TL;DR: The Syracuse sports analytics summer program is the Berlin Sport Analytics Academy, a two-week course at Syracuse University run by its Office of Pre-College Programs. This page covers eligibility, what you actually do, cost and aid, dates, how competitive it is, and other routes into sports analytics. Syracuse hasn’t posted 2027 dates yet, and last cycle’s applications opened in mid-December, so start planning now. Is cost, travel, or not feeling technical enough holding you back? See how Horizon’s online research program works.
What is the Syracuse sports analytics summer program?
The Syracuse sports analytics summer program is the Berlin Sport Analytics Academy, a two-week, noncredit course for high school students at Syracuse University in New York. Noncredit means you don’t earn college credits for it. The Office of Pre-College Programs runs it, and it’s housed in the Department of Sport Management at the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. You can attend as a residential student, living in a campus dorm, or as a commuter who goes home each night. Classes run Monday to Friday, and Syracuse says the academy has operated since 2019.
Sport analytics means using data to answer questions about sports, like which players add the most value or which strategies win more games. A dataset is an organized table of that information, such as every pitch thrown in a season. Syracuse spells it “sport analytics” without the s, so you’ll see both versions online. Syracuse names a basic understanding of analytics in sport as the goal, and it doesn’t list coding as a requirement.
Why Syracuse? Falk College says its sport analytics bachelor’s degree was the first of its kind in the country within a professional sport management program, so this academy comes from a department built around the field.
Who can apply?
The details below are from Syracuse’s 2026 Summer College rules, the latest it has published. Expect the graduating class named below to roll forward to 2027 when the page updates.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Grade level | Rising high school sophomore, junior, or senior (“rising” means you’ve just finished the year before), or a 2026 graduate who isn’t starting at Syracuse in the fall |
| Age | At least 15 by your move-in date |
| GPA | Good academic standing with a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale |
| Prior math or coding | None listed. You do need your own Windows or Mac laptop; tablets, phones, and Chromebooks aren’t supported |
| Location or residency | No residency rule listed. Residential and commuter options are both offered |
| Citizenship | No citizenship rule listed. International students can apply and show English proficiency if English isn’t their school’s language of instruction |
Source: Syracuse University, re-checked October 25, 2026.
The requirement most likely to rule you out is the 3.0 GPA. If you’re below it, Syracuse recommends adding a letter of recommendation from a teacher, counselor, or coach (family members don’t count). The application also asks for a 250 to 500 word essay, a transcript with at least one full year of grades, and a $65 nonrefundable fee.
What do you actually do in the program?
Days mix lectures, guest speakers, and programming. Syracuse says you should leave able to calculate common sports statistics, work in spreadsheets and databases, and use two tools called R and Tableau. R is a free programming language for data analysis. Tableau is software that turns data into charts and dashboards. A typical day runs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a morning lecture, about an hour and a half for lunch, a guest speaker, then programming and group work.
Field trips are part of it. Syracuse lists the National Baseball Hall of Fame and pro and minor league teams as examples, and a 2024 news story from Falk College mentions the Syracuse Crunch, the Syracuse Mets, and an esports day. Required reading is Moneyball by Michael Lewis.
You’ll leave with these skills:
- Calculating and interpreting common sports statistics used in North America and around the world
- Using spreadsheets and databases (a database is an organized collection of tables you can search)
- Using R to clean data, run basic linear regressions (a method that measures how one thing, like shots taken, relates to another, like goals), try simple machine learning (teaching a computer to spot patterns), and graph results
- Building charts and dashboards of sports data in Tableau
This is an introduction, not an advanced statistics course. Syracuse frames the goal as a basic understanding, and its learning goals start at spreadsheets. Even so, it covers a lot of ground in two weeks. The course page describes group work and time to investigate on your own, but it doesn’t describe a final project, so don’t count on a finished portfolio piece unless you build one yourself.
What does it cost and is there aid?
For 2026, the two-week noncredit course cost $4,995 as a residential student and $4,024 as a commuter. Those rates include program fees, room, meals, and lab and activity fees. They don’t include the textbook, supplies, linens, or dorm items. There’s also a $65 application fee and a $500 deposit due a week after acceptance, and both are nonrefundable. Syracuse says its Board of Trustees approves rates in March, so 2027 prices aren’t published. Compare that with other options in our list of 12 paid summer research programs for high school students.
Syracuse offers merit scholarships and need-based help worth up to 25% of the cost. Merit awards are open to everyone, including international students, and you apply through an extra essay in the application. Need-based help is only for US citizens and permanent residents whose family adjusted gross income is $100,000 or less, and you upload tax returns. Discounts are 15% for siblings, alumni families, Syracuse employees’ children, and Central New York residents living on campus, and 35% for military families and Native American and Indigenous students. You can use only one award, funds are limited, and they go first come, first served. Questions go to the Office of Pre-College Programs at 315.443.5000.
Travel isn’t in the published rates, and for students outside New York State it’s usually the uncosted part.
Dates and deadlines
Syracuse hasn’t posted 2027 dates or deadlines yet, so this table shows the 2026 cycle as a guide to timing. Check the official course page for updates.
| Stage | When |
|---|---|
| Application opens | December 15, 2025 |
| Scholarship and financial assistance deadline | March 1, 2026 |
| Application deadline | May 1, 2026 (decisions come 2 to 4 weeks after you apply) |
| Deposit | $500, one week after your acceptance letter |
| Full payment due | May 1, 2026 (April 1, 2026 for international students) |
| Session I | July 5 to July 17, 2026 |
| Session II | July 19 to July 31, 2026 |
Source: Syracuse University, re-checked October 25, 2026.
Dates move each year, so treat these as a pattern, not a promise. Syracuse reviews applications on a rolling basis, meaning it decides as they arrive, and every course has an enrollment limit, so applying early is the safer plan.
