Best Summer Programs in Boston 鈥� 2025

December 4, 2024

Boston: home to die-hard Red Sox devotees, the USS Constitution, dropped r鈥檚, and the Freedom Trail. You can also throw a rock in any direction and hit a highly selective college, including Harvard, MIT, Tufts, and Boston University. Founded in 1630, Boston is steeped in history, featuring many prominent American Revolution-era sites such as the Old North Church and the Bunker Hill Monument. As such, if you鈥檙e lucky enough to earn a spot at a Boston summer program, there鈥檚 no chance you鈥檒l run out of things to do. Just don鈥檛 wear Yankees apparel within a five-mile radius of Fenway on game day, ask anyone to say 鈥減ark the car in Harvard yard,鈥� or neglect to budget plenty of line-waiting time at Mike鈥檚 Pastry (yes, it鈥檚 worth it). Ready to pack your bags for the Bay State? Keep scrolling to view our best Boston summer programs for high school students.

Best Boston Summer Programs for High School Students

1)听

Location: Boston, MA
Residential?: Most have residential and commuter options except for Summer Challenge, which is only residential
Program Length: Between one and six weeks
Cost: $1,808-$6,830, plus room & board (if residential)
Eligibility: Most programs are for rising juniors and/or seniors, but several cater to younger students.
Application Deadline: Rolling except High School Honors (May) and RISE (February)

BU offers a variety of highly respected summer options. Looking for a taste of the college social experience? Rising eighth, ninth, and tenth graders can participate in the week-long program. Hoping to experience college life alongside other high school students? During the program, students spend two weeks partaking in two seminar courses. For example, these could include Abnormal Psychology, the Chemistry of Medicine, and Persuasive Writing. Want to earn college credit? The program, a six-week intensive where students take classes alongside BU undergrads, might be up your alley.

In addition, BU offers , which is a three-week deep dive into either psychology, medicine, creative writing, or business. And last but certainly not least is , a renowned Boston summer program. RISE鈥揜esearch in Science and Engineering鈥搃s a six-week program where students conduct laboratory research alongside BU faculty.

Although all Boston University high school summer programs have an application process, differing materials are required. For example, Summer Preview requires a personal statement and transcripts while RISE requires essays, recommendations, test scores, and transcripts.

2) Wentworth Institute of Technology Pre-College Programs

Location: Boston, MA
Residential?: Residential and commuter programs available
Program Length: 1-4 weeks
Cost: ImpactLab/Momentum: $599-$6,990; SummerFAB: Free
Eligibility: Varies depending on program
Application Deadline: Rolling; application opens in January

The Wentworth Pre-College Programs offer a diverse range of immersive summer experiences for high school students to explore STEM fields, design, engineering, and more. These programs combine hands-on learning with real-world applications to build critical skills and help students discover their passions.

For example, during ImpactLab, rising juniors and seniors have the opportunity to try out a STEM major before college, living on Wentworth鈥檚 campus while diving into science, engineering, and design. Freshman or sophomore? Check out Momentum, which provides an interdisciplinary approach to science, engineering, and design, allowing participants to explore various career pathways while developing future skills. Finally, SummerFAB鈥攅xclusively for Boston-area teens鈥攊s Wentworth’s four-week, fully grant-funded architecture program that focuses on the built environment. Here, high school students collaborate with Wentworth faculty and architecture students to design and construct community-driven solutions to local challenges.

Interested in Wentworth’s programs? Registration is first-come, first-served, so you’ll want to be on the early side with your application.

3)

Location: Boston, MA
Residential?: Residential
Program Length: Two weeks
Cost: $6,895
Eligibility: Rising juniors and seniors
Application Deadline: Rolling

Northeastern offers immersive, experiential summer programs for high schoolers, taught by NU faculty. At this time, they offer 13 two-week programs in language, writing, bioengineering, cybersecurity, drug discovery, engineering, ethics, entrepreneurship, physics, gaming, and health professions. Programs feature a combination of learning and hands-on experience. For example, in Drug Discovery to Clinical Care program, students learn about the life cycle of medications, gain experience in pharmaceutical and clinical research, visit facilities, and participate in hands-on medication compounding. In general, students can expect to be in class for approximately seven hours per day, with homework and group projects to be completed in the evenings.

Moreover, all students live in residence halls on Northeastern’s campus, eat at Northeastern’s dining facilities, and have plenty of opportunities to explore campus. There is also plenty of social programming and activities, both on campus and within Boston’s many vibrant neighborhoods.

