Strategic Summers: The Time to Gain the Advantage for College

Summer school. For most of us, the words conjure up images of tedium and punishment. Hot summer days in un-air-conditioned classrooms, struggling through dull and difficult material that wasn’t mastered the first time around – while other kids are out playing, swimming, and pursuing carefree summer activities.

Now imagine summer courses that include diving to photograph coral reefs off the coast of Belize, dancing in a national arts festival in the mountains, living on an island of the coast of Maine and studying sea star populations, helping to build a daycare center in Costa Rica, participating in a nationally recognized game design competition, studying anthropology by living int he Navajo Nation, designing one’s own fashion label, writing a screenplay to submit to Hollywood film studios.

Helping your child make the most of their summers is an important way that you can encourage them to hone their interests and find what they truly love to do. Summers can involve a mix of volunteering, paid employment, internships, job shadowing, enrichment classes in areas of interest, travel, exercise, reading, and of course, taking some “chill time.”

Check out the following programs that offer academic enrichment and career exploration opportunities that may help your child discover or deepen their passions and interests. [Note: While we try our best to include only reputable programs, we do not have the first-hand experience of many of them. The presence of a program on this list is not an endorsement of its quality. Please do your research!]

PRE-COLLEGE PROGRAMS AT UNIVERSITIES (COURSE OFFERINGS VARY)

Summer Pre-College Program Directory (a big list)

Specific Programs

NOTE: Notations below about summer 2021 reflect available info as of January 30. If ‘remote’ or ‘remote options’ are not indicated, the program is either in-person as of now, or it has not yet been decided.

Adelphi University (in New York) Programs for High School Students

Boston University Summer Programs (remote or commuter options offered Summer 2021)

BYU online – Career-Oriented Classes (always online)

Brown University Pre-College Programs (remote options offered Summer 2021)

Cambridge or Oxford Immerse (remote options offered)

Columbia University Summer Programs (remote options offered)

Emerson College Summer programs (remote for Summer 2021)

Duke University Summer Programs (online options will be announced May 2021)

Great Books program at Stanford, Amherst, and 4 other campuses (online options; also during school year)

Idyllwild Arts Summer Programs

Lehigh University Summer Academy

LMU Summer Programs

Marist University Summer Programs

Oxbridge International Summer School

RMP (Research Mentorship Program) at UC Santa Barbara (remote for Summer 2021)

Secondary Students Training Program (SSTP) at Univ of Iowa (many fields, including research and writing)

Stevens Institute of Technology Summer Programs (remote for Summer 2021)

Summerfuel

Telluride Association Summer Program for Juniors (FREE!) Not running Summer 2021

Tufts Summer Study Programs (remote for Summer 2021)

UCLA Summer Institutes and Programs in all sorts of fields!

UCSB Summer Pre-College Programs (Research Mentorship Program will be virtual Summer 2021)

University of Southern California Summer Programs (Summer 2021 format TBD; 2-week Architecture program will be virtual)

U Mass Amherst Pre-Collegiate Programs fully online

Washington University in St Louis Summer Institutes (Healthcare or Creative Writing in 2021)

ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES IN SPECIFIC FIELDS

LIFE, HEALTH, and ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Adventures in Veterinary Medicine at Tufts

Boston Leadership Institute (remote options for Summer 2021)

Brown Environmental Leadership Lab (not offered Summer 2021)

Camp Cardiac

Camp Neuro

City of Hope Eugene and Ruth Roberts Summer Student Academy Biomedical Research

Environmental Science at LMU

Environmental Studies Summer Institute at Hobart and William Smith College

Medical Career Mentor Program Los Angeles (Free; stipend also possible!)

Project Oceanology at UConn

Research Explorations at University of Florida (remote options available for Summer 2021)

Rosetta Institute of Biomedical Research Summer Workshops (at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego) (some remote options available for Summer 2021)

Royal Veterinary College London Pre-Vet Summer Camp

Sea Semester

Shoal Marine Lab Programs for High School (online, most likely, for Summer 2021)

Coastal & Marine Sciences at UC Davis

Marine Science Pre-College Program at Eckerd College

Whale Camp (Bay of Fundy, between Maine and Nova Scotia)

UC Davis Young Scholars Program (remote for Summer 2021)

UC Irvine Health and Science Enrichment Programs

UC Irvine Summer Surgery Program

University of Maryland Jump Start

Washington University Pre-medical Institute and more

Youth Conservation Corps in Yellowstone National Park (PAID!)

