Biology Camps for High School Students (2027)

TL;DR

You’ll find 19 biology camps below, each with its cost, dates, cohort size, eligibility, and application dates. Most applications open between November and February, so set a reminder today. They’re grouped by the kind of science you’d be doing: lab and biomedical, ocean and coastal research, and marine conservation and field ecology. A camp gives you a week of real technique and a clear answer on whether you like this. Horizon gives you something to show for it. You’ll work one-on-one with a professor or PhD mentor for a full term, on a single research question instead of a week of many, and finish with a research paper that’s yours to submit to journals or competitions. It’s fully online, cohorts start three times a year, and where you live decides nothing.

A biology camp is a week, sometimes two. You show up, you’re handed real equipment, and you use it every day until the week runs out. What that looks like depends on where you go. 

At a lab camp you might pull DNA out of a duckweed sample, run it through PCR and sequence it. At an ocean camp you might be on the deck of a 65-foot research vessel hauling in a plankton net, or counting what’s living in a tide pool. At a conservation camp you might spend the week feeding rescued sea turtles and walking nest patrols after dark.

You don’t need experience for any of this. Almost every camp here assumes you’ve taken high school biology and nothing more.

What you won’t come away with is a published paper. A week isn’t long enough to answer a real question. What you will come away with is a straight answer on whether you like this, which is worth knowing before you pick a major rather than after. Plenty of students find out they love a microscope and hate a boat, or the exact reverse. If you’re still working out which part of biology appeals to you, start with 40 biology research topics.

What’s the difference between a biology camp and a biology program?

	Biology camp	Research program
How long	One to two weeks	Six to sixteen weeks
Who sets the agenda	The camp does. You rotate through activities someone else planned	You do. One question, chased to the end
Day to day	Lots of equipment, lots of variety, never boring	Narrower and slower, and honestly less fun by week three
What you leave with	A week of real technique and a clear answer on whether you like this	Something of your own: data, a poster, sometimes a paper you can submit
Pick it if	You’ve never been in a lab and want to find out	You already know you like this and want something to show for it

Neither one is better. They’re for different moments, and plenty of students do a camp first and a program the year after. 

What will you learn at a biology camp?

Kind of work	What that means in practice	Camps that do it well
Wet lab technique	Pipetting, sterile technique, PCR, gel electrophoresis, DNA extraction and sequencing	Hillsdale, Camp BIOmed, Rosetta
Field sampling	Seine nets, plankton tows, water chemistry, species identification, transect surveys	Auburn, Keller BLOOM, Guardians of the Sea
Working with your data	Bioinformatics, lab write-ups, presenting your findings to a room	Camp BIOmed, Clearwater, Acadia

If you’d rather build the lab-technique side without a camp, 8 tips on doing biology research in high school and 14 programs for complete beginners are the next reads.

If cost is what’s stopping you, 16 fully funded STEM programs and 14 research grants are worth a look before you rule anything out.

Want something longer or a different subject? See 22 biology research programs, 15 genetics summer programs, 15 marine biology summer programs, or 15 biotech internships.

Lab and biomedical camps

1. Hillsdale College Biology Summer Camp

Location: Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan. Residential

Cost: $150 confirmation fee. Everything else is donor-funded

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: June 21 to 26 in the 2026 cycle. Six days

Application Deadline: None. Applications opened January 13 and review began March 15

Next cycle: 2027 not posted. Expect a January opening based on last year

Eligibility: Rising sophomores, juniors and seniors, nationwide. Prior science coursework preferred

Built around two topics, DNA and photosynthesis. DNA sessions cover isolation, PCR, sequencing, fragment analysis and gel electrophoresis, and photosynthesis work uses colorimetry, light quantification, population sampling and protein extraction. This is the 34th year of Hillsdale’s Summer Science Camps. The $150 is genuinely all you pay, because tuition, materials, lodging and meals are covered by foundation grants and private donors for every admitted student, with no separate aid application. Apply well before mid-March, since the camp filled last cycle.

