TL;DR
You’ll find 19 astrophysics programs below, each with its cost, dates, deadline, location, and exactly who’s eligible to apply. A program teaches you how stars work or provides a surface level learning of astrophysics. Horizon has you answer a question about them. You’ll work one-on-one with a PhD mentor on tracks built around real Kepler, SDSS, and cosmic microwave background data, and finish with a research paper. It’s fully online, cohorts start throughout the year.
Astrophysics is physics applied to things you can’t touch. You study stars, galaxies, black holes, and planets around other suns using the light they send us, and you turn that light into numbers. Which means most of the work is math and code. A telescope collects photons. You write the script that turns those photons into a temperature, a distance, or an orbit.
How much math and physics do you need for an astrophysics program?
Some programs will teach you everything from scratch. REACH just wants a firm grasp of algebra. COSMOS builds all the Python into the curriculum. The Pulsar Science Collaboratory hands you a free radio astronomy course before you touch any data. And Horizon sets no math prerequisite at all, just a 3.67 unweighted GPA, since its astronomy tracks run on machine learning rather than calculus.
Research programs want to see coursework you’ve already finished. The Summer Science Program is the clearest about it: physics and precalculus, done or in progress by June, taken for credit and a grade. RSI suggests a PSAT Math score of 740 or higher, though it doesn’t require test scores at all.
University courses set their own bar, one course at a time. Columbia’s Special Relativity course asks for a year of algebra and a year of physics. Its Geometric Topology course asks for Algebra 1. Harvard’s relativity course wants calculus. So check the course page rather than the program page, and you’ll usually find one that fits where you are.
Here’s what nobody tells you though. The math that matters most in astrophysics isn’t calculus, it’s coding. Want a head start? Learn to plot a graph from a CSV file. That one skill opens more doors than a semester of anything else, and our guide to research programs for complete beginners has the rest.
What would you actually work on?
| If you’re interested in | What you’d actually do | Programs that put you there |
| Exoplanets | Spot the tiny dip in a star’s brightness when a planet crosses in front of it, then work out that planet’s size and how long its year lasts | SEES, GMU, AMNH, Horizon |
| Stars and how they die | Work out why a star twice as heavy lives a tenth as long, using robotic telescopes and Python | UChicago, COSMOS |
| Asteroids and the solar system | Observe a near-Earth asteroid on a professional telescope, reduce the images, compute its orbit, and submit it to the NASA-funded Minor Planet Center | Summer Science Program |
| Pulsars and radio astronomy | Sift archived Green Bank and Arecibo data for a dead star spinning hundreds of times a second that nobody has spotted yet | Pulsar Science Collaboratory |
| Galaxies and the early universe | Read SDSS galaxy spectra for what a galaxy is made of and how fast it’s moving away, or simulate light from 380,000 years after the Big Bang | Columbia, Horizon |
Now, if none of these grabs you yet, that’s useful information. Browse our 49 research topics, 200 STEM research topics, and interdisciplinary project ideas before you pick a program, not after. A student who doesn’t know what they’d study can’t evaluate programs yet.
Online vs in person astrophysics programs
Astrophysics is the one science where online isn’t a compromise. There’s no wet lab to miss. The data comes down from a telescope and lands in a file, and that file opens the same in a dorm room or your kitchen. Several of the online options here are also free. You’ll find them at the Pulsar Science Collaboratory, Horizon, SEES virtual projects, Columbia, UChicago, Cornell, UC Irvine, and Harvard’s Secondary School Program.
In person programs lets you use a telescope you physically point, which SSP, YSPA, REACH, and GMU all provide. The other is a campus full of people who care about this as much as you do, which matters more than most students expect.
Free astrophysics programs for high school students
1. Pulsar Science Collaboratory
Location: Fully online.
Cost: Free.
Dates: Rolling, year round. Courses start through the year, with one beginning in late September 2026.
Application deadline: None. There’s no application and no selection.
Eligibility: Students aged 13 and up. No citizenship, residency, or GPA requirement is published.
You make an account, join a team, and work through a free training course in pulsar science and radio astronomy. Then you get access to archived data from the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the former Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and you search it for pulsars nobody has found yet. Teams coordinate on Discord and run a journal club.
