About

The Georgia Tech College of Design Pre-College Program is a two-week residential summer program for rising high school juniors and seniors, offered across four distinct disciplinary tracks on the Georgia Tech campus in Atlanta. Students choose one track at the time of application: Architecture, Industrial Design, Building Construction, or Music Technology. Each track is taught by Georgia Tech faculty currently teaching at the college level in their discipline, with current Georgia Tech students serving as guides and mentors throughout the two weeks.

The Architecture track centers on hands-on studio work — drawing, modeling, and developing a design project suitable for a portfolio — alongside meetings with professors and practitioners. Industrial Design takes students through product ideation, sketching, low-fidelity modeling, and visits to Georgia Tech's design labs and partner firms. Building Construction combines site visits, exposure to technologies including drones, laser scanners, 3D printing, and augmented and virtual reality, alongside meetings with industry leaders. Music Technology — one of the more unusual offerings in any pre-college design program — explores music production, machine learning applied to music, immersive audio environments, and performance technologies, with students producing original portfolio work.

All students live on campus in Georgia Tech dorms, eat in campus dining facilities, and participate in off-campus excursions including visits to the High Museum of Art and the Georgia Aquarium. Each track caps at 30 students and fills on a first-come, first-served basis — not by merit review — so early application is essential. International students with a valid visa and conversational English proficiency are eligible. Tuition covers room, board, and materials.

For a student seriously considering a future in architecture, industrial design, construction technology, or music technology, the Georgia Tech program offers a rare combination: genuine faculty instruction, portfolio-building work, and access to one of the most technically sophisticated design schools in the country.