If you are planning to explore fields like artificial intelligence, finance, or engineering, data science is something you will likely encounter early. Learning it in high school through a structured program can give you a strong starting point.
In these programs, you are usually working with data from the beginning. You might analyze trends, write basic code, or solve small problems using real datasets. This helps you understand how data moves from raw information to something meaningful.
Why should you choose a program in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania has a strong mix of universities and research institutions that offer data science programs for high school students. Many of these programs are built around real academic work, which helps you understand how the subject is taught at a higher level. You also get exposure to tools and methods that are used in real settings. Along with that, these experiences strengthen your applications and give you solid examples to discuss in interviews.
To help you explore your options, here are 15 data science programs for high school students in Pennsylvania! You can also explore our blogs on online data science summer programs here and data science internships here.
15 Data Science Programs for High School Students in Pennsylvania
1. Wharton Data Science Academy (WDS) — University of Pennsylvania
Location: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Cost: $10,599. Financial aid is available
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective
Dates: June 21 – July 11 or July 12 – August 1
Application Deadline: Priority deadline January 28, final deadline March 18
Eligibility: High school students currently enrolled in grades 10–11 with a strong background in math and coding, and an interest in data analytics. Must have a 3.3 unweighted GPA.
The Wharton Data Science Academy places you in a three-week, on-campus program where the coursework follows the level and pace of Wharton undergraduate classes. You spend your time working with R as the main language, while also using Python in specific modules like deep learning and large language models. The curriculum covers data wrangling, visualisation, probability, hypothesis testing, and core modelling techniques such as regression and classification, all applied through hands-on work with datasets. You also attend small-group sessions led by undergraduate and graduate TAs, where you go through lab work and discuss concepts in more detail. Alongside technical work, the program pays attention to how data is used, including bias, fairness, and how results are communicated clearly.
2. Carnegie Mellon University AI Scholars
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Fully funded!
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Highly selective
Dates: June 20 – July 18
Application Deadline: February 1
Eligibility: High school juniors aged 16+ who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
AI Scholars at Carnegie Mellon runs a four-week residential program where you study artificial intelligence through a mix of coursework, research, and project work. Before the program begins, you complete a Python course that prepares you for the technical work ahead. Once on campus, you attend lectures, work on group research projects, and take part in sessions that introduce ongoing research at CMU. The work often overlaps with data science, especially when you are handling datasets, building models, or solving real-world problems through computational methods. The program ends with a symposium where you present your project, which reflects the full process from idea to execution.
3. Carnegie Mellon University CS Scholars
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Fully funded!
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Highly selective
Dates: June 20 – July 18
Application Deadline: February 1
Eligibility: High school sophomores aged 16+ who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
CS Scholars is a fully funded program where you take college-level courses in programming and mathematics while also working on applied projects. You spend your time learning how algorithms, data structures, and computational thinking come together when working with data. The program includes seminars on college preparation, but most of your work is focused on building and applying technical skills. Projects are often tied to real-world problems, which means you are not just coding but understanding how data is used to solve practical challenges. Students who perform well may be invited to continue into AI Scholars the following year, which adds continuity to the experience.
4. Carnegie Mellon University Summer Academy for Math and Science (SAMS)
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Fully funded
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Highly selective
Dates: June 20 – August 1
Application Deadline: February 1
Eligibility: High school juniors aged 16+ who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
SAMS runs for six weeks as a residential program where you work through intensive coursework in math and science while also completing a research project. You attend seminars that focus on quantitative and computational skills, which form the academic base of the program. Alongside this, you work with faculty or graduate students on a STEM research project that develops over time. The program also includes writing workshops, especially focused on college applications, which run parallel to your academic work. By the end, you present your project at a research symposium, where you explain your process and findings in detail.
