Data Science Summer Programs for High School Students: How to Take Advantage of Your Summers
As high school students start to focus on their applications, it becomes important to have experience in the subject you want to pursue in college. Summer programs are a great way to get lots of knowledge, work with experts, and not have the simultaneous stress of school work.
If you are interested in data science, summer programs can be especially valuable to you and for your application. In this post, we will be talking about what data science summer programs consist of, what the benefits are of participating in one, and some of the best programs available; both free and with fees.
What do you do in data science summer programs for high school students?
Data science summer programs will vary significantly depending on the length and cost of the program. Programs that last several weeks and are expensive will likely have a larger variety of opportunities available, providing the chance to work under experts and professors that teach the topic, and they will likely be much more selective. You will get to work on large scale projects and take high-level courses.
In programs that are less costly, you will still be guided through learning about all the principles and topics involved in data science. These topics will range from data visualization and algorithms to deep learning and neural networks. You will also likely get to practice these skills in a project-based manner, and this will be an opportunity for you to test your data science skills in the field.
What are the benefits of participating in data science summer programs for high school students?
Data science summer programs for high school students are a very beneficial and educational experience for any student who decides to participate in one. We will talk about some of the many benefits below.
Collaboration with other students and mentors
Having the opportunity to work with students around your age who share the same passions as you has innumerable benefits. You can learn a world of things from the people you meet at these data science summer programs, and you have the chance to make friends and contacts. In addition, working with mentors can help you learn at another level. Mentors can guide you through learning data science topics in an understandable way, and you don’t have the pressure of trying to figure things out by yourself.
Working with experts and professors
A majority of the data science summer programs available for high school students are hosted and led by prestigious universities. Participating in these programs usually means that you get to work with students and professors at the university who specialize in data science and are well-known for their expertise in data science.
For example, Wharton, the esteemed business school at the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard, a very well-known and also highly decorated university, host prestigious data science summer programs for high school students that offer the opportunity to take classes under their professors and also interact with post-graduate students. This can be a very beneficial experience for students who want the chance to learn from people who are highly educated in data science. They may even get the chance to take up research opportunities with the experts they meet.
Having contact with knowledgeable people like college professors who have experience teaching a host of different students can teach you many key concepts and also prepare you for a college environment. Many universities that host data science summer programs for high school students provide residential opportunities for participants, where you can spend time on campus and in university-like data science classes and get a feel for what it is like to be in a college atmosphere.
You get to work on data science projects!
Learning data science principles through lectures can be very helpful to students who want to have a career in data science, but another key way of learning important data science concepts is to implement the concepts that you have been taught about in hands-on projects. No matter what data science summer program for high school students you choose, they will always have some project element of their program where you get to develop a project and put into action all of the amazing skills you have gained during your time in the program.
The extent and amount of these data science projects may depend on the cost and prestigiousness of the data science summer program you choose to apply to. The more costly the program, the more projects you are likely to do and the more resources and mentorship they are likely to provide. DO NOT let this discourage you, however, because there are still so many great cheap or even free programs like Girls Who Code, which is a free program which provides a host of project opportunities to high school girls which have an impact in society.
On this note, we will now talk about some well-known data science summer programs for high students.
What are some good data science summer programs for high school students?
Here, I will list some amazing data science summer programs for high school students, both with a fee and free. As for the free programs, just because they are free does not at all mean that they are not as good. There are so many amazing organizations who want to help high school students build their data science skills, and the cost they charge for the program is not a sole indicator of the program’s worth.
Top 3 Best Data Science Summer Programs (with a fee)
Wharton Global Youth's Data Science Academy
Wharton Global Youth’s Data Science Academy allows high school students the opportunity to learn under Wharton professors and design their own data science projects. Students will learn about different data science techniques involving visualizing data, machine learning, and wrangling.
You will learn all about how to acquire and prepare data, as well as exploring and visualizing data. You will also learn about statistics, probability, modeling, and machine learning, among a host of other things.
Keep in mind, however, that this program only accepts 75 students, so it is one of the most prestigious data science summer programs that are offered to high school students.
Cost: $9,099
Location: University of Pennsylvania
Application deadline: January 25 (Priority); April 5 (Final), taken from previous years
Program dates: July 16 to August 5, taken from previous years
Eligibility: 10th to 11th grade students with a minimum 3.3 unweighted GPA and some math and programming experience.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies: Data Science
This program introduces high school students to topics like data visualization, machine learning, algorithms/models, and R programming, which is a key language for data science. In this program, you get a chance to work under lots of renown Stanford instructors.
This program is highly beneficial, but doesn’t have much of a prestige factor because they accept many students into their programs. It is still very helpful to building crucial abilities needed for a data science career.
Cost: $3,050
Location: Stanford University
Application deadline: March 15, taken from previous years
Program dates: June 19 to June 30 (Session 1); July 10 to July 21 (Session 2), taken from previous years
Eligibility: Any students from grades 8-11, need to have taken AP Statistics or a computer science course
Harvard Pre-College Program: Data Science
This is a great data science summer program for high school students offered by Harvard University, diving into decision-making with data and data analysis. This program is split into two weeks.
The first week addresses how to use python to find and organize data sets on the web. The week will finish off with data visualization and a guided 2-day project. The second week will dive deeper into visualization using Javascript to create models.
Program completion will result in students receiving a written evaluation along with a Harvard transcript with their grade, which can be great to help with your college education and applications.
Cost: $5,300
Location: Harvard University (Massachusetts)
Application deadline: February 22 (for 2024)
Program dates: June 23 to July 5 for Session 1; July 7 to July 19 for Session 2; July 21st to August 2nd for Session 3 (for 2024)
Eligibility: Rising 11th and 12th graders
Great Free Data Science Summer Programs!
The University of Chicago's Data Science Institute Summer Lab
This is a spectacular 10-week paid research program for high school and undergraduate students. Students get paired with a mentor and get to learn about computer science, data science, social science, climate and energy policy, public policy, and more.
Through their mentors, students will learn about research methodologies and data science practices. At the conclusion of the program, participants will showcase their research in presentation videos. You can check out this link for information about alumni and previous projects!
Cost: Free, with a $6,000 stipend given to participants
Location: University of Chicago
Application deadline: Late fall (2024)
Program dates: June 12 to August 18 (2024)
Eligibility: High school and undergraduate students
Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program
This online program is available to any high school girls, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming students who have an interest in data and computer science. This is a self-paced program that allows participants to meet with leaders in the field, experience jobs in the data science industry, find support in an all-female community, and experience hands-on learning with various projects.
This program can be taken by students at various levels of knowledge, so students have no need to worry if they feel that their level of knowledge in the realm of data science and computer science is not up to standards.
Cost: None
Location: Online
Application deadline: TBD
Program dates: July 3 to August 11, taken from previous years
Eligibility: Students in grades 9-11 who identify as female, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming
Conclusion
As you can see, there are so many data science summer programs available to so many different levels and types of high school students. And even if you thought before that cost was a big limitation, check out these great free programs which are just as beneficial and educational. There are many opportunities available for high school students that are interested in data science and the summertime is a great time to seize these opportunities.
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