Who is it right for? Students anywhere in the country who want serious laboratory technique and can’t pay camp prices.

2. Camp BIOmed

Location: Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington. Day camp, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., no lodging

Cost: $750 to $845, depending on track and membership

Cohort size: 14 students per track

Dates: One-week sessions between July 6 and August 14 in the 2026 cycle. Five days each

Application Deadline: None. Registration closes as seats fill

Next cycle: 2027 not posted. The page still reads “registration open” for the finished 2026 cycle

Eligibility: Students entering grades 9 to 12. No residency or citizenship requirements

Six themed one-week tracks, each mixing wet lab and computational work: molecular biology of cancer, genetic engineering, forensic science, microbiology, bioinformatics and global health. Laboratory work includes DNA digests, ELISA and PCR, and tracks can be stacked across the summer at a discount. At 14 students per track, instructor contact is high for the price. Members, meaning employees of NWABR member institutions, pay $50 less per session. Note that earlier listings paired this camp with a second campus at Whitworth University in Spokane, but Spokane now appears only in the page’s metadata with no sessions or registration route, so treat Seattle Pacific as the only location.

Who is it right for? Seattle-area students who want to pick one branch of biology rather than sample everything.

3. Engineering with Biology Summer Camp, Missouri S&T

Location: Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri. Residential

Cost: $650, including all meals, housing and camp materials

Cohort size: 30 students

Dates: June 14 to 18 in the 2026 cycle. Five days

Application Deadline: Not published. Registration closed for 2026

Next cycle: 2027 not posted and no forward notice. Check from early spring

Eligibility: Ages 14 to 18. No grade level, residency, citizenship or prerequisite requirements

Campers design and test genetic systems, compare alternative genetic approaches, and examine results across different cell types, including engineering yeast to produce vitamin-enriched food. Alongside the bench work they model engineered biological systems using electronics kits and debate the societal impacts of synthetic biology, closing the week with a design competition. The framing is engineering-first, but the underlying content is genuinely molecular and genetic. Need-based scholarships from the Kummer Center for STEM Education are awarded on a rolling basis from early spring with notification by May 15, though amounts and criteria are not published.

Who is it right for? Students drawn to synthetic biology and gene editing who want housing and meals included.

4. Health and Biomedical Sciences Summer Camp, Lebanon Valley College

Location: Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania. Residential only, no commuter option

Cost: $1,275, covering lodging, meals and all supplies. No financial assistance is available

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: July 27 to August 1 in the 2026 cycle. Six days and five nights

Application Deadline: None. The registration portal closes when the program is full

Next cycle: 2027 not posted. The page was last updated in November 2025

Eligibility: Rising sophomores, juniors and seniors. No residency, citizenship or prerequisite requirements

Days run from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Neidig-Garber Science Center, combining lectures with hands-on laboratory work across molecular biology, neuroscience, physiology, pharmacology and immunology, with group work and organized activities in the evenings. Students meet practitioners from medicine, physical therapy, toxicology, genetic counseling and biomedical research, which makes this as much a careers week as a laboratory one. No capstone project or final deliverable is described. The college states plainly that it is unable to offer financial assistance, so budget for the full amount.

Who is it right for? Students weighing a pre-health path who want to sample five biomedical fields in a week.