5. Carnegie Mellon University Statistics & Data Science Camp
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Open enrolment but limited cohort size
Dates: June 22 – 26
Application Deadline: March 15
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors from the Pittsburgh area
The Statistics & Data Science Camp is a free, one-week intensive program run by CMU’s Department of Statistics and Data Science, designed to introduce Pittsburgh-area high school students to the field. Each day of the program will combine presentations about the basics of statistics and data science with hands-on demonstrations and computer labs in which students will learn the basics of R. By the end of the camp, you will understand what statistics and data science involve and how to pursue these fields further. Topics covered include data analysis, data visualisation, and an introduction to statistical methods, and the camp uses a project-based learning structure where you apply skills to real datasets throughout the week.
6. Drexel University VirtuaQuest: Computing & Informatics Summer Institute
Location: Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $950
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Open enrolment
Dates: July 6 – 30
Application Deadline: Rolling admission until the program fills, starting early February
Eligibility: Rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors
VirtuaQuest at Drexel runs as a four-week program where you attend daily workshops and lectures covering computing and data science topics. Sessions are led by faculty from the School of Computer and Information Sciences, and each day includes both instruction and practical work. You spend time working in teams, applying what you learn to build projects that reflect real applications of computing. The program also includes a final showcase where you present your work, along with sessions that introduce you to Drexel’s academic programs and faculty.
7. Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) High School Summer Internship Program
Location: Magee-Womens Research Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Free. Students are eligible to receive a stipend of $1,800 if their household qualifies for the National School Breakfast and Lunch Program for Pennsylvania.
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Extremely selective
Dates: June 15 – July 24
Application Deadline: Applications will open in late fall
Eligibility: High school sophomores and juniors aged 16+
The MWRI internship places you inside a research institute where you work on a project related to women’s health and reproductive biology. Over six weeks, you are guided by a researcher and their team, and your work often involves data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Past projects have included building databases for biological data, analysing gene families, and studying fertility-related conditions, all of which rely on handling complex datasets. You also attend informal sessions where researchers talk about their work and career paths. At the end of the program, you present your findings at a formal presentation day.
8. Penn SAS High School Programs: Writing and Research in the Age of AI Academy — University of Pennsylvania
Location: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $10,050. Philadelphia residents attending a School District of Philadelphia public or charter high school may be able to obtain full scholarships.
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective
Dates: July 11 – August 1
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Current 9th–11th grade students
This Penn SAS program focuses on how research, writing, and AI intersect, especially when working with data-driven topics. You spend your time studying how AI tools are used in research while also learning how to analyse and critique the results they produce. The program runs in a residential format, where you attend sessions led by faculty and graduate students. You work on writing tasks that require you to organise ideas clearly and respond to complex questions. The experience connects technical understanding with communication, which becomes important when working with data.
9. MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI) — CogWorks (Autonomous Cognitive Assistant) Track
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free for families with income under $150,000/year. Families earning $150,000 or more are required to pay a fee of $2,350.
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective
Dates: Four weeks in the summer
Application Deadline: March 30
Eligibility: Current 9th–11th graders residing in the U.S.
BWSI is a four-week STEM program jointly hosted by MIT Lincoln Laboratory and MIT’s School of Engineering, offering multiple technical tracks. The CogWorks (Autonomous Cognitive Assistant) track focuses specifically on modern machine learning and data science. The class consists of three distinct modules focusing on applications of machine learning in the domains of audio, vision, and language, bringing you into contact with critical foundational concepts in applied mathematics, science, and machine learning via compelling capstone projects with real-world applications. All lectures are paired with detailed Python-based exercises that incorporate both applied mathematics and basic algorithms.
10. UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Academy — CoSBBI Track
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Free!
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Highly selective
Dates: June 15 – July 31
Application Deadline: February 15
Eligibility: High school students aged 15+
The CoSBBI track places you in a biomedical informatics setting where you work with computational tools applied to medical research. You begin with a programming boot camp, then move into a research project guided by a faculty mentor. Your work may involve analysing genomic or proteomic data, working with medical images, or applying machine learning techniques to clinical problems. The program also encourages you to prepare an abstract for submission to a professional conference, which adds another level to your work. Over eight weeks, you begin to understand how data science is used in healthcare research.
