About

Explorations in Architecture and Design is a three-week pre-college track offered through the University of Miami's Summer Scholars Program (SSP) at the School of Architecture (U-SoA) in Coral Gables, Florida, running June 27–July 17, 2026. It's open to current high school sophomores and juniors and awards six college credits on completion. Students choose either the residential option — housed with roommates in a UM undergraduate residential college, three meals a day, evening and weekend programming included — or the commuter option for students living with family in Miami-Dade or Broward County.

The curriculum uses U-SoA's own architecture model as its base, with specially designed Design, Graphics, and Theory courses built around a rotating session theme spanning architecture, landscape architecture, historic preservation, and urban planning. In studio, students draw, build models, and propose designs for a sequence of short projects, using school-provided drafting supplies, CAD software, and photographic equipment; each project closes with a group presentation and informal faculty critique, building toward a final exhibition of student work. The program's most distinctive feature is its field component: guided excursions to South Florida landmarks spanning Mediterranean, Art Deco, MiMo, Bahamian, Cape Dutch, Mission, and Neo-Classical styles, each led by a relevant subject expert — an Art Deco historian walks students through the Miami Beach Art Deco District, a landscape architecture scholar explains the gardens at Vizcaya, and practicing architects tour their own recent houses and high-rise buildings.

For 2026, total cost is $10,225.20 for residential students (tuition $7,493.90 plus $2,731.30 in program fees covering housing, meals, health center and wellness center access, and activities) or $8,561.50 for commuters (same tuition, $1,067.60 in fees covering lunch and activities); a non-refundable $500 enrollment deposit and $75 application fee apply on top of this, and full payment is due May 6, 2026. The Summer Scholars Program does not offer payment plans, though limited need-based scholarship funding and a $500 Alumni Tuition Waiver (for children of UM alumni) are both available. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis under a tiered deadline structure: Early Action (December 1), Priority and Scholarship (both March 1), and Final (April 25); admission decisions typically arrive within 7–10 business days of a complete file.

Explorations suits a student who already suspects architecture, landscape architecture, or urban planning is their direction and wants studio immersion plus direct exposure to how a design-rich city like Miami actually gets read and built — the guided excursions with named subject experts (rather than generic sightseeing) are what separates this from a standard summer design camp. It's a heavier commitment in both time and cost than a one-week program like TAMU's Camp ARCH, closer in structure to a genuine three-week college studio course, which makes it a better fit for a student testing whether they want to commit to an architecture major than for one just sampling the field.