Updated November 2026
TL;DR
This guide rounds up 17 pre-college math programs for high schoolers, from free six-week research programs to paid university courses at places like Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia. Costs run from free to around $9,000 a session; most offer need-based financial aid, and 2027 deadlines mostly fall between December and May (a few schools haven’t posted their 2027 dates yet, so we’ve flagged those and noted the most recent cycle instead). Eligibility is almost always grades 9 through 12, though a handful of programs add age, citizenship, or residency rules. If you’d rather design your own math research question with a 1:1 mentor than sign up for a fixed course, you can look at the Horizon Academic Research Program.
If you are a high school student who enjoys mathematics and wants to explore topics beyond your school curriculum, consider applying to pre-college math programs! These programs let you explore areas such as algebra, geometry, number theory, computational mathematics, and mathematical research. This guide walks through 17 of them: what each one covers, who can apply, what it costs, and when to apply for 2027. For more self-paced or mentored options, see our list of online math research programs.
What kind of math program fits you?
| If you want | Look at |
|---|---|
| A real research project with a mentor | PROMYS, Mathroots, MITES Summer, SAMS |
| College credit while still in high school | Harvard Secondary School Program, Columbia Pre-College, Stanford Summer Session |
| To try a subject without a grade attached | Harvard Pre-College Program, Summer@Brown |
| Proof-based math beyond the school curriculum | MathILy, SUMaC, UChicago’s Proof-based Discrete Mathematics |
| A free or low-cost option | PROMYS (need-based free), MITES Summer, SAMS, Mathroots |
| A fully online format | Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes, Columbia’s online track |
When do applications open?
Deadlines on this list are scattered from December through May, and as of this writing in November 2026, several schools haven’t posted their 2027 dates yet. As a rough pattern (based on how the last two cycles have run, not a guarantee): the free, highly selective research programs tend to post December or January deadlines, while the paid university courses cluster later, from February through May.
Math Pre-College Summer Programs for High School Students
1. California State Summer School for Mathematics & Science (COSMOS)
Location: UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC San Diego, or UC Santa Cruz, CA
Cost: $5,518 plus a $46 application fee; covers housing, meals, activities, and field trips. Need-based financial aid is available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: July 5 – August 1, 2026)
Application Deadline: TBA (previous cycle: application window ran January 7 – February 6, 2026)
Eligibility: California residents entering grades 9–12. COSMOS is limited to California high schoolers.
COSMOS is a four-week residential program spread across six UC campuses, and you only apply to one. Each campus runs its own cluster of topics, so the math-adjacent options shift depending on where you land, think number theory, computational modeling, or math applied to biology, taught by the faculty who actually research that subject. You live on campus for the full four weeks, which means the program doubles as a preview of dorm life on top of the coursework.
Who is it right for? California high schoolers who want a month-long, lab-based deep dive without leaving the state.
2. Harvard Pre-College Program
Location: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Cost: $6,250 plus a $75 application fee
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: Session I: June 21–July 2, 2027; Session II: July 12–23, 2027; Session III: July 26–August 6, 2027
Application Deadline: Early: January 13, 2027; Regular: February 10, 2027; Late: March 31, 2027
Eligibility: Rising juniors and seniors graduating and entering college in 2028 or 2029, at least 16 by June 13, 2027, and not turning 19 before July 31, 2027
This is a two-week, non-credit residential program with close to 30 courses on offer, and math is one of the subject areas (exact course titles shift from year to year, so check the current course list). Classes meet three hours a day with two to four hours of homework, which is a real workload for two weeks, but there’s no letter grade attached, so you’re free to explore a topic purely out of curiosity.
Who is it right for? Students who want a short taste of campus life and one non-credit course, without the pressure of a transcript.
3. Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS)
Location: Boston University, Boston, MA
Cost: Up to $8,000 for the six-week residential program, depending on financial aid; free for domestic students whose families earn under $80,000 a year
Acceptance rate/cohort size: About 80 students (roughly 60 first-year, 20 returning)
Program Dates: June 27 – August 7, 2027
Application Deadline: End of February 2027 (exact date not yet set)
Eligibility: Completed 9th grade or its equivalent, at least 14 years old, not yet a full-time college or university student
PROMYS centers on daily number theory lectures and problem sets that build toward conjectures and proofs through actual numerical experimentation, not memorized formulas. First-year students work through foundational material, while returning students and strong newcomers can join advanced seminars on things like Galois theory or discrete dynamical systems. Some student work has gone on to be presented at conferences like the Joint Mathematics Meetings, which says something about how seriously the program treats the research side of things.
Who is it right for? Students who want six weeks of serious number theory and don’t want cost to be the deciding factor.
4. Summer@Brown — Financial Mathematics: Applications in Investment Analysis
Location: Brown University, Providence, RI, with an online option for some course lengths
Cost: Varies by course length and format. Financial aid is available.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: On-campus sessions typically run between mid-June and late July
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Students completing grades 9–12, aged 14–18 by the course start date
This course walks through probability theory, portfolio theory, Markov processes, and risk management, the kind of math that sits behind real trading and investment decisions. You’ll build financial simulations using actual historical data to estimate parameters rather than working from toy numbers, through a mix of lectures, group work, and presentations.
Who is it right for? Students curious about quant finance who want a short, non-credit introduction rather than a multi-week commitment.
5. Ross Mathematics Program
Location: Otterbein University, Columbus, OH, and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, IN
Cost: $7,500 for the six-week program, covering tuition, housing, and meals. Need-based financial aid is available.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: Six weeks, mid-June through late July
Application Deadline: TBA (previous cycle: March 8)
Eligibility: Pre-college students roughly 15–18 years old, from anywhere in the world
Ross skips lectures almost entirely in favor of handing you a sequence of connected number theory problems and letting you work through them over six weeks, spotting patterns, testing conjectures, and writing real proofs. You’ll meet daily in small “family groups” led by a counselor, but a lot of the real progress happens in the long stretches of independent problem-solving outside class.
Who is it right for? Students who like being handed a hard, open-ended problem and left to work through it slowly, rather than sitting through lectures.
6. University of Chicago Summer Session – Proof-based Discrete Mathematics
Location: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Cost: $9,300 for the three-week residential Immersion course. Need-based financial aid is available.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: Three weeks in summer
Application Deadline: Not specified; recent cycles have had a priority deadline in mid-February and a regular deadline in early-to-mid March
Eligibility: Current 9th through 11th graders, at least 14 years old
The course builds up from naive set theory and basic counting toward genuinely strange territory, like comparing the sizes of different infinities and working through the paradoxes that come with that. You’ll spend real time on proof-writing, not just getting the right answer, through daily lectures, small group work, and presenting your own arguments to the class.
Who is it right for? Students ready to think and argue in proofs, who want a preview of a UChicago-style class before committing to one in college.
7. Michigan Math and Science Scholars (MMSS)
Location: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Cost: $2,500. Limited need-based aid is available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: Not specified (the 2026 program ran three two-week sessions between late June and early August)
Application Deadline: Not specified (the portal has typically opened in January)
Eligibility: Students who’ve completed at least one year of high school and haven’t yet graduated (rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors)
Each MMSS session runs two weeks and sticks to one subject. The math options rotate year to year, past offerings have included Graph Theory, Mathematics and Music Theory, and the Mathematics of Elections and Games. Classes stay small, around 15 students, taught directly by University of Michigan faculty, with lab work and problem-solving woven through the lectures.
Who is it right for? Students who want to sample university-level material in a specific niche, like graph theory or game theory, in just two weeks.
