Pre-College Program student in class

Pre-College Programs

Pre-College Programs

Residential program or fully online programCourses offered online

Residential program or fully online program

Earn undergraduate credit

Undergraduate credit offered

Eligibility: Current 10th-11th grade students

Eligibility: Current 10th-11th grade students

International students welcome

International students welcome

July 2 – August 10, 2024

  • Residential move-in date: July 2
  • Move-out date: August 10

Applications for summer 2024 are now closed. The applications for summer 2025 will open in late fall 2024. Please sign up to receive more information.

The Pre-College Programs are designed for academically curious high school students interested in the intellectual challenge of Ivy League academics. Students enroll in credit-bearing undergraduate courses from a wide array of disciplines taught by Penn faculty, staff, and visiting scholars and are in class alongside other Penn undergrads. A majority of the courses are 1 credit until (c.u.)* unless the course has a required lab, and then the course is generally 1.5 c.u.

The Pre-College Programs are offered in two distinct formats:


*Academic credit is defined by the University of Pennsylvania as a course unit (c.u.). A course unit (c.u.) is a general measure of academic work over a period of time, typically a term (semester or summer). A c.u. (or a fraction of a c.u.) represents different types of academic work across different types of academic programs and is the basic unit of progress toward a degree. One c.u. is usually converted to a four-semester-hour course.