2021 Summer Programs with March Deadlines

If you’ve missed the January and February deadlines for 2021 summer programs, no need to fear! There are many acclaimed summer programs with applications that close as late as March 17, meaning you still have time to collect your supplementary materials, snag those recommendation letters, and craft your application essays for these upcoming summer programs. Here’s a list of some summer programs with March application deadlines that might catch your interest:

1. The UCSB Research Mentorship Program is a competitive research mentorship summer program for highly-qualified high school students, spanning a wide range of 24 academic disciplines, from anthropology and economics to neuroscience and music. Every accepted student is paired with an experienced mentor and given the choice of a hands-on, interdisciplinary research project to work on for the duration of the six-week program. Forging deep mentor relationships, practicing research techniques firsthand, learning about future professional research-based opportunities, and experiencing the undergraduate and graduate lifestyle—participants in the UCSB Research Mentorship Program gain invaluable experiences for their academic and career-oriented lives down the road. The Summer 2021 Program will be held virtually, and applications are due March 15th. 

2. The Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop, planned to operate entirely virtually this summer, gives high school writers from ages 16 to 18 the chance to refine their craft in a series of dynamic, insightful writing workshops. Three week-long workshops are offered and students can attend one, two, or all three: Words and Wonders (exploration of language and word choice), Writing Across Worlds (scenes and worlds, strange or otherwise), and Observation Meets Imagination (works of science fiction, journalism, scientific research, and the like). Participating student writers not only grow in their writing under their instructors’ tutelage, but also grow with their like-minded peers, and get the chance to attend visiting writer readings, open mics, participant readings, and craft talks in the afternoons after the workshops themselves. Applications are due March 1st.

3. The Stanford Summer Humanities Institute is a two-week summer enrichment program where rising high school juniors and seniors can gather under the guidance of Stanford professors and parse out the big interdisciplinary questions explored by the humanities. As Humanities Scholars, students study the humanities at the college level with other bright, passionate students, and experience humanities research first hand at a top university, studying topics from Revolutions to Magical Realism to Ancient Rome and more. Applications close March 10th.

4. The UC Davis Young Scholars Program is a summer research program that selects forty high-achieving high school applicants from ages 16 to 18 each year to conduct research projects with expert faculty and research groups over a six-week period, with subjects ranging across all kinds of sciences, including biological and environmental. Each student's research period culminates in an individual research project, a journal-quality research paper, and a symposium presentation showcasing their own work. Students also gain technology and professionalism training, attend other social and learning activities outside of mini-classes and research, and experience the pacing of college-level learning and social life. Applications are due March 15th.

5. The Stanford Earth Young Investigators Program offers summer research internships to STEM-minded high school students with expert one-on-one guidance at laboratories at the Stanford School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. There are a variety of research internship topics to choose from, such as biodiversity or geology, each with their own specific time commitments and expectations, and students learn outside of the research setting as well, with group talks, lab tours, and field trips every week. Applications open in late January, and are currently expected to close March 15th.

6. The Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Programs are a collection of pre-collegiate summer programs for high school juniors and seniors, who can choose from a large variety of academic disciplines (computational biology, music, computer science, and design, to name just a few) and study at an undergraduate level under skilled Carnegie Mellon faculty and staff. Programs are carefully curated for each specific discipline to give students the best experience possible; for example, the architecture program involves intensive coursework in both digital and analog mediums and focuses on theory and practice alike, whereas the game academy program places students in interdisciplinary teams and offers multifaceted lectures and discussions that combine aspects of programming, arts and design, engineering, and more to create innovative video games. Applications are due March 17th.

If you find any of these 2021 summer programs interesting or aligned with your interests, then pull up their application information, start checking off the application requirements, and prepare yourself for an engaging summer experience!