5. Rosetta Institute of Biomedical Research

Location: UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Columbia University and University College London. Residential or commuter at each, plus online workshops

Cost: Not publicly available. The only page on Rosetta’s site carrying prices is dated 2021

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: Two weeks at every university location in the 2026 cycle, late May through mid-August. Fourteen days, the longest here

Application Deadline: None. Rolling admission, with an application and one letter of recommendation

Next cycle: 2027 not posted or mentioned anywhere. Contact Rosetta directly for a current price

Eligibility: Ages 14 to 18 with high school biology completed, though the camps page says 12 to 18

This is the deepest laboratory curriculum on the page. Published techniques include tissue culture with sterile technique and laminar flow hoods, isolation of DNA, RNA and protein, gene cloning and transfection, SDS-PAGE and western blotting, flow cytometry for cell cycle and apoptosis analysis, real-time PCR, and fluorescence microscopy. Students also run an independent computational project on a gene of their choosing, examining its normal function, role in disease and therapeutic potential. Several tracks are now bioinformatics rather than wet lab, and the marketing is explicitly pre-med. Two cautions: every price quoted for Rosetta elsewhere is unsourced, and their own site contradicts itself on the age floor.

Who is it right for? Students who want real molecular biology training over two weeks and will email for a current quote.

6. CDC Museum Disease Detective Camp

Location: CDC Roybal headquarters, Atlanta, Georgia. Day camp, students arrange their own housing and transport

Cost: Free. No assistance is offered for housing or travel

Cohort size: 27 places per session, 54 in total. 702 students applied in 2024

Dates: Two identical sessions, June 22 to 26 and July 20 to 24 in the 2026 cycle. 

Application Deadline: The 2026 application period has closed

Next cycle: Check back in January 2027. The clearest signal of any camp here

Eligibility: High school juniors or seniors, 16 by the first day. Non-US citizens may apply with documentation and an original passport

The CDC describes this as fast paced and academically demanding, and the applicant numbers back that up. Content spans epidemiology, outbreak investigation, infectious and chronic disease, injury prevention, global health, data analysis and laboratory technology, delivered through interactive activities and team work. This is public health rather than bench biology, so it suits students drawn to disease patterns and populations more than to laboratory technique. Free covers tuition only, and since it is a day camp, Atlanta travel and accommodation are the real cost for anyone from out of state.

Who is it right for? Juniors and seniors near Atlanta interested in epidemiology, who can handle a competitive application.

Ocean and coastal research camps

7. Keller BLOOM Program, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Location: Bigelow Laboratory, East Boothbay, Maine. Residential, in chaperoned campus housing

Cost: None. All meals and snacks included

Cohort size: 16 students

Dates: May 17 to 22 in the 2026 cycle. Six days, and note this runs in May, not summer

Application Deadline: April 10 in the 2026 cycle. Selection is on essays and recommendations

Next cycle: 2027 not posted. Last round closed April 10 for a mid-May program, so watch from February

Eligibility: Maine high school juniors only, from public, private or home schools

Students join oceanographic sampling aboard a research cruise and then run those samples themselves in Bigelow’s laboratories, covering phytoplankton and zooplankton analysis, pigment analysis, nutrient testing, and bacterial and marine virus work. They collect, synthesize and analyze their own data, present their findings, and attend a marine science career night. This is the most rigorous entry on the page: real cruise sampling and real laboratory analysis at a working oceanographic institute, with no recreational filler. Bigelow publishes no travel stipend, so getting to East Boothbay is yours to arrange.

Who is it right for? Maine juniors who want research-grade oceanography and can write a strong essay for one of 16 places.

8. Marine Biology Camp, Seacoast Science Center

Location: Odiorne Point State Park, Rye, New Hampshire. Day camp, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Cost: $475 for members, $525 for non-members, plus a 3% card fee

Cohort size: 12 students

Dates: Session A June 22 to 26 and Session B August 3 to 7 in the 2026 cycle. Five days each

Application Deadline: None, rolling until full. Registration opened January 11 and Session B sold out

Next cycle: 2027 not posted here, though the wider camps index says dates will appear later in the year

Eligibility: Grades 9 to 12. No residency, citizenship or prerequisite requirements

The week covers offshore fish data collection and identification, a crustacean and echinoderm unit, water quality testing, ocean plastics research and tide pool surveys, with a field trip to the UNH Marine Lab or a Gulf of Maine boat trip. Kayaking and snorkeling are used for exploration rather than as the main activity. Twelve students is the second smallest cohort on this page, and the combination of a real methods curriculum at this price makes it one of the best value entries here. The member rate needs a 6-Star membership valid through your camp dates, so check the maths before joining. A Camp Scholarship Fund exists through the camp director.