8. Stanford Summer Session – Introduction to Probability Theory
Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Cost: Tuition is charged per unit (roughly $1,505 per unit in recent cycles) plus program, health, and document fees, so a full course load runs into the thousands.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: June 22 – August 13, 2026 (2027 dates not yet posted)
Application Deadline: The high school Regular Decision deadline has historically landed in mid-to-late January; confirm the exact 2027 date on Stanford’s site
Eligibility: Current high school sophomores, juniors, or seniors who won’t be entering Stanford as first-year students
This course lets you take an actual Stanford undergraduate class alongside Stanford students. You’ll study probability axioms, conditional probability and independence, then work with discrete models such as binomial and Poisson distributions and continuous models such as normal and exponential distributions. Expect a full undergraduate workload.
Who is it right for? Students who want an actual Stanford transcript and are ready for a full college course load, not a simplified high school version of one.
9. Summer Academy for Math and Science (SAMS) at CMU
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Free (fully funded)
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: Not specified (2026 cohort ran June 20 – August 1, 2026)
Application Deadline: Fully funded/scholarship track: February 1, 2027; basic (unfunded) track: March 1
Eligibility: Current high school juniors, at least 16 by the program start date, U.S. citizens or permanent residents
SAMS runs for six weeks and begins with a virtual jumpstart before you arrive on campus. Once there, you’ll attend seminars in quantitative and computational skills and work on a STEM research project with a faculty member or graduate student mentor. You’ll also take a credit-bearing course called “Student to Scholar,” which helps you adjust to college-level work. If you’re interested in combining math with AI or data science, you can also explore our list of AI competitions for high school students.
Who is it right for? U.S. juniors who want a fully funded six weeks at CMU and don’t mind a competitive, need-based application.
10. Harvard Secondary School Program
Location: On campus at Harvard University, online, or commuting
Cost: $4,180–15,980 plus a $75 application fee, depending on length and format
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: 4-week: Session I June 14–July 8, 2027, Session II July 12–August 5, 2027; 7-week: June 21–August 6, 2027
Application Deadline: Early: January 13, 2027; Regular: February 10, 2027; Late: March 31, 2027
Eligibility: Graduating and starting college in 2027, 2028, or 2029; at least 16 by June 13, 2027, and not turning 19 before July 31, 2027
Unlike the two-week Pre-College Program, this option lets you earn college credit. You’ll take one or two Harvard Summer School courses alongside college students and adult learners. The catalog offers more than 200 courses, including math and applied math. Past offerings have covered topics such as traffic modeling and disease spread, but the course list changes each year, so check the current catalog. You’ll receive a letter grade and a Harvard transcript after completing your courses.
Who is it right for? Students who want actual college credit and a transcript, not just a certificate of completion.
11. MITES Summer
Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Cost: Free; students cover their own transportation to and from MIT
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published; highly selective
Program Dates: Six weeks, typically late June through early August (exact 2027 dates not yet posted)
Application Deadline: February 1, 2027
Eligibility: Current high school juniors who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
MITES places you in up to five college-level courses at once, math, a life science, physics, humanities, and a project-based elective, with placement decided by a knowledge assessment during orientation. You get one-on-one mentoring from STEM professionals, tours of MIT labs, and a detailed written report at the end covering your strengths and areas to work on, which doubles as useful material for college applications. If you’d rather work inside an actual research lab than take coursework, our list of lab opportunities in Boston covers more of those.
Who is it right for? U.S. juniors, especially from under-resourced schools, who want a free six weeks across math, science, and humanities together.
12. Columbia Pre-College Programs – Thinking and Problem Solving: Math in the Real World
Location: Columbia University, New York, NY, or online
Cost: $2,868–12,838 per session depending on format and length
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published; Columbia doesn’t set a minimum GPA
Program Dates: Varies by session; the NYC Residential Summer’s Session A runs June 28 – July 16, 2027
Application Deadline: Early registration: February 1, 2027; general deadline: March 1, 2027 (residential); other formats have later windows
Eligibility: Students entering grades 9–12 the following school year, plus current 12th graders; NYC Residential applicants must be at least 16 by the start date
The course shows how math is used in real-world situations. You’ll explore algorithmic computing to find the best routes, probability in economics and media, combinatorics, and game theory concepts such as the prisoner’s dilemma.