Who is it right for? Anyone who wants to start doing astrophysics this week instead of waiting nine months for a decision letter.
2. Physics of Atomic Nuclei (PAN) at FRIB
Location: Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.
Cost: Free, with free room and board on campus if you need it.
Dates: PAN 2027 is planned for July 18 to 23, 2027.
Application deadline: Early March. The application posts each December, and the exact 2027 date is not published yet.
Eligibility: Students in grades 9 to 12 in the US.
This is nuclear astrophysics, which is the study of how atomic nuclei build the elements inside stars. You spend a week at one of the world’s leading rare-isotope labs, sitting in lectures from FRIB researchers and running nuclear physics experiments. Its partner institute is the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, so the astrophysical framing is built in, not bolted on.
Who is it right for? A student in grades 9 or 10 who wants lab exposure before committing to a longer program, and who can get to Michigan.
3. Summer Science Program (SSP) in Astrophysics
Location: Seven campuses hosted the 2026 astrophysics cohorts, including Albion College, Georgia College & State University, Linfield University, UW River Falls, Colby College, Lehigh University, and Knox College. The 2027 campus list is not published yet.
Cost: $11,800 for the 2026 cycle, charged on a sliding scale by family income. Families under about $100,000 typically attend free with travel covered. Under about $140,000 usually means a partial discount. A limited number of $3,000 lost-wages stipends are also available. The 2027 fee is not published.
Dates: The 2026 sessions ran for five weeks between June 8 and August 1. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: January 29 for international applicants and February 19 for domestic applicants in the 2026 cycle. SSP says the 2027 cycle opens in winter 2026 with deadlines in January or February 2027.
Eligibility: Current high school juniors, at least 15 and not yet 19 during the program. You must have completed or be completing physics and precalculus by June, taken for credit and a grade. Self-study does not qualify.
Everyone in the astrophysics program works the same problem: determine the orbit of a near-Earth asteroid. You take your own observations on a professional telescope, reduce the images, do the math, and submit your orbit to the NASA-funded Minor Planet Center. Five weeks, one question, a real answer that goes into a real database.
Who is it right for? A junior who’s finished physics and precalculus and wants the most rigorous single project on this page.
4. Research Science Institute (RSI)
Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Cost: Free. Educational, housing, and dining expenses are all covered.
Dates: The 2026 program ran June 28 to August 8. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: December 10 for the 2026 cycle. The published rule is early to mid-December, typically the Wednesday of the second full week. The 2027 date is not published.
Eligibility: Current juniors only. Seniors are explicitly not eligible. You must be 16 by July 1. Open to US citizens, permanent residents, and international students from participating countries.
RSI takes 100 students and accepts under 2.5% of more than 3,100 applicants, which makes it the most selective program on this page by a wide margin. The six weeks break into one week of intensive STEM classes, five weeks of research with a working scientist, and a final week writing and rehearsing your presentation.
Who is it right for? A junior with a national-level academic record who’s prepared for a December deadline and a very likely rejection.
5. Simons Summer Research Program
Location: Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY.
Cost: No tuition or fees, and a stipend is awarded at the closing symposium. The amount is not published. You pay your own housing if you dorm, and your own transport and meals if you commute.
Dates: June 29 to August 7 in the 2026 cycle. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: February 5 for the 2026 cycle. Stony Brook says 2027 applications post in late November 2026.
Eligibility: Current juniors, at least 16 by the program start, US citizens or permanent residents. You cannot apply on your own. Your school has to nominate you, and each school may nominate a maximum of two students, with no exceptions.
You pick your top three faculty mentors, then join a research group as an actual member of the team rather than an observer. The summer ends with a poster symposium where the stipend is handed out.
Who is it right for? A junior whose school will back them, who lives close enough to Long Island to commute or can cover a dorm.
6. Anson L. Clark Scholars Program
Location: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.
Cost: Free. Room, board, on-campus meals, and weekend activities are covered, and you receive a $750 stipend on completing your research report.
Dates: June 21 to August 6 in the 2026 cycle, seven weeks. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: February 16 for the 2026 cycle. The 2027 date is not published.
Eligibility: Rising seniors and recent high school graduates, at least 17 by the program start, graduating within roughly the next year. US citizens and permanent residents only.