Who is it right for? Seacoast New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts students who want small-group Gulf of Maine fieldwork without paying for housing.

9. Marine Science Careers and Internship Academy, Ocean Institute

Location: Ocean Institute, Dana Point, California. Day camp, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with vessel time

Cost: $660

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: June 22 to 26 and July 13 to 17 in the 2026 cycle. Five days

Application Deadline: None. Members got early access February 12, general registration opened February 26

Next cycle: 2027 not posted and no forward notice. Expect mid to late February

Eligibility: Ages 14 to 17, and you must be 14 by September 1 of the camp year

The week is framed around marine science careers and includes a fishing day and a marine mammal cruise aboard the R/V Sea Explorer, the Institute’s own research vessel. This is career exposure rather than original research, and the Institute publishes less curriculum detail than most entries here, so you are partly buying the vessel access and the setting. Ocean Institute also runs a Counselor-In-Training program at $400, but it runs three weeks and is a leadership and teaching credential rather than a biology camp, so it is not listed separately.

Who is it right for? Orange County students who want vessel time and a look at what marine science careers actually involve.

10. Coastal Fisheries Camp, Auburn University

Location: Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Dauphin Island, Alabama. Residential, in Sea Lab dormitories

Cost: $950, including housing, all meals, instruction, materials, equipment and field trip transport

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: Five days. No dates currently displayed, as the 2026 ones have been removed

Application Deadline: Not published. A waitlist link is live

Next cycle: Check back in December for 2027 dates, which the site says directly

Eligibility: Rising 10th to 12th graders. No residency, citizenship or prerequisite requirements

Campers work with plankton and seine nets, run water sampling and quality testing, collect and identify marine species, and carry out salt marsh exploration and beach profiling. The week includes trawling aboard the R/V Alabama Discovery, a 65-foot research vessel. Topics span barrier island formation, beach and dune ecology, estuarine ecology, marine invertebrates, plankton communities, oceanography, salt marsh ecology, marine botany and marine vertebrates. At $950 for five residential days with real gear and a working vessel, this is the strongest value on the page. Note the grade floor: several other lists say rising 9th, which is wrong and would waste a freshman’s application. This is Auburn’s own camp hosted at Dauphin Island Sea Lab, and is not the Sea Lab’s separate four-week course.

Who is it right for? Rising juniors and seniors who want applied fisheries and coastal science with housing included, at close to day-camp prices.

11. Marine Biology Camp, Roger Williams University

Location: Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island. Residential, in a waterside residence hall

Cost: $2,195, including lodging, meals, instruction, lab use, equipment and field trips

Cohort size: 18 per session

Dates: Five one-week sessions from July 5 to August 8 in the 2026 cycle. Seven days each

Application Deadline: None published. Sessions fill and a waitlist operates

Next cycle: 2027 not posted, and the page still says registration is open for the finished cycle

Eligibility: Rising juniors and seniors. Rising sophomores are admitted if space permits. International students accepted

The week combines laboratory experiments with field work, including oceanographic sampling, plankton sampling and aquaculture studies, alongside faculty guest lectures. Field trips include sea kayaking, snorkeling and whale watching. University laboratories and faculty instruction form the core, but the recreational component is a visible share of the week, so this sits closer to an academic camp than a research placement. Five sessions give it the most scheduling flexibility here, and it is one of very few that take international students. A $500 deposit is due with the application, refundable through April 1, with the balance due by May 10. Students on free or reduced lunch may qualify for a limited number of scholarships, confirmed by a school professional.

Who is it right for? Students anywhere, including internationally, who want a university-run residential marine camp with a choice of start dates.