Who is it right for? Students who want to see math applied across economics, computer science, and media rather than studied in the abstract.
13. MathILy
Location: Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA
Cost: $6,175; need-based financial aid is available, and MathILy has said it aims to meet full demonstrated need. 2027 pricing hasn’t been posted yet.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: About 45 students
Program Dates: TBA (previous cohort: June 28 – August 1, 2026)
Application Deadline: Rolling; the 2026 full-consideration deadline was April 28, 2026. The 2027 deadline isn’t posted yet.
Eligibility: High school students, roughly ages 14–17
MathILy follows a 2-1-2 structure. You spend the first two weeks in a foundational course called “Root Class,” followed by a middle week of short sessions led by students and instructors. The final two weeks focus on advanced topics through “Branch Classes.” Recent topics have included topological graph theory and discrete and computational geometry. At the end, you’ll also receive written feedback from your instructors based on your work during the program.
Who is it right for? Students who want proof-based math with a playful, unstructured streak, hence the name, and don’t need a rigid syllabus to stay engaged.
14. Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes – Discrete Mathematics
Location: Online (synchronous)
Cost: $3,080. Need-based financial aid is available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: Two weeks; the 2026 sessions ran in mid-June and in early-to-mid July
Application Deadline: Not yet posted for 2027 (2026’s deadline fell in mid-March)
Eligibility: Students in grades 8–11
This is a fully online, live course covering number theory, cryptography (including how RSA and Diffie-Hellman actually work), complexity theory, the Pigeonhole principle, and graph theory topics like planarity and shortest-path algorithms. You’ll also work through proof by induction and by contradiction, with daily problem sets and two hours of live instruction a day.
Who is it right for? Students who want a focused two-week online course rather than a multi-week residential commitment.
15. Young Scholars Program (YSP) at the University of Chicago
Location: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Cost: A sliding fee based on family income (recent cycles have run roughly $250–1,000); financial assistance is available for eligible students
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published
Program Dates: Not yet posted for 2027 (the 2026 program ran roughly late June through late July)
Application Deadline: Not yet posted for 2027 (recent cycles have closed in mid-April)
Eligibility: Students entering grades 7–12
YSP splits students into three cohorts by grade band and builds the curriculum around deep exploration into topics the standard sequence skips, geometry, topology, combinatorics, probability, and number theory among them. Each weekday runs four 75-minute sessions: two faculty-taught lectures and a small group session led by an undergraduate math major. If you’re in the area and want more options, our list of research programs for high school students in Michigan covers a different region with a similar mix of free and paid programs.
Who is it right for? Chicago-area students, or those who can commute, who want a four-week day program built around real mathematical exploration rather than test prep.
16. Mathroots at MIT
Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Cost: Free; limited travel scholarships are available for students with financial need
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not published; selective
Program Dates: Not yet posted for 2027 (the 2026 cohort ran July 1–15)
Application Deadline: Not yet posted for 2027 (2026’s deadline was March 3)
Eligibility: Ages 14–18, U.S. citizens or students attending high school in the U.S., not yet in their final year of high school
Run by MIT PRIMES, MathRoots covers topics you won’t usually find in a school math curriculum. Topics include noncommutative algebra, representation theory, graph theory, and the social and cultural history of mathematics. You’ll study these through classes, group work, and guest lectures by MIT faculty and students. The focus is on developing problem-solving strategies and learning how to write mathematical proofs rather than rushing through a syllabus.
Who is it right for? Students newer to proof-based math who want MIT mentorship but aren’t ready for a full research program yet.
17. Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC)
Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA, or online
Cost: Online ran about $3,580 and residential about $8,575 in 2026. Financial aid is available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: 40 residential spots, 64 online spots
Program Dates: TBA (2026’s online sessions ran mid-June through late July; residential ran late June through mid-July)
Application Deadline: Not yet posted for 2027 (2026’s deadline was February 3, 2026)
Eligibility: Students in grades 10–11 at the time of application; those who’d be 18 or older during the program can only apply to the online track
SUMaC offers two tracks. Program I explores five major problems in mathematics, including why you cannot trisect an angle using only a compass and straightedge and how error-correcting codes work. Program II focuses on algebraic topology, a field that is still part of active research. Both tracks include guided research and cover topics that are rarely taught before graduate school. If you’re also interested in math competitions, check out our list of online math competitions.
Who is it right for? Juniors and seniors who want one specific, research-adjacent topic studied in real depth rather than a broad survey.
Comparing by cost
| Cost tier | Programs |
|---|---|
| Free, or free for most applicants | PROMYS (need-based), MITES Summer, SAMS, Mathroots |
| Under $3,500 | UChicago YSP (sliding scale), MMSS, Stanford Pre-Collegiate Discrete Math, SUMaC Online |
| $3,500–7,500 | MathILy, Ross, COSMOS, Harvard Pre-College Program |
| $7,500 and up | UChicago Immersion, Harvard Secondary School Program, Columbia Pre-College, SUMaC Residential, Stanford Summer Session |
If cost is the deciding factor, start with the free row, all four of those are research-focused and need-based aid tends to cover a meaningful chunk of the paid options too.
If you’re a sophomore, the online and two-week programs are a more realistic entry point than the six-week residential research programs, most of which lean toward juniors. For more free research options outside pure math, our list of competitive summer research opportunities is worth a look too.
A few tips before you apply
Most of these programs ask for a transcript, at least one teacher recommendation, and some kind of math sample, whether that’s an essay, a problem set, or an entrance exam. Start those early. A recommendation letter requested in January for a February deadline tends to be thinner than one requested in November.
For the research-heavy programs especially, PROMYS, Ross, Mathroots, and similar, admissions committees are reading your math work more than your resume. If a program includes a problem set or qualifying exam, that’s the part worth spending real time on, more than the personal essay.
If you’re applying to more than one program with overlapping deadlines, double check you’re not signing away your spot somewhere else. A few of these (Ross and SUMaC, for instance) expect a real time commitment once you accept, and backing out after committing can affect future applications to the same program.
Want to design your own math research question?
Every program on this list hands you a fixed curriculum or a problem set someone else wrote. If you’d rather pick your own question and work through it start to finish, the Horizon Academic Research Program pairs you one-on-one with a professor or PhD scholar.
Questions you might still have about these math programs
Not for most of them. Several of the more research-focused options build from number theory and proof-writing rather than calculus, so strong algebra and geometry are usually enough to get started. A few of the college-credit courses do list specific prerequisite classes on their syllabus pages, so it’s worth checking the individual course page before you apply.
It depends on the program. The six-week research-style programs on this list pair you with a mentor and expect an original paper or project by the end, while the college-credit and pre-college courses are closer to a compressed university class with problem sets and exams. If a published paper matters to you, look specifically for the programs built around independent or mentored research. The college-credit courses end in a grade and a transcript, not a paper you could submit anywhere.
Yes. A handful of the most research-intensive six-week programs on this list don’t charge anything at all, and need-based aid brings most of the paid options down significantly for qualifying families. The priciest programs tend to be the ones offering university credit, since part of what you’re paying for is the transcript.
Most of them, yes, since they’re residential programs tied to a specific campus, though a few run fully online or offer a virtual track. If a fully remote, mentor-led option sounds better than a fixed campus program, the Horizon Academic Research Program runs entirely online and pairs you with a professor or PhD scholar to write your own research paper.
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