Twelve students a year, one-on-one with a faculty researcher, plus weekly seminars and field trips. On selectivity per dollar, nothing else here comes close.
Who is it right for? A rising senior who wants a real one-on-one research placement and is happy for it to be physics rather than astronomy specifically.
Astrophysics programs tied to where you live
7. Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) at AMNH
Location: American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, with part of the summer component at Black Rock Forest.
Cost: Free, with a $2,500 stipend on completing the research and program requirements. You’re also eligible for one CUNY Lehman College credit at no cost.
Dates: A full year, August to June. It opens with a roughly four-week Summer Institute running weekdays 10am to 4pm, then runs twice weekly after school through the academic year, four hours a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, plus one or two Fridays a month.
Application deadline: Not published. AMNH says applications for the Class of 2028 are expected to open in winter 2027, with interviews in April and decisions by the end of May.
Eligibility: You must live and go to school in New York City, be in 10th or 11th grade, and have passed your classes for the last three or more semesters. You also need either a completed or in-progress designated course or attendance at one of 50-plus partner schools.
Twenty projects run each year across the Museum’s sciences, and astrophysics is explicitly one of them. Two current projects use James Webb data on giant exoplanets and on sand clouds in exoplanet atmospheres, each with a named AMNH mentor. You work in a team of two or three with that scientist and present a poster and a talk at the SRMP Colloquium in early June.
Who is it right for? A New York City sophomore or junior who wants depth and can protect two afternoons a week for a year.
8. COSMOS Cluster 4: Introduction to Astrophysics, UC Davis
Location: UC Davis, CA. Residential, and living on campus is required.
Cost: $5,518 for the 2026 cycle, non-refundable, covering housing, meals, field trips and activities. Plus a $46 non-refundable application fee. Financial assistance exists, and the amounts and criteria are not published. The 2027 fee is not published.
Dates: July 5 to August 1 in the 2026 cycle, four weeks. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: February 6 for the 2026 cycle, having opened January 7. The 2027 date is not published.
Eligibility: California high school students only, rising 9th through rising 12th graders. Out-of-state students cannot apply at all. No minimum GPA is published, though UC Davis says the average applicant’s unweighted GPA is around 3.8 with an emphasis on math and science grades.
Cluster 4 is a four-course sequence: Foundations of Astronomy, Star and Planet Formation, Stellar Evolution, and Introduction to Cosmology. Research projects use Python, and UC Davis teaches every programming skill you’ll need, so you can come in with none.
Who is it right for? A California student, especially a younger one, who wants four weeks of structured astrophysics with the coding taught from scratch.
Paid astrophysics research programs open to students anywhere
9. Yale Summer Program in Astrophysics (YSPA)
Location: Yale University, New Haven, CT, based at the Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium.
Cost: $8,000 for the 2025 cycle, which is the only figure Yale publishes. The 2026 and 2027 tuition is not published. Need-based aid is limited and for admitted students only, typically a 50% tuition remission with awards of up to 80% depending on funds and need.
Dates: In the 2026 cycle, online preparatory study ran June 22 to July 3 at two to four hours a day, then a residential program July 5 to August 2. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: March 6 for the 2026 cycle. The 2027 date is not published.
Eligibility: Rising seniors, who apply as juniors. You must be older than 15.5 by the start of the residential program. International students are welcome with English proficiency. Two teacher recommendations and a transcript are required.
Thirty-two students, working in teams of four. You use Yale’s 0.4-meter telescope and remote observatories in New Mexico, California, Chile, and Australia, plus a radio telescope. The summer ends with a co-authored scientific paper presented at the YSPA mini-conference with feedback from Yale astronomy faculty.
Who is it right for? A rising senior who wants a co-authored paper and four weeks on a telescope, and whose family can cover several thousand dollars or make a strong aid case.
10. REACH at CIERA, Northwestern
Location: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Daytime only, with no housing provided.
Cost: $2,500 for the Core program, plus $1,500 for the REACH Further extension. Full or partial tuition assistance is available through the Brinson Foundation, and CIERA reports that in recent years every admitted student who applied for aid received at least partial assistance, with many getting full waivers.
