Early College Program Online Summer Institute
Merit Scholarships and Need-Based Aid Priority Deadline is March 1st
Early College Program Online Summer Institute 2025 Session Dates:
Session 1: 2 weeks, June 16-27, 2025
*Juneteenth Observation (no classes): June 19, 2025
We’re very excited to be offering our Early College Program Online Summer Institute, led by our highly acclaimed faculty of artists and designers who have adapted their course content to a virtual platform. You will join peers from around the globe to create portfolio-quality work, deepen your understanding of contemporary art making, and earn college credit. Experience dynamic virtual demos, engage in group critiques, and receive the ideal blend of one-on-one meeting time with faculty, and independent exploration.
**Note: Students must be 15–18 years of age and have completed their sophomore year of high school by the start of the program.
Courses
- Online: Advanced Drawing and Painting Projects
- Online: Animation and Video Projects*
- Online: Architectural Design*
- Online: Drawing/Painting/Comics and Graphic Novels
- Online: Fashion Design
- Online: Graphic Design
- Online: Portfolio Prep Studio
- Online: Writer's Studio
*Note: Students are required to have their own computer. If enrolled in Animation and Video Projects, Design Projects, 2D Animation, or Visual Communication Design, you will be provided with an Adobe Creative Cloud License for the duration of the course. We recommend that you have a laptop that meets the minimum requirements for Adobe Creative Cloud.
Course Highlights
- Work with our amazing faculty of practicing artists, designers, and scholars
- Earn college credit that may transfer to any college you attend.
- Connect with visiting artists from around the globe
- Collaborate with students from across the United States and around the world
- Prepare a competitive portfolio for college admission
Registration Instructions
Registration begins on our course listings page and involves selecting courses for your student. There is a $100 nonrefundable tuition deposit per course or you may choose to pay in full.
If you have not enrolled a student with SAIC online before, you will be asked to make an account for yourself and a profile for your student. Students can take one course per session. If your student would like to take multiple courses with us this summer, they should enroll in multiple sessions. Many of our popular courses fill up quickly, so we ask that your student select two alternate choices during the deposit process.
Started the registration process and want to come back and complete it at a later time?
No problem! Once you're ready to complete the process, log back into your account and click on your cart. From there, you will be able to resume the registration process. If you have any trouble please call us as soon as possible at 312.629.6170 or email us at ecp@saic.edu.
Merit Scholarships
The merit scholarship priority deadline is March 1st! Students can select to apply for a Merit Scholarship during the registration process. If you would like to be considered for a Merit Scholarship, you will need to submit a portfolio of 6-10 pieces of artwork. Artwork may be in any medium, regardless of class choice. Artwork is only required for merit scholarship consideration, not admission into the program.
If your student does not have their artwork ready to upload at the time of registration, please select “No” when asked if you are prepared to upload your portfolio during the registration process. You will then receive an email with further instructions on how to upload your portfolio for merit scholarship consideration. Please note: your student’s Merit Scholarship application will not be considered complete until their merit portfolio is received.
Need-based Financial Aid
The need-based financial aid priority deadline is May 1st! Domestic students can select to apply for need-based financial aid during the registration process. Applicants must select “Yes” when asked if you are applying for need-based financial aid at the time of registration. Following registration, students will be emailed a link to a secure server, where they will need to upload a copy of the top two pages of their family’s most recent year’s federal tax form 1040. Please note: your student’s need-based financial aid application will not be considered complete until the federal tax form 1040 is received.
Next steps
Once your deposit is collected at checkout, and all application materials have been received and reviewed, you will be notified of your student's enrollment by email within 1-2 weeks. Starting in February, a bill for your remaining balance due will be emailed three to four weeks after registration and will have detailed information regarding tuition charges, housing charges, and potential merit scholarship and/or need-based financial aid decisions. The final payment deadline is May 1st. If you register after May 1st, you will be given a custom payment due date two weeks out from the time we notify you of your final balance via email.