Undergraduate Incoming Students

All First-Year students in the School of Design share the Foundation Year experience—an intensive studio-based curriculum introducing various techniques in form-making and conceptual visualization. Emphasis is placed on perfecting hand skills and in developing proficiency with digital technology. Through exposure to design practice, design culture, and critical observation, students experience Chicago as a global design center. First-Year students are rapidly immersed into design process in studio courses developed and organized by Foundation Studio Coordinators, members of our full-time faculty dedicated to undergraduate education. Foundation Year courses are taught by professional designers from within our faculty and from the Chicago design community.

Learn more about each program’s Foundation Review here.

CAMERA
All Foundation students are required to have a smartphone with a fully functioning camera. Students may also choose to use their mirrorless or DSLR camera.

LAPTOP
All Foundation students are required to bring—to the first class and every one after that—a laptop with the latest operating system. Student discounts are available at the UIC Bookstore, also located in Student Center East, 750 W. Halsted Street. Highly recommended is a daily backup system, whether a portable hard drive or your free student Box account with unlimited cloud storage.

SOFTWARE
All Foundation students are required to have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription—the UIC Webstore offers a substantial discount over purchasing a student subscription from Adobe. Make sure to install Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and Acrobat before classes begin.