Dates: For 2027, Core runs June 14 to July 2 or July 5 to 23. REACH Further runs July 5 to 23 or July 26 to August 13. These are posted upcoming dates, not last year’s.
Application deadline: Applications for 2027 are expected to open in January 2027 and close in early March. The exact date is not published. March 9 was the 2026 deadline.
Eligibility: Students in grades 10 to 12 at the time of application. Ninth graders can’t apply. No prior coding or astronomy background is needed, though a firm grasp of algebra helps. You arrange your own transportation, and international students are accepted in limited numbers and handle their own visas.
Core is three weeks of intensive Python taught through astrophysics, plus week-long projects tied to research actually running at CIERA, plus solar observing at Dearborn Observatory. REACH Further is a second three weeks of one-on-one independent research with a CIERA scientist. About 50 students attend Core each year across both sessions, and Further runs 12 to 15.
Who is it right for? A Chicago-area sophomore or junior who wants to learn Python properly inside a real research group, and where aid is unusually easy to get.
11. SEES High School Internship
Location: Depends which project you’re accepted into. On-site projects run remotely first, then residentially at UT Austin in Austin, TX. Virtual projects are fully remote.
Cost: Virtual projects are free. On-site is $2,000 covering meals, housing, tours, and local travel, with full scholarships available. Travel to Austin is your own cost unless you’re awarded a travel scholarship. Applying for a scholarship doesn’t affect your acceptance.
Dates: In the 2026 cycle, distance-learning modules ran May 15 to July 1, the on-site phase July 5 to 18, virtual projects June to July 21, and the Virtual Science Symposium July 20 to 21. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: February 22 in the 2026 cycle, with no late applications accepted. The 2027 date is not published.
Eligibility: Current sophomores or juniors, US citizens only, and 16 years old by the program start with no exceptions.
Twenty-six projects run across Earth and space science, and three of them are astronomy. Surveying the Universe uses McDonald Observatory data and runs on-site. Age and Distance to an Open Cluster and Detecting Planets Around Other Stars are both virtual. Every intern also completes distance-learning modules including one on Python, then presents at the symposium.
Who is it right for? A sophomore or junior US citizen who wants NASA data on their record without a five-figure bill, and who’s happy to work virtually.
12. Horizon Academic Research Program
Location: Fully online.
Cost: $6,950 per course. Need-based financial aid is available for households under $75,000.
Dates: Cohorts run through the year. The Winter cohort starts December 14, 2026. Seminars run 10 weeks and 1-1 PhD Labs run 12 to 16 weeks, at 8 to 10 hours a week and 100-plus hours in total.
Application deadline: November 22, 2026 for the Winter cohort. Later 2027 cohort deadlines are not published yet.
Eligibility: Enrolled in high school in grades 9 to 12, with a 3.67 unweighted GPA or equivalent. Most accepted students are in grades 10 and 11. About 26% of applicants to a cohort are admitted.
What it runs are three astronomy research tracks inside the 1-1 PhD Labs course Applications of Machine Learning: simulating the cosmic microwave background to study the early universe, using SDSS data to analyze galaxy spectra and galaxy formation, and using Kepler data to understand exoplanet light curves.
You work one-on-one with a PhD mentor for a full term on a single research question, with a writing coach and a publication specialist attached. You finish with a college-level research paper of about 5,000 words that’s yours to submit to journals or competitions. And seminar cohorts average four students, capped at six.
Who is it right for? A student who wants a paper rather than a certificate, who’s comfortable with code, and who doesn’t want their zip code or their state to decide anything.
13. GMU Young Scholars: NASA Data Science Analysis and Scholarly Research Paper Writing
Location: Hybrid, primarily virtual with optional in-person sessions at George Mason’s Fairfax campus.
Cost: Not published. GMU asks applicants to email [email protected] for program and application fees. Need-based scholarships exist, and separate scholarships and awards of up to $2,000 are given for research performance.
Dates: June 13 to August 29 in the 2026 cycle, in three phases: Saturday virtual sessions 1pm to 3pm EST for seven weeks, an optional site visit and conference, then four weeks refining your paper. The 2027 cycle is not posted.
Application deadline: There isn’t one. Applications open the first week of February and seats go first-come, first-served, with most filled by late April.