12. Advanced Marine Science Camp, Acadia Institute of Oceanography

Location: Mount Desert Island, Seal Harbor, Maine. Residential, with transport during the session

Cost: $3,300, or $3,400 with the college credit option

Cohort size: Not publicly available. Only the 22-student cap on credit places is published

Dates: July 12 to 24 and July 26 to August 7 in the 2026 cycle. Thirteen days

Application Deadline: None published. A teacher recommendation is required for acceptance

Next cycle: Dates and registration for summer 2027 arrive in October 2026. The best signal here

Eligibility: Rising 10th to 12th graders, ages 15 to 18. One year of high school science preferred

Work covers beach and sand movement studies, tidal pool diversity and zonation surveys, dogfish shark dissection, sand dollar embryology, water quality testing, saltwater tank builds, oceanographic surveys and whale watching. Students produce laboratory write-ups, group projects and individual work, and these are graded in the credit track. The four-credit University of Maine Early College option, where a C minus or above transfers, puts this among the most academically substantial camps here; UMaine bills that separately at around $596. A $600 deposit becomes non-refundable after March 1, with the balance due May 1. Acadia also runs Introductory sessions for rising 5th and 6th graders and Intermediate for rising 7th to 9th, so check if you are booking the Advanced tier.

Who is it right for? Rising juniors and seniors who want to be assessed in marine science with transferable university credit.

13. Seacamp

Location: Big Pine Key, Florida Keys. Residential, with field study from triple-hull flattop boats

Cost: 2027 posted. $5,150 for two weeks or $2,350 for one, plus $650 for the SCUBA option

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: 2027 posted. Two-week sessions June 25 to July 9 and July 12 to 26; one-week July 29 to August 4 and August 5 to 11

Application Deadline: None. 2027 registration opens mid-September 2026, with a first discount cutoff of September 30

Next cycle: The only camp here with 2027 fully live. Act on this one first

Eligibility: Ages 12 to 17 for two-week sessions, 10 to 17 for one-week. Co-ed

Seacamp runs three course tiers, with the advanced level covering coral reef ecology, advanced animal behavior, reef fish ecology and marine field techniques. Teaching happens through laboratory work, wading, kayaking and snorkel-based boat trips, and instructors hold a four-year degree in marine science, oceanography or a related field. Campers submit a course preference form and are assigned by preference, age and previous attendance. Snorkeling is the delivery method for field study rather than the product, and SCUBA is correctly separated out as a paid extra. Academically this is the strongest of the Florida entries. One thing to weigh: there is no high school only cohort, so older students share sessions with middle schoolers, and the one-week sessions take students as young as 10.

Who is it right for? Students who want a serious tiered marine curriculum in the Keys and don’t mind a mixed age range. Take a two-week session if you are 15 or older.

Marine conservation and field ecology camps

14. Field Investigation Program, Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Location: Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Clearwater, Florida. Day camp, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Cost: $465, or $420 for members

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: June 8 to 12, June 29 to July 3, and July 20 to 24 in the 2026 cycle. Five days each

Application Deadline: None, rolling until full. Members got early access January 12, general registration January 19

Next cycle: 2027 not posted. Expect mid-January, and note the high school scholarship deadline is March 1

Eligibility: Ages 15 to 18, currently in high school or graduated within the last semester. Must be able to swim

Clearwater’s high school tier is branded Marine Academy and contains four separate camps. Field Investigation is the one built around research skills: students are trained in fieldwork methods, collect data across three field trips, and deliver a public presentation at the end. That presentation is the only genuine student deliverable in the Marine Academy set, which is why it is the one featured here rather than the better-known Advanced Marine Biology camp at $480, which leans more on snorkeling, kayaking and a Discover Scuba session. Watch the scholarship dates: the April 30 deadline quoted on other sites belongs to a grades 4 to 8 award that high schoolers cannot enter.