11. Carnegie Mellon University Pre-College Computational Biology Program
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: $10,750 for residential, $8,041 for commuter
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective
Dates: June 20 – July 18
Application Deadline: Early deadline February 1, final deadline March 1
Eligibility: Current high school sophomores or juniors aged 16+ with at least a 3.0 GPA
This program places you at the intersection of biology and data science, where you work on problems that require both lab work and coding. You spend part of your time generating biological data through experiments like gene sequencing, and the rest analysing that data using Python. The program is structured so that each day connects lab results with computational work, which makes the process more continuous. You complete preparatory coding work before arriving, so you are ready to engage with the material from the start. Over four weeks, you see how biological questions are approached through data.
12. Engineering Summer Academy at Penn (ESAP) — Artificial Intelligence Track
Location: University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $9,250
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective, only 60 students admitted
Dates: July 12 – 31
Application Deadline: Priority deadline January 31, final deadline February 28
Eligibility: Rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors aged 15+ with a 3.0 GPA or higher
The ESAP AI track runs as a three-week, credit-bearing program where you study artificial intelligence through both theory and application. You learn how neural networks and generative models work, along with the mathematics that supports them. The program includes hands-on work where you build your own AI systems and apply concepts directly. Faculty from Penn Engineering guide the sessions, and your work builds toward a final project where you create an AI-based application. The structure keeps moving between understanding concepts and applying them.
13. Engineering Summer Academy at Penn (ESAP) — AI x Bio Track
Location: University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $9,250
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective, only 60 students admitted
Dates: July 12 – 31
Application Deadline: Priority deadline January 31, final deadline February 28
Eligibility: Rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors aged 15+ with a 3.0 GPA or higher. Must have completed one year of Calculus and be proficient in Python. Differential Equations and Linear Algebra are encouraged.
Similar to the Artificial Intelligence track at ESAP, AI x Bio focuses on the application of generative AI to biological design, involving a data-heavy development of generative sequence models for protein and peptide design. You will begin with core machine learning concepts and progress to modern AI approaches that underpin current breakthroughs in biological research, including work relevant to drug discovery, genome editing, and cell engineering. Throughout the course, you will code in Python, an important coding language relevant to any data scientist, and collaborate on group projects. By the end of the program, you will have developed the technical vocabulary and practical skills to engage with data-driven research at the intersection of AI and biology.
14. Wharton Moneyball Academy — University of Pennsylvania
Location: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $10,599. Several scholarship opportunities are available.
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective
Dates: July 5 – 25
Application Deadline: March 18
Eligibility: High school students currently enrolled in grades 10–11
The Wharton Moneyball Academy uses sports analytics to teach data science concepts in a way that feels more applied. You work with R to analyse real sports datasets, focusing on areas like regression, probability, and decision-making. The program also introduces statistical thinking through examples tied to sports performance and strategy. You spend time building an original analytics project, where you apply what you have learned to a dataset. The program ends with a group project that can be submitted to the Wharton Sports Analytics Journal.
15. Penn SAS High School Programs: Experimental Physics Academy — University of Pennsylvania
Location: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $10,050. Philadelphia residents attending a School District of Philadelphia public or charter high school may be able to obtain full scholarships.
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective
Dates: July 11 – August 1
Application Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Current 9th–11th grade students
The Experimental Physics Academy places you inside lab environments where you work with instruments and collect real data. You conduct experiments, analyse results, and focus on areas like error analysis and data interpretation. The work involves understanding how measurements are taken and how results are evaluated, which are key parts of data-driven research. You also learn how to visualise and present your findings clearly. The program reflects how research is carried out in physics, with a strong focus on handling and understanding data.
One more option – Horizon Academic Research Program
If you’re looking for a competitive mentored research program in subjects like data science, machine learning, political theory, biology, and chemistry, consider applying to Horizon’s Research Seminars and Labs! This is a selective virtual research program that lets you engage in advanced research and develop a research paper on a subject of your choosing. Horizon has worked with 1000+ high school students so far and offers 600+ research specializations for you to choose from. You can find the application link here!
Image Source – Carnegie Mellon University