Eligibility: Grades 9 to 12 and college freshmen. International students are welcome, though GMU can’t sponsor visas and some projects are restricted to US citizens.
You work with NASA TESS exoplanet candidate data and James Webb data, with remote or in-person control of GMU’s 32-inch telescope. The deliverable is a scholarly research paper plus a certificate, and papers go through editorial review before being published on the Schar Young Scholars page, in GMU’s MARS repository, and for astronomy work in the Journal of Astro-Scholars Research. Authors are credited by initials under university policy.
Who is it right for? A self-directed student who wants a published paper on an exoplanet dataset and will apply in February rather than waiting.
University astrophysics courses for high school students
14. Harvard Pre-College and Secondary School Program
Location: Cambridge, MA. Pre-College is residential only. The Secondary School Program also offers commuting and online, including asynchronous and synchronous sections.
Cost: Pre-College is $6,100 plus a $75 application fee. The Secondary School Program charges a $75 application fee, a $200 program fee, and $995 per credit, so a four-credit course is $3,980 in tuition, with room and meals of $4,920 for four weeks or $7,575 for seven. Totals run from $4,180 for seven-week commuting or online up to $15,735 for seven weeks residential at eight credits. Need-based aid is Secondary School Program only, partial, and limited to US citizens, permanent residents, and DACA recipients.
Dates: In the 2026 cycle, Pre-College ran three sessions between June 21 and July 31. The Secondary School Program ran July 13 to August 7 for four weeks and June 22 to August 7 for seven. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: January 7 early, February 11 regular, and April 1 late in the 2026 cycle. Harvard says 2027 applications are not open yet.
Eligibility: Pre-College requires you to be at least 16 by the June start and not turning 19 before the program ends. For 2027 Harvard frames it as students entering college in 2028 or 2029. Course prerequisites vary: the astrophysics course wants algebra, trigonometry, and intro physics, while the relativity course wants single-variable calculus, vectors, and matrices.
The astro course we could confirm live is ASTR S-80, Planets, Moons, and Their Stars: The Search for Life in the Cosmos. It’s four credits, runs across the seven-week session, and covers planetary exploration, geochemistry, astronomy, and biochemistry. PHYS S-11, Introduction to Relativity: From Cosmic Rays to Black Holes, is a Harvard Summer School credit course open to Secondary School Program students by petition. Average class size is 15.
Who is it right for? A 16 or 17-year-old who wants Harvard credit and campus life, and who’s checked the prerequisites on the specific course page.
15. Columbia Pre-College Programs
Location: Morningside campus, New York, NY. Residential, commuter, and online formats.
Cost: For 2027, residential is $12,838 for three weeks, commuter is $6,381 for three weeks or $2,883 for one, and online is $4,018 for two weeks or $2,868 for one. Add a $95 application fee, about $50 in course materials, and course-specific fees of $50 to $200. Need-based scholarships cover 25% to 100% but are for US residents only and apply to commuter and online formats, not residential.
Dates: For 2027, residential runs June 28 to July 16 and July 20 to August 6. Online runs June 21 to 25, July 12 to 23, and July 26 to August 6. Columbia is the only provider on this page with a published 2027 cycle.
Application deadline: For 2027, residential closes February 1 early and March 1 general. Commuter and online close February 1 early and April 1 general. The scholarship deadline is February 10, 2027.
Eligibility: At least 15, and you must turn 16 by December 31 of the year you attend. College Edge is grades 11 and 12 only.
Four astronomy courses have run recently: Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Origin and Evolution of the Universe, which is the online one and covers dark matter and dark energy, Special Relativity: Deciphering Einstein, and Geometric Topology: A Tool for Modeling the Universe. Prerequisites differ sharply between them, from Algebra 1 up to a full year of physics.
Who is it right for? A student who wants to lock in a summer now, since Columbia is the only provider here with 2027 dates and deadlines already posted.
16. Summer@Brown Pre-College
Location: Providence, RI, with a separate online track and a five-week hybrid that combines two weeks online and three on campus.
Cost: For 2026, one week on campus was $3,748 residential or $3,096 commuter, two weeks $5,786, three weeks $8,372, and the five-week hybrid $10,858. Online ran $3,364 for two weeks up to $6,520 for six. Scholarships are available. The 2027 costs are not published.
