Four Selective Summer Programmes to Apply to

Summer programmes are a great way to indulge your desire to travel, explore and learn. In your last two years before college, when you’re still deciding majors and colleges, it makes sense to use the holidays to acquaint yourself with the challenges ahead.

Selective summer programmes not only offer a chance for you to distinguish yourself but also an opportunity to interact with top faculty members and passionate students from around the world.

Telluride Association Summer Programme (TASP)

Perhaps the most prestigious programme on this list, it boasts of an extremely selective application process, said by some to be more competitive than the Ivy League colleges.
With a dismal acceptance rate floating around five percent, only students with strong standardised test scores and excellent academic records are invited to apply for this programme.

It offers a six week educational experience for high school students offering intellectual stimulations rarely found in secondary school education or even in college. This is done under the aegis of college and university faculty members who conduct regular seminars and organise educational and social activities outside of the classroom.

Notable former ‘TASPers’ or Telluride House members include literary critic Gayatri Spivak, Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman and renowned political economist Francis Fukuyama among many others.

Best time to send in your applications is before January.

Find more information here.

MIT CEE Research Science Institute (RSI)

A highly competitive summer research programme for rising high school seniors around the world, it is a six week camp for which typically, around 80 students are selected (50 from the U.S. and 30 from other countries).
It is notable for the RSI Distinguished Lecture Series which follows an evening lecture format, conducted by noted professors and scientists, a number of whom are Nobel Laureates.

A fully funded initiative, its alumni have found recognition in many international forums such as the Rhodes scholarship and Marshall scholarship and so on.

Best time to send in your applications is before December-January.

Find more information here.

Stanford Mathematics Camp

A highly competitive summer math programme for rising high school seniors and juniors around the world, it focusses on imparting instruction on advanced undergraduate math topics instead of Olympiad math.

Held for four weeks, usually July-August, it consists of two parts – Program 1 and Program 2. Together, they are meant to engage students in problems in abstract algebra, number theory and geometric topology.

With globally renowned mathematicians rounding up as guest lecturers and Stanford graduate and undergraduate math students as teaching assistants. The programme aims to fully nurture young talent in mathematics.

Best to apply before January-February.

Deadline: March 4, 2015

Find more information here.

U Penn Management & Technology Summer Institute (M&TSI)

A for-credit summer programme for 50 rising high school seniors (and a select few rising juniors) interested in the integration of management doctrines and technological concepts, it is held on Penn campus every year.

The programme is composed of three major aspects – the group project, lab work and business instruction. The group project involves a team of five students working over the three week duration to conceive a product idea in consumer electronics.

Deadline: March 1, 2015

It would be advisable to apply before January-February.

Find more information here.