Who is it right for? Tampa Bay students who want fieldwork and data collection rather than a week of water activities.

15. Girls Summer Research Camp, Headwaters Science Institute

Location: Webber Lake, Truckee, California. Residential, overnight tent camping at the study site

Cost: $600. Financial assistance available by separate application

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: July 5 to 8 in the 2026 cycle, four days and three nights, plus two optional online sessions

Application Deadline: None. Open enrollment, with 2026 registration having opened February 1

Next cycle: 2027 not posted. Expect a February opening

Eligibility: Girls entering grades 6 to 12. All-female cohort and all-female staff

Participants build their own research questions around environmental topics, learn field data collection methods, run their own collection and analysis, and deliver a polished research presentation on the final day, mentored by professional female scientists. Topics are student-chosen rather than pre-assigned, so the specific study system varies from year to year. Graduates can continue into Headwaters’ longer Summer Research Program to publish their findings. This is the only camp here where students design their own question, which makes it closer to research training than most, though the subject is environmental field science rather than laboratory biology. Two older pages on the same site are frozen in 2020 with different grade ranges, so use the dedicated camp page only.

Who is it right for? Girls who want to design their own study rather than follow a set curriculum, and who are comfortable camping. The grade 6 floor means a wide age range.

16. Guardians of the Sea, The Salish Sea School

Location: Skyline Marina, Anacortes, Washington. Day-based, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with one overnight

Cost: $1,799, including meals and all camping gear

Cohort size: Maximum 6 students per group. The smallest here by a wide margin

Dates: Five days. The live page still shows 2025 session dates

Application Deadline: None published. First come until full

Next cycle: The school says it returns in 2027, which suggests it did not run in 2026. No dates yet

Eligibility: Ages 14 to 18. No grade, residency, citizenship or gender requirements

The week combines boat trips for marine wildlife observation with tide pool investigation, eelgrass meadow and forage fish surveys, harbor seal and seabird observation, species identification training, hydrophone listening and microscope work, plus beach cleanups, marine debris surveys and a visit to the Center for Whale Research. It includes one night of island camping on Fidalgo Island. Nature journaling and awareness practice run through the week rather than being scheduled as a block. Six students to a group means genuinely hands-on time with the survey equipment, and the methods are real field ecology, though the scope is observational rather than experimental. The site quotes two different deposit amounts on different pages, so confirm before paying.

Who is it right for? Pacific Northwest students who want the smallest possible group and real survey fieldwork, and who can wait for the 2027 relaunch.

17. Sea Turtle Camp

Location: Topsail Island, North Carolina. Residential, at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue Center

Cost: $2,980 for the six-day Adventure program, $5,220 for the eleven-day Immersion

Cohort size: 24 on each program, with Adventure split into two pods of 12

Dates: Adventure ran five six-day sessions and Immersion two eleven-day sessions in the 2026 cycle

Application Deadline: None. Rolling until full, and every 2026 session sold out

Next cycle: 2027 not posted. Register as soon as the schedule appears, given last year sold out

Eligibility: Grades 9 to 12 for both programs

Students work hands-on at the sea turtle hospital, feeding animals and cleaning tanks, and join nest patrols and nighttime hatchling watches. The rest of the week covers beach sweeps and marine debris study, salt marsh kayaking, dissections, water quality testing, species identification and behind-the-scenes access at the NC Aquarium, with Immersion adding sampling trawls aboard research vessels and a Discover Scuba class. Adventure earns 15 community service hours and Immersion 25, with a service letter. The output here is service hours rather than data, so treat this as a conservation and volunteering camp rather than a research one, and note the price per day is the steepest on the page. Partial scholarships of up to 75% exist, though households over $50,000 are unlikely to qualify and applications closed February 1 last cycle. Be careful with pricing found elsewhere: the camp’s $2,820 Carolina Ocean Odyssey is a grades 5 to 8 program and is often misreported as the high school one.