Dates: Programs ran June 15 to July 25 in the 2026 cycle. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: May 15 in the 2026 cycle, with applications having opened January 14 and final decisions on May 22. Courses can close early when full, and decisions come within 15 business days of a complete application.
Eligibility: Students completing grades 9 to 12, aged 14 to 18 by the mid-June start. Residential participation requires a minimum age of 15, so a 14-year-old can only commute.
Two astro courses sit in Brown’s pre-college catalog: Exploring the Universe: An Introduction to Relativity and Cosmology, covering special and general relativity, black holes, neutron stars, and gravitational waves, and Habitable Worlds: Possible Places for Life in the Solar System. Brown doesn’t publish session length, format, or prerequisites for individual courses in a readable form. So email the pre-college office before you commit.
Who is it right for? A younger student, 14 or 15, who wants a short first taste of relativity or exoplanets without committing a whole summer.
17. University of Chicago Pre-College
Location: Hyde Park, Chicago, IL, for Immersion, plus a separate Summer Online track.
Cost: For 2026, Immersion was $9,300 residential or $6,100 commuter, and Summer Online was $4,980. Need-based aid is first-come first-served, partial only, and generally for households at or below $125,000. Households under $60,000 can also get round-trip travel covered on some tracks, and there’s a dedicated scholarship for Chicago Public Schools students in grades 9 to 11.
Dates: Immersion ran June 15 to July 2 and July 7 to 23 in the 2026 cycle, weekdays 9am to 3pm. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: February 11 priority and March 12 regular in the 2026 cycle. UChicago’s site now says it is no longer accepting applications for summer 2026, and both astronomy courses show as closed or full.
Eligibility: Immersion is for current 9th, 10th, and 11th graders, minimum age 14. The online Stars course is open to 11th and 12th graders and undergraduates.
Physics of Stars: An Introduction is the Immersion course. You study how stars form, age, and forge heavier elements, using online robotic telescopes and Python, and there’s a field trip to Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. It’s graded and worth 100 units, equal to a full quarter-long undergraduate course. Stars is the separate online course covering the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
Who is it right for? A 9th to 11th grader who wants graded college credit, telescope work, and Python in one course, and who can apply in February.
18. Cornell Precollege Studies
Location: Ithaca, NY, with online, commuter, and residential formats.
Cost: $1,940 per credit for the period covering fall 2025 through summer 2026, plus a $75 application fee. A three-week, three-credit course works out to $5,820 online, $5,987 commuting, or $9,274 residential. Residential adds $3,287 for three weeks or $6,595 for six.
Dates: Cornell runs summer and winter sessions only. Summer 2026 online ran June 1 to July 31 in three-week and six-week options. Winter 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: Not published.
Eligibility: You must have completed grade 10 or the international equivalent. Age limits are strict and have ceilings, not floors: 15 to 19 for online, 16 to 19 for commuting, and 16 to 18 for residential. High school graduates must be under 18 at the course start.
One important correction to what you may read elsewhere, including on our own older pages. ASTRO 2290 Relativity and Astrophysics is a spring semester course and isn’t available to precollege students at all. The summer astronomy courses you can actually take include ASTRO 1106 Relativity, Cosmology, and Black Holes at three credits, ASTRO 1105 and 1107 The Universe, and ASTRO 1199 Are We Alone in the Universe?
Who is it right for? A student who has finished 10th grade and wants real Cornell credit, particularly online, where the cost is roughly half the residential rate.
19. UC Irvine Summer Session, Physics 20A Introduction to Astronomy
Location: Irvine, CA, though Physics 20A itself is taught online.
Cost: For 2026, $400 per unit for visiting non-UC students, which is the rate a high school student pays, plus a one-time $296 mandatory campus fee and an eTech fee of $5.50 per unit capped at $82.50. Physics 20A is four units, so roughly $1,600 plus fees. UCI notes these rates are pending state budget and Regents approval.
Dates: For 2026, Session 1 ran June 22 to July 29, the 10-week option June 22 to August 28, and Session 2 August 3 to September 9. The 2027 dates are not published.
