direct access to one of the world's most respected specialized colleges for fashion, design, art, and business — located in the heart of New York City's Fashion District in Chelsea, Manhattan. FIT is a State University of New York college whose undergraduate and graduate programs in fashion design, illustration, graphic design, toy design, photography, footwear and accessories design, textile design, and related fields place graduates consistently in major industry roles. Its Precollege suite, with over 130 courses, is the largest and most diverse pre-college design program in the country by discipline count, and the only one taught by FIT faculty and industry instructors working in these fields professionally.

Summer programs for high school students run in two formats. Four-Day Workshops are intensive single-subject explorations running one week, starting at $235–$440 depending on the course. Ten-Day Courses run across two consecutive weeks in July, with each course meeting three hours per morning or afternoon — students can take one course per half-day slot and double up for a full day of instruction. Both formats are commuter-only; FIT does not offer residential housing for precollege students. Classes are held on FIT's Manhattan campus with on-campus access to the college's studios, labs, and facilities. Courses are also available in fall and spring for Saturday or Sunday sessions, and a smaller number are offered online.

The discipline range is genuinely unusual. Most pre-college art and design programs concentrate on fine arts, drawing, and general design. FIT's catalog includes courses not widely available elsewhere at the high school level: Footwear Design, Sneaker Design, Toy Design, Textile/Surface Design, Fashion Forecasting, Fashion Styling, Film and Costume History, Product Development, Menswear Design, Jewelry Design, Interior Design, and Cosmetics and Fragrance alongside more standard offerings in Fashion Design, Illustration, Photography, Graphic Design, Animation, and Fine Arts. For a student already focused on one of these specialized fields — particularly footwear, toy design, or textile design — FIT is one of very few institutions in the country that can offer instruction by working professionals in that specific discipline at the pre-college level.

Portfolio development is an explicit outcome across most courses. FIT's undergraduate admissions process requires a portfolio for most creative programs, and the Precollege courses are designed in part to help students build work that meets those standards — though the courses are open to any high school student regardless of whether they plan to apply to FIT. Need-based scholarships are available; students should apply for financial aid through FIT's Precollege office before registering. There is an $18 per-course instructional supplies fee added at checkout. No prior experience is required for most courses. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, and popular courses fill quickly.

For a high school student with a clear creative focus — especially one pointed toward fashion, footwear, toy design, or any of the specialized design fields FIT serves — the Precollege program offers something no generalist summer program can: instruction by practitioners who work in the industry, in studios purpose-built for that discipline, at an institution whose undergraduate programs feed directly into that industry. The four-day and ten-day formats also make this accessible for students who cannot commit to a multi-week residential program, and the New York City location means industry exposure is embedded in the experience from the moment students walk to campus.