Think Summer 2025!

Do you want to both enrich your life and enhance your chances for college admission? Most selective colleges evaluate your summer experiences as part of their admission decision process. They look for students who take advantage of summer opportunities that enrich their lives, that propel them forward to explore their potential college major, further develops their skills and passion— and that also distinguish them from the rest of the applicant pool. And you have four summers in which to take advantage of these pre-college summer programs! Think about what you can accomplish!

We’ve got some wonderful suggestions that may get your wheels turning about summer plans to do just that. You may say, OK, but summer is months away and I’ve got plenty of time to plan. Plus, the pandemic might throw a monkey wrench into any summer program. Wrong! Now’s the time to research and apply to summer programs that are not only meaningful and fun but also improve your prospects for college admission. Because most programs pivoted to virtual during the height of the pandemic, many students enjoyed remarkable opportunities that enhanced their college applications.

Below you’ll find a broad range of options − the broadest possible if you begin your research now, ahead of procrastinators because these programs tend to fill up quickly. In fact, many competitive programs have early winter deadlines (e.g. MIT’s Research Science Institute’s deadline this year is December 11th; Tisch Summer 2025 High School Residential Program’s deadline is December 2 nd ). 

There are myriad ways to enrich your summer through a diverse range of programs that will allow you to

explore a potential major or career, deepen your interest in a particular academic area, improve your

athletic or arts-related skills, enhance the lives of others, and more. Here are just a few ideas:

• Study and live on a college campus for a week or two or three – or more

• Get involved in a local or global community service project

• Get a job or an internship that may foreshadow your college study focus

• Participate in a foreign-language immersion program

• Hone your debate skills in a specialized workshop

• Improve your athletic prowess at sports showcase camps

• Get involved in a research project, even online: Lumiere, Polygence, Scholar Launch

• Take courses locally or virtually to improve your GPA, rank, and curriculum: FLVS, Score Academy

• Help out on a medical mission trip in a rural area

• Explore the performing or visual arts in greater depth

• Participate in immersive & responsible group travel (language immersion, conservation, sustainability, exotic cultural immersion, peace-building) – Where There Be Dragons and CIEE Global Navigator High School Study Abroad

Some summer programs are highly competitive, like M.I.T.’s Research Science Institute for six rigorous weeks of advanced math, science, and engineering; or Bank of America’s Student Leaders Program which awards paid internships in non-profit organizations; or Scripps High School Student Summer Internship

Program which provides hands-on biomedical research opportunities; or The Wharton School’s Leadership in the Business World for an introduction to a top-notch undergraduate business program for a select group of high school students; or the no-cost Telluride Association Summer Seminars for students who share a passion for studying history, politics, literature, art, and other intellectual and cultural in the context of Critical Black Studies or Anti-Oppressive Studies.  

Other selective summer programs that target high-achieving high school students include the following*:

• Anson L. Clark Scholars Program @ Texas Tech University Honors College*

• Awesome Math

• Beaver Works Summer Institute @ M.I.T.*

• Boston University − Research in Science & Engineering (RISE) ‒ Internship/Practicum (7% admit rate)*

• Canada/USA Mathcamp*

• Carnegie Mellon − Summer Academy for Math + Science (SAMS)

• Center for Excellence in Education − Research Science Institute (RSI)

• Engineering Summer Academy at Penn

• Foundation for Teaching Economics − Economics for Leaders (EFL)*

• Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program*

• Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSIM)*

• High School Honors Science, Math and Engineering Program @ Michigan State University*

• iD Tech Camps (M.I.T. campus)

• Iowa Young Writer’s Studio    

• Jackson Laboratory – Summer Student Program

• JCamp (Asian Journalists Association)*

• Kenyon Review – The Young Writers Workshop

• LaunchX (Entrepreneurial/Innovation Summer Programs)

• LLRISE: M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory Radar Introduction for Student Engineers*

• M.I.T. – Minority Introduction to Science & Engineering (MITES)

• MathILy – Bryn Mawr College*

• MDI Biological Laboratory Summer Research Fellowship

• Michigan Math and Science Scholars

• Princeton University Summer Journalism Program*

• Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS)

• Prove It! Math Academy*

• Secondary Student Training Program @ University of Iowa (SSTP)

• Simons Research Program @ Stonybrook University*

• Stanford Humanities Summer Program*

• Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR)

• Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SuMaC)*

• Student Science Training Program @ University of Florida (SSTP)*

• Summer Internship in Biomedical Research for High Scholl Students (SIP) @NIH Office of Intramural

• Training and Education

• Summer Science Program (SSP) – co-sponsored by M.I.T.

• Texas State Mathworks Honors Summer Math Camp*

• The Ross Mathematics Program*

• Tisch Summer High School Residential Program (Dance, Drama, Drama Production & Design,

• Dramatic Writing, Filmmaking, Game Design, Photography, Recorded Music)

• University of California Santa Barbara Research Mentorship Program

• University of Notre Dame − Leadership Seminars

• Women’s Technology Program (WTP) @ M.I.T.

• Yale Young Global Scholars

* Details for summer 2025 not yet available (as of 11/3/24) 

Other programs offer opportunities to almost any college-bound student who applies — and can be just as personally rewarding as those with competitive admissions — such as Summer Discovery, with its enrichment and academic offerings on over a dozen college campuses. Many of our nation’s top universities offer unique summer programs just for high-school students: you can take a high-calibre course for credit or for the pure enjoyment of learning – and your academics are complemented by a rich assortment of extracurricular activities. Additional programs are offered through state governors’ schools. And if you’ve got a younger sibling in middle school who wants to get an early taste of a college future, check out the programs offered through Explo and  SummerDiscovery at UCLA  or Georgetown.

Programs abound in almost every discipline you can imagine: visual and performing arts, sports journalism, aerospace engineering, fashion design, film-making, creative writing, graphic design, creative writing, social justice, career exploration, business, chemistry, sports management, Arabic, biology, government, law, medicine, math, public speaking, global studies… and the list goes on! 

Whatever you’d like to do over the summer, there’s probably a program for it – all you have to do is Google what you’re looking for: typing “summer pre-college program” will reveal a ton of offerings, many of which have taken the pandemic into account. But be careful about the true source of the summer opportunity you choose. Some organizations want to make a fast buck by offering programs of little substance. In some cases, a student can actually receive an “invitation” as though receiving a special chance participate in the extraordinary. Yes, there are some spectacular programs (Brown and Duke, for example), but not all such invitations are created equal.

Two very helpful search websites may point you in positive summer directions:

1). College Summer Program Lists Wiki, a free site that can invigorate your summer

program search process by providing a great list of links.

2). Spend time at Teen Life Summer Program Finder, a resource targeted at high school students and parents searching for pre-college opportunities. 

Participation in a summer program away from home isn’t essential for admission to a selective college

under current circumstances. Spending your summer competing athletically or working, volunteering, or

taking a local or virtual college or high school course for credit can prove just as productive. 

Start brainstorming now about what you’d like to be doing for the summer to make your future shine.

Choose carefully – and have fun, too! And if there aren’t enough choices for you in this email, there are lots of additional summer programs in the attached list.

And, of course, you can always contact us for ideas.  

P.S. These lists from College Transitions’ Dataverse have a lot of wonderful programs on them!

• Top Summer Programs for High School Students

• Business and Leadership

• Computer Science

• Law, Political Science, International Relations

• Performing & Visual Arts

• Pre-medicine

• Research

• STEM

• Writing and Journalism

Extracurricular Activity Ideas from College Transitions:

• Academic Competitions and Contests

• Research Opportunities

• Volunteer Opportunities