Application deadline: May 1 for Session 1 and the 10-week option, and June 3 for Session 2, in the 2026 cycle.
Eligibility: High school students are admitted with conditions. If you graduate within the year, it’s open. If you graduate in two or three years, you need an unweighted GPA of 3.0 or higher in college-prep classes, a transcript, an enrollment form, and you’re limited to one UCI course.
Physics 20A is a four-unit course with no prerequisites, taught by Professor Tammy Smecker-Hane. It covers the solar system, stellar properties and structure, pulsars, black holes, galaxies, and quasars. At around $1,900 all in for real college credit, it’s the cheapest way onto a university transcript on this page.
Who is it right for? A student who wants university credit for the least money on this page and doesn’t need to be on a campus to get it.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, six on this page. Only one of them, the Pulsar Science Collaboratory, is free, open across the country, and needs no application. The rest are free because they’re funded, which means they’re competitive: RSI takes under 2.5%, Clark Scholars takes 12 students, and Simons needs a school nomination with two slots per school. PAN is free but only a week. SSP is free for most families under about $100,000 but costs $11,800 at the top of its sliding scale. For a wider list, see our 13 free astronomy programs and fully funded STEM programs.
Yes, and astrophysics is one of the easiest sciences to do this in, since most of the raw data is public. SSP students submit asteroid orbits to the Minor Planet Center. Pulsar Science Collaboratory students have found seven pulsars. AMNH students work on live James Webb projects. YSPA teams co-author a paper. If you want the research angle specifically, we cover it in more depth in 18 astronomy research programs, 15 online astronomy research programs, and astronomy summer research programs.
Worth knowing what they actually are. Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars and Texas Aerospace Scholars are both excellent and both free, but they’re aerospace engineering and crewed mission design, not astrophysics. You’d be designing a Mars mission architecture, not analyzing starlight. And they’re restricted to Virginia and Texas residents respectively. NASA’s own OSTEM internships, including those at Goddard’s Astrophysics Science Division, require you to be enrolled in college, so high school students can’t apply.
RSI at under 2.5% of more than 3,100 applicants, then Clark Scholars at 12 students a year nationally. SEES published about 215 acceptances from around 2,000 applications in 2024, roughly 11%. Simons, SSP, YSPA, and REACH don’t publish acceptance rates, so treat anyone quoting one as guessing. Our list of the most competitive research programs and most prestigious programs with low acceptance rates has the wider picture.
Several of the elite programs take juniors only, which rules out RSI, SSP, Simons, and Clark until 11th grade. What’s open to you now: the Pulsar Science Collaboratory from age 13, PAN from grade 9, COSMOS from rising 9th if you’re in California, REACH from grade 10, Horizon from grade 9, and most of the university courses from age 14 to 16. So use the time. Our guides on finding a research lab and getting research opportunities in high school are written for exactly this stage.
Close enough that most programs use the words interchangeably. So don’t filter on the word. Astronomy traditionally means observing and cataloging what’s out there. Astrophysics means explaining it with physics. But in practice every program on this page does both. And if you search only for astrophysics, you’ll miss good options. So check our astronomy programs and astronomy summer programs lists too.
Not under that name, and it’s worth being precise. Horizon runs three astronomy research tracks inside its 1-1 PhD Labs course Applications of Machine Learning: cosmic microwave background simulation, SDSS galaxy spectra analysis, and Kepler exoplanet light curves. You work with a PhD mentor and finish with a research paper of about 5,000 words.
Resources
Before you pick a program
- 49 research topics for high school students
- 200 STEM research topics
- 30 interdisciplinary project ideas
- Research programs for complete beginners
Getting in
- How to get into a top high school research program
- 10 best ways to get research opportunities in high school
- 7 ways to find a research lab
- Everything you need to know about RSI
Paying for it
- 16 fully funded STEM programs
- 14 free university science summer programs
- 11 free research mentorship programs
- 12 paid research mentorship programs
- 14 grants for high school research
Once you have a paper
- How to publish research in high school
- 15 research journals for high school students
- 15 research competitions
- 7 steps to turn your paper into a competition submission
- Key components of a high school research paper
- How to format citations
- How long does it take to write a research paper?
- What can you actually do with a high school research paper?
Image source: Yale University