PHYSICAL SCIENCES, MATH AND ENGINEERING

Aerospace Institute Summer Camp at University of Illinois (remote for Summer 2021)

Awesome Math (remote for Summer 2021)

Boston Leadership Institute (remote options for Summer 2021)

Clark Scholars Program at Texas Tech (PAID!)

COSMOS program at 4 UC Campuses

Garcia Summer Scholars Polymer Materials Research at Stony Brook (most likely remote for Summer 2021)

Georgia Tech Summer Engineering Institute (for underrepresented students)

Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics

High School Honors Science, Math and Engineering Program at Michigan State

Hofstra University Summer Science Research

Honors Summer Math Camp at Texas State

ID Tech camps (remote options available)

Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS) at BU (remote for Summer 2021)

Math Camp (location varies– Champlain College in Vermont in 2020– 5 wk intensive (Good financial aid available)

Research Science Institute at MIT Free: Application deadline January 16

RISE summer internship program at Boston University (remote or commuter for Summer 2021)

Ross Mathematics Camp (remote for Summer 2021)

Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP): Department of Navy labs (various locations; PAID!)

Simons Science Summer Research Program at Stony Brook FREE, plus stipend! (remote for Summer 2021)

SRA Program at UC Santa Barbara (Science/Engineering Research Academy) (remote for Summer 2021)

Smith College Summer Science and Engineering for Girls (remote options for Summer 2021)

Stanford Math Camp (remote for Summer 2021)

Students Science Training Program at University of Florida (rising 12th graders only) (remote option available 2021)

SSP –Summer Science Program (Astrophysics or Biochemistry, New Mexico Tech, Boulder, and Purdue) ( remote option available summer 2021)

Syracuse University ITGirls program (data, information, tech) (remote for Summer 2021

Research Immersion in Science/Engineering (RISE) at University of Florida (rising 10th graders only) (remote for Summer 2021)

U.S. Naval Academy STEM camp

MORE ENGINEERING

National listing of engineering camps

Best Colleges Review’s List of Top 50 Technology-Oriented Programs

CURIE Academy at Cornell (Girls in Engineering)

EPIC (Engineering Possibilities in College) at Cal Poly SLO (remote for Summer 2021)

Exploring Career Options in Engineering and Science (Stevens Inst of Tech) (remote for Summer 2021)

Johns Hopkins U Engineering Innovation (remote for Summer 2021)

Missouri U S&T Science and Technology camps

Notre Dame U Introduction to Engineering

Purdue U STEP (Seminar for Top Engineering Prospects) rising 12th graders only

Santa Clara Summer Engineering Seminar (FREE!!)

Try Engineering Summer Institute (several campuses including UC Riverside)

U Alabama Engineering Summer Camp

WPI Frontiers Summer Program (entering grades 11 and 12) (remote for Summer 2021)

WPI Launch Summer Program (entering grades 9 and 10) (remote for Summer 2021)

PROGRAMS FOR LOW-INCOME OR UNDERREPRESENTED STUDENTS

Georgia Tech Summer Engineering Institute

MITES (Minority Introduction to Math and Science) at MIT (not offered Summer 2021; consider MOSTEC instead)

MOSTEC Program at MIT (MIT Online Science, Technology, and Engineering Community; FREE; rising 12th graders only; 6 month program June-Dec. Feb 1 application deadline)

Phillips Andover Academy Math and Science for Minority Students (FREE; 3-summer program; apply as a 9th grader)

Questbridge College Prep Scholars (various campuses)

PREFACE Engineering Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic U

Telluride Association Sophomore Seminars FREE (not offered Summer 2021)

University of Chicago Neubauer Summer Scholars for Hispanic/Latino students Free (remote for Summer 2021)

Stem Cell Research Internship at CalTech

ARCHAEOLOGY

Crow Canyon Archaeology Camps

Center for American Archaeology

University of Chicago (Paleontology) (cancelled for Summer 2021)

ARCHITECTURE

List of summer programs in architecture (this is the 2020 list; 2021 update probably available in Feb.)