To apply to these Boston summer programs, students must fill out an application, submit a transcript, and craft a short personal statement. They can also submit an optional teacher recommendation.

4) Futures Forge

Location: Boston, MA
Residential?: Yes
Program Length: 2 Weeks
Cost: $5,690 (Boarding)
Eligibility: 80th percentile (nationally) scoring on one of the following tests: SAT, ACT, PSAT 10, PSAT 11, GCSE, WISC, Raven鈥檚, other IQ tests.
Application Deadline: Rolling

Futures Forge鈥檚 immersive, hands-on programs instill adaptability, leadership, Grit and real-world problem-solving abilities. The curriculum, crafted by serial founders from MIT and Oxford sets up students to tackle dynamic, project-driven challenges, preparing them to excel in college, internships, and their future careers. Students gain: Increased confidence, knowledge of how to increase performance and self-motivation, understanding of your strengths & development areas in skills & attributes, and personalized growth plan from the lead facilitators.

Boston Summer Programs 鈥� Continued

5)

Location: Medford, MA
Residential?: Residential and commuter options available
Program Length: 1-2 weeks
Cost: $3,525-$6,750
Eligibility: Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors, though some are only open to juniors and seniors
Application Deadline: May, though some close earlier due to high application volume

Tufts offers a variety of Boston summer programs that feature intensive exploration, small group work, capstone projects, and portfolio creation. Interested students can choose from such courses as Business Essentials, Engineering Design Lab, Studio Art, Climate Resilience Institute, and Mini Med School. During Mini Med School, a very popular option, students learn about careers in medicine from faculty and students at the Tufts University School of Medicine, develop hands-on skills like suturing, and create a capstone project that explores a health topic of choice.

All programs are 1-2 weeks, and require an application that includes teacher recommendations and transcripts. However, some request additional materials. For example, Mini Med School applicants must be 16+ and have a year of high school biology under their belts. Likewise, prospective Studio Art participants need to submit artwork samples.

6)

Location: Boston, MA
Residential?: Residential, commuter, and online options available
Program Length: Three days to five weeks
Cost: Tuition ranges from $777 for a three-day program to $5,430 for the five-week program. This does not include potential housing.
Eligibility: Varies, but students typically need to be between the ages of 15 and 20
Application Deadline: Rolling

At world-renowned Berklee, students can choose from quite a few in-person and online Boston summer programs. Moreover, many courses are led by Grammy or Tony Award-winning artists. Most are between three days and two weeks long and do not require an audition, though many have prerequisites. For example, Piano/Keyboard Workshop students must have six months of playing experience while Musical Theater Dance Intensive students must possess significant dance training. A sampling of the 30+ current options includes Bass Workshop, Commercial Dance Intensive, Gospel Performance, and Music Business.

In addition, Berklee鈥檚 five-week option is considered to be one of the crown jewels of music summer programs. All students select one instrument (voice included) and develop their skills through a mix of private instruction, theory, and performance training. This program culminates with a final concert.

7)

Location: Cambridge, MA
Residential?: Residential
Program Length: Six weeks
Cost: None
Eligibility: High school juniors only
Application Deadline: January

RSI鈥搕he Research Science Institute鈥搃s a six-week summer program for students about to enter their senior year of high school. As one of the most highly competitive Boston summer programs, RSI only accepts 100 students. However, it is completely cost-free.

Firstly, students take one week of STEM coursework with MIT professors. Then, for the remaining five weeks, students 鈥渆xperience the entire research cycle start to finish.鈥� Consequently, they participate in an intensive, mentored individual project experience that culminates in a written and oral presentation.

The program states that they look for students who are exceptionally academically talented. As such, the application process is quite intensive. PSAT Math scores must be over 740 and ACT Math scores must be over 33. In addition, students must write several essays, acquire teacher recommendations, and provide transcripts.

Final Thoughts 鈥� Boston Summer Programs

Whether you鈥檙e interested in a hands-on experience at one of Wentworth’s summer programs, an exciting foray into creative writing at the Boston University high school summer programs, or an intensive musical theater experience at Berklee, Boston has something for you.

Looking for more summer program resources? Be sure to check out the following:

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Kelsea Conlin

Kelsea holds a BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Tufts University, a graduate certificate in College Counseling from UCLA, and an MA in Teaching Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Her short fiction has appeared in Chautauqua and she is a co-author of Colleges Worth Your Money: A Guide to What America's Top Schools Can Do For You.

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