How competitive is it?
Syracuse doesn’t publish an acceptance rate for the academy, so we won’t guess one. Its pages do say that courses have enrollment limits and applications are reviewed in the order they arrive. The 2024 Syracuse news story says dozens of students from across the country took part, which points to a small group rather than a big lecture hall. Scholarship money is limited, and Syracuse warns it can run out.
Beyond the listed requirements (a 3.0 GPA, an essay, and a transcript), Syracuse doesn’t describe how it ranks applicants. So the honest answer is that it’s selective enough to have limits, but there’s no published number to quote.
Compared with free, highly selective research programs, cost-based programs like this one are usually less of a lottery. Our guide to competitive research programs for high school students covers the free ones.
What you should know before applying
- College credit: None. The course is noncredit and graded pass/fail, though you get a Certificate of Completion and can request a Syracuse noncredit transcript.
- Does it lead anywhere at Syracuse? Syracuse’s pages don’t say the academy gives you an admissions edge. Think of it as a preview of the sport analytics major.
- Daily schedule: Class runs 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, with about an hour and a half for lunch. Syracuse says times can change, and Summer College activities happen after class and on weekends.
- What you’ll have to show: The certificate, an optional transcript, and whatever you build yourself with R, Excel, and Tableau.
A summer program shows colleges you’re curious, but it doesn’t replace your grades or your own work. Paying for a seat isn’t the same as winning an award, and admissions readers tend to care more about what you did with the topic afterward. If you do this program, follow it with a project of your own. For a closer look at how colleges see these programs, read Do Summer Research Programs Actually Help with College Admissions?.
Other routes into sports analytics as a high schooler
Sports analytics is a field where you can build something real without anyone’s permission. The data is free, the tools are free, and the people hiring analysts care about what you’ve analyzed. These are good places to start:
- NFL Big Data Bowl on Kaggle: Kaggle is a site that hosts data competitions. The ninth annual edition is open now with a shared $100,000 prize pool, a mentorship program, and student-focused regional events. Read the rules for who can enter each track.
- Retrosheet: free play-by-play data (a record of every play) for more than 200,000 MLB games.
- Lahman Baseball Database: free season-by-season batting, pitching, and fielding stats, explained on the SABR data page.
- StatsBomb Open Data: free soccer event data on GitHub, a site where people share code. Credit StatsBomb if you publish your work.
- statsbombpy: a public Python code package that pulls that soccer data straight into your analysis. Posting your own code on GitHub lets others check your work.
Here’s a project you can finish in a weekend: pick one team or one season, ask one question, answer it with public data, and write it up. For example, did the MLB teams that stole the most bases last season score more runs? Pull one season from the Lahman database, compare stolen bases with runs scored in a spreadsheet or R, make one chart, and write 500 words on what the data shows and what it can’t tell you.
For more options, see Sports Analytics Summer Programs for High School Students and 15 Free Databases Every Student Researcher Should Use.
If you’d like a mentor guiding the work, a sports analytics question can become the basis of a research paper at Horizon. Horizon runs online and year-round: you work with a PhD scholar or professor on a question you choose and finish with a college-level research paper. It’s a different experience from a campus program, with no dorm stay or field trips, but you leave with a finished piece of your own analysis to show colleges. Apply to Horizon’s online research program to get started.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Syracuse sports analytics summer program?
It’s the Berlin Sport Analytics Academy, a two-week noncredit course at Syracuse University run by the Office of Pre-College Programs. See the first section above for the full picture.
How much does it cost?
For 2026, $4,995 residential or $4,024 commuter, plus a $65 application fee. Syracuse hasn’t published 2027 prices. Travel and the textbook cost extra.
Who is eligible?
Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors, plus recent graduates not starting at Syracuse. You must be 15 by move-in, with a 3.0 GPA expected.
Is it competitive?
Syracuse doesn’t publish an acceptance rate. Seats are limited and applications are reviewed in order, so apply early.
Do you get college credit?
No. It’s noncredit and pass/fail. You get a Certificate of Completion and can request a noncredit transcript.
Do you need coding experience?
Syracuse doesn’t list it as a requirement. The course teaches R and Tableau, so a little spreadsheet practice beforehand helps.
Can international students apply?
Yes. Applicants whose school isn’t taught in English must show English proficiency, and they can get merit scholarships and discounts. For noncredit courses, Syracuse says to enter on a visitor visa or ESTA.
How do I get into sports analytics without a program?
Pick a free dataset, ask one question, and publish your answer. Retrosheet, StatsBomb, and the NFL Big Data Bowl all offer free data. See the other routes section above.
Start with one question and one dataset
Can’t get to Syracuse, or can’t justify the cost? Sports analytics rewards people who have actually analyzed something, and the data is free. Pick a team, ask a question, and answer it. If you’d like guidance and a finished research paper, apply to Horizon or join a Horizon info session.
Resources
External sources
- Sport Analytics B.S., Falk College, Syracuse University
- Sport Analytics (Berlin Sport Analytics Academy), Office of Pre-College Programs, Syracuse University
- Cost and Aid Information, Summer College: On Campus, Office of Pre-College Programs, Syracuse University
- Summer College: On Campus application dates and requirements, Office of Pre-College Programs, Syracuse University
- International Students, Office of Pre-College Programs, Syracuse University
- Immersive College Preview, Falk College, Syracuse University
- Big Data Bowl, NFL Football Operations
- NFL Big Data Bowl 2027, Kaggle
- Parsed Play-by-Play Data, Retrosheet
- How to Find Raw Data, Society for American Baseball Research
- StatsBomb Open Data, StatsBomb, GitHub
- statsbombpy, StatsBomb, GitHub