Who is it right for? Students who want direct animal care and conservation work, and who value documented service hours over research output.

18. Ocean and Climate Institute, Tabor Academy

Location: Tabor Academy, Marion, Massachusetts. Residential, full day or half day

Cost: $2,995 for one residential week, $1,100 full day, $695 half day

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: Six sessions in the 2026 cycle, one to seven weeks, residential running June 21 to August 1

Application Deadline: None published

Next cycle: 2027 not posted, and the fees page carries no year label at all. Registration opened November 3 and 17 last cycle, so the window is imminent

Eligibility: By age, not grade. Explorer is 7 to 15, Researcher is 11 to 18. High schoolers want Researcher

Tabor rebranded this from its former name, Marine Science Camp, and moved it to a separate domain, so older links redirect and the session split described on other lists no longer exists. The Institute offers residential and day tracks in ocean and climate science, but Tabor publishes no syllabus, technique list or student deliverable on its public pages, which makes the academic depth hard to judge from outside. It sits alongside Tabor Sailing School at identical pricing. At this price point, email the program and ask what the week actually contains before committing. Note also that scholarships go to charitable organizations rather than to families, so individual families generally cannot apply, and only the one-week option counts as a camp rather than a program.

Who is it right for? Southeastern Massachusetts students who want a boarding-school setting and are willing to ask directly what they are buying.

19. Marine Biology, National Student Leadership Conference

Location: Duke University, North Carolina, and UC Berkeley, California. Residential only

Cost: $4,495 at both locations, excluding travel to and from

Cohort size: Not publicly available

Dates: Nine days. Duke ran July 6 to 14 and July 18 to 26, Berkeley June 12 to 20 and June 24 to July 2

Application Deadline: Rolling, with suggested seasonal deadlines. Full sessions show as waitlisted

Next cycle: 2027 dates and locations are announced in the fall, so imminent. Early access signup is open now

Eligibility: Ages 14 to 18 with at least one year of high school completed

Sessions combine marine anatomy dissection workshops, fish identification field surveys, coral nursery conservation strategy design, marine protected area management exercises and fisheries population estimation. Field trips at Duke include the Duke University Marine Laboratory, the Nicholas School of the Environment, wetland parks and a coastal cruise; at Berkeley, UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, tide pooling at Point Reyes and the Marine Mammal Center. One American University credit is available for $1,044, completed at home afterwards. Be clear about what this is: NSLC is a leadership organization, the nine days include a leadership curriculum covering communication, resilience and empathy, and the marine content is largely simulation and exercise based, with visits to serious institutions rather than embedded work inside them. Other lists place this program at the University of Miami and the University of British Columbia, which are in fact the home institutions of two guest speakers.

Who is it right for? Students who want a structured residential experience with a leadership component and a recognizable campus name, and who are not expecting research output.

One more option: Horizon Academic Research Program

Horizon isn’t a camp and runs a full term. But if you’ve read this far and none of the 19 fits, because of where you live or what grade you’re in or what’s already closed, it’s a perfect alternative worth knowing about.

You get matched with a professor or PhD mentor and work one on one for the term, turning a single question into a research paper. The life science courses are Gene Editing and CRISPR, Protein Biophysics, Neuroscience, Computational Neuroscience, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Environmental Health and Engineering, and Bio-Industry, so you pick the specific thing you care about. Seminar groups run 3 to 6 students and the Labs track is one to one, with 15 mentor sessions plus 4 with a writing coach. Tuition is $6,950 with need-based aid for families under $75,000, and you’ll need an unweighted GPA of 3.67 or equivalent. Cohorts start three times a year and it’s fully online, so your zip code doesn’t decide anything.

The real difference is what you leave with. A camp gives you a week of technique and a clearer sense of whether you like this. Horizon gives you a paper that belongs to you, which you can submit to a journal or a competition yourself.

Frequently asked questions

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Image source: Roger Williams University