Summer Springboard Interior Design I High School Course

Class runs from 9:30am to 12:30pm and again from 1:30pm to 3:30pm, Monday to Friday in the first week and Monday to Thursday in the second. That comes to about 45 hours (five hours a day over nine class days). Summer Springboard schedules three or four academic excursions to showrooms, commercial design firms and professional studios, usually in place of a morning class, and you'll hear from working interior designers in guest talks.

You're assigned a homeroom with your own drafting table and computer, and you can use the school's library, printers and fabric library. The course covers reading floor plans and drafting with an architect's scale, color schemes and choosing furniture and materials, and it ends with you designing a New York City apartment.

For residential students the day runs from breakfast at 8am to dorm checks at 10:30pm. After class there's a College Readiness Workshop or a True You session at 4:30pm, dinner at 6:30pm and clubs or other activities from 8pm. Weekend excursions in past years included a New York City day with Top of the Rock, Central Park and a boat tour, plus a trip to Six Flags Great Adventure. Commuters on the classes-only option are there from 9:30am to 3:30pm on weekdays.

Summer Springboard names three instructors, and two of them teach at NYSID. Lynette Bard came to interior design after working as a fashion designer in New York and an art teacher in Hong Kong. She holds National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) certificate #36002 and is a Certified Aging-In-Place Specialist. Pamela Durante, also on the NYSID faculty, is one of 317 Certified Interior Designers in New York State and worked on luxury hotels for many years. Christine Ortiz is a NYSID graduate with a background in construction and project management, and she founded her own firm, Oh! Designs Interiors.

Some of the studio tours are to firms that belong to NYSID alumni. Summer Springboard doesn't publish a class size or student-to-teacher ratio for this course.

Students who complete the course can earn one NYSID college credit, which Summer Springboard says applies toward an undergraduate degree at NYSID. It also suggests listing the credit on your college applications, but whether another college accepts or transfers it is up to that college, so think of it as a NYSID credit first.

Every student also gets a completion certificate and a letter of recommendation from their professor. For your portfolio, you leave with a floor plan you've drawn from start to finish and your New York City apartment design.

You need to have finished 9th grade before the course starts and have a 3.0 GPA or your school's equivalent. International students prove their English through a phone interview or a minimum score: TOEFL 490 (paper) or 60 (iBT), Cambridge PET with Distinction or FCE at grade C, or 450 in SAT Reading and Writing.

The application takes about 30 minutes with the student present and asks for short-answer essays and signed agreement forms. Summer Springboard also checks every applicant against its Essential Eligibility Criteria, which expect students to manage their own care and medication, walk more than a mile and follow staff instructions in English, and it may ask for medical documentation. A decision follows within 5 to 7 business days of a complete application. No acceptance rate is published. Admissions are rolling, with places in each course going first come, first served.

If you apply by 30 November 2026, Summer Springboard charges $5,998 to live in, $3,398 as a commuter and $2,698 for commuter classes only. Tuition goes up on 1 December 2026, and the new figures aren't published yet. On top of tuition there's a non-refundable application fee, which starts at $99 and rises to $149 after 21 February 2027 and to $199 after 18 April 2027. You also pay a $600 deposit when you apply, and it stops being refundable after 1 March 2027.

The residential price covers your room, all meals, the course and every excursion, including weekend trips. Classes-only covers lunch, the course and its excursions from 9:30am to 3:30pm on weekdays, but not breakfast, dinner, the 4:30pm College Readiness and True You sessions or weekend trips, although you can add weekend trips at $125 a day. Across its campuses, Summer Springboard describes its full commuter option as adding orientation, college readiness workshops and time on campus from 9am to 5pm on weekdays. Flights, health insurance and the optional airport shuttle ($95 each way) are extra.

If you don't pay in full, you're put on an installment plan automatically. Apply before 10 March 2027 and a third is due on 10 March, a third on 10 April and the rest on 10 May, with a $150 late fee for payments that arrive after 10 May. Need-based scholarships cover up to 30% of residential tuition or 60% of commuter tuition, but never the deposit or application fee, and you should hear back within 7 business days. An optional Tuition Protection Plan lets you cancel for any reason up to the first day. Under the 2026 terms it cost $699 per application, had to be bought when you applied and wasn't itself refundable.

Residential students live in the Marymount Manhattan College residence hall in Midtown, which has 24-hour security and ID-card entry. A Summer Springboard staff member is on each floor, and other staff are available for emergencies around the clock. Students walk to class at NYSID on the Upper East Side each day, weather permitting, and chaperones travel with them by subway or private bus to excursions. There's urgent and emergency care close to both the school and the hall.

Suites hold 4 to 7 students in two bedrooms, with students matched by age and gender, and each suite shares a kitchenette and one or two bathrooms. The hall has air conditioning, a small gym and laundry you pay for by app. You can room with a friend if you send written notice before the program starts. Breakfast and dinner come from a preloaded meal card, lunch is provided at NYSID, and Summer Springboard can cater to vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergy needs. No linens are provided, so pack Twin XL sheets, a blanket or comforter, a pillow and towels, plus your own laundry detergent.

The rules are strict. Under Summer Springboard's Code of Conduct, most violations lead to immediate expulsion, and an expelled student is sent home at the family's expense with no refund.