Summer Product Design Class: Parsons vs. CMU

There’s two classes I’m debating taking:

  1. Parsons Product Design Summer Intensive

40 session(s). Mon. to Fri. , 9:00 - 3:50 PM , beg. May 27 . $3364
Instructor: Len Mayer

Students research utilitarian products, examine their uses, study the marketplace, and explore the three-dimensional design process. Working in groups as well as individually, students study the human body and its proportions, draw on research and technical drawings, and tap into their imaginations to create models, present each stage of their design process, and construct functioning design objects. (4 credits)

  1. Carnegie Mellon School of Design: Design Fundamentals

MTWRF 01:30PM 03:20PM Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania $5000
Instructor: Matthew Beale

Design Fundamentals Designers help create the artifacts of our everyday experiences – from software applications, to magazines and books, to automobiles, to toothbrushes. Over six weeks, experienced design faculty and design practitioners will take you through core experiences in the communications and product design processes. These experiences will include design research, conceptualization, three dimensional design, working with images and text, and the presentation of your design work. Students will need a digital camera and may be asked to purchase up to $100 in materials to support class work. Instructor permission is not required for students registering for section U in Summer II.
Last summer the class redesigned multi space parking meters.


I’m hearing that the CMU class is more of an introduction to design and NOT an intensive while the Parsons class is a studio based intensive course.
CMU has a grad program I really want to go to (MII-PS) and as a research university has lots of award winning faculty to network with and has the whole tech product design appeal to me. Seems like more available resources for somebody grad school bound.
Parsons seems more aesthetic oriented and the instructor has an interior design background but being in New York it seems like a great experience and the immersive nature of the studio seems like it would be good for me to seriously work on a portfolio piece.

If you’ve taken either of these or have any advice, it would be much appreciated :slight_smile: