AI Summer Programs for High School Students: 2027 Guide

The short answer

For summer 2027, CMU AI Scholars is a free four-week residential AI program in Pittsburgh for rising seniors (June 26 to July 24, 2027; apply by February 1, 2027), and MIT Beaver Works offers AI courses such as CogWorks for students no higher than 11th grade. Modern Age Coders runs live online AI and Python classes for teenagers 13 to 18 all summer, as a batch or one to one.

A summer with a teacher

Three courses a teenager can start this summer

Each runs live with a regular teacher, so a summer of learning has someone checking the work every week.

ASPH / 01

Vibe coding for teens, 13 to 17

Three months: Python, web and AI projects, a natural summer length.

Open the syllabus →

AI and Machine Learning for Teens course thumbnail

ASPH / 02

Machine learning for teenagers

Start in summer, continue through the school year at the same pace.

Open the syllabus →

ASPH / 03

Python from the first line

For a teenager who wants the foundations before any AI program asks for them.

Open the syllabus →

Summer 2027

The AI summer programs we could verify, and who each is for

Every row below comes from the program's own pages, read on 17 October 2026. We list only programs that are run by a university or a university lab and publish their eligibility rules. Paid commercial camps are left out because their terms change too often to check.

AI summer programs for US high schoolers, summer 2027 (from the programs' own pages, read 17 October 2026)
Program	Run by	Who	Format	Dates and deadline
AI Scholars	Carnegie Mellon University	Between grades 11 and 12, aged 16 by June 26, 2027, U.S. citizen or permanent resident	Residential, four weeks, Pittsburgh	June 26 to July 24, 2027; apply by February 1, 2027; decisions April 1, 2027
CS Scholars	Carnegie Mellon University	Rising juniors	Residential, four weeks	Completers may be invited back for AI Scholars a year later
BWSI: CogWorks	MIT Beaver Works	No higher than 11th grade, living or at school in the US	Listed as virtual	July 5 to August 1 on the 2027 schedule, after free online prerequisites
BWSI: Serious Games with AI	MIT Beaver Works	Same as CogWorks	Listed as virtual	Same 2027 schedule

Two that people expect, and why they are not here

AI4ALL is often recommended for high schoolers, but its own home page now describes AI4ALL Ignite as a "no-cost virtual accelerator for college students". A high school student should look elsewhere for now.

Universities also run paid pre-college courses, some with AI in the title. They can be good, but their fees and selectivity vary, so we suggest reading each one's own page rather than any list, including this one.

What the free programs have in common

They choose students. CMU calls AI Scholars merit-based and BWSI says summer enrollment is competitive, so applying is not the same as attending.

They expect preparation. CMU runs a virtual Python course a month before arrival; BWSI requires online prerequisite courses before it sends the summer application. A student who starts Python in the spring arrives ready.

Sources, read 17 October 2026: CMU AI Scholars, CMU CS Scholars, BWSI programs, the BWSI FAQ and AI4ALL. We are not connected with Carnegie Mellon, MIT or AI4ALL. For research-heavy summers, see our summer research programs guide.

Carnegie Mellon

CMU AI Scholars: four weeks of AI for rising seniors

CMU describes AI Scholars as a four-week residential experience at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, built around AI for students about to start senior year. CMU says all program costs are covered and that there is no option for participants to pay out of pocket tuition fees for this program.

What a summer 2027 AI Scholar does, from CMU's program page (read 17 October 2026)
Part	What CMU says
Before arrival	A Virtual Pre-Program Python Course, approximately one month before arrival; prior coding experience is not required
Core teaching	Core AI Curriculum: Taught by Carnegie Mellon faculty, introducing foundational computing and AI concepts
Research	An introduction to ongoing research projects led by CMU faculty and graduate students
Group project	Collaborative projects led by faculty, graduate students or postdoctoral researchers
Writing	All students leave the program with a completed college application essay
Finish	A Capstone Symposium on the final day, where groups present publicly
Days	Classes, lectures and projects Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The rules that catch families out

It is residential: admitted students must live in the CMU dorms for the full program, and CMU says participation in any concurrent summer program, virtual or in person, is not permitted. A student cannot pair it with a summer job or another course.

Age and grade are both checked. The page says you must be 16 years of age by June 26, 2027 and between your 11th and 12th grade years that summer.

How to prepare from now

CMU says no coding experience is necessary, so the strongest preparation is not a crash course. It is genuine interest you can show: a small project, a question you followed, a club you started.

The application deadline is February 1, 2027, with decisions released on April 1, 2027. Students who are tenth graders this year can look at CMU CS Scholars first; CMU says completers may be invited back as rising seniors.

MIT Beaver Works

MIT Beaver Works: AI courses inside a wider summer institute

The Beaver Works Summer Institute runs many engineering courses. Two are built around AI, and both are listed as virtual, which matters for families outside Massachusetts.

CogWorks

BWSI says the course was created in 2017 and has three distinct modules, which focus on applications of machine learning in the domains of audio, vision, and language. All lectures are paired with detailed Python-based exercises, and capstone teams use tools like git and VSCode.

Serious Games with AI

Students learn game design and AI basics, then work in groups to create their own modifications to a game and investigate a research question of their choosing, using AI to see how a computer handles hard decisions inside the game.

The prerequisites

The online prerequisite courses are free. BWSI says many courses require the Python Core and Computer Science and Systems (CSS) courses alongside the preferred course, and that all online courses remain open for independent learners even if they are not accepted.

BWSI rules for summer 2027, from its FAQ and apply pages (read 17 October 2026)
Rule	What BWSI says
Grade	In a grade level no higher than a junior (11th grade); accepted students are generally rising seniors
Where students live	Only students who live or attend high school in the United States and are registered for the online course are sent the summer application
Schedule	Monday to Friday, July 5 to August 1 on the 2027 schedule
In-person courses	We will not offer a residential program; in-person students arrange their own housing with an adult present
Selection	Competitive; grades in the online courses are an important part of enrollment decisions

The free online prerequisites are useful even for students who never apply. They are a structured, self-paced start in Python from an MIT lab, and BWSI keeps them open to independent learners. A student who works through them in spring and then takes a live class in summer gets both the structure and the feedback.

Choosing

Residential, virtual or at home: which summer fits

Our comparison, for families deciding in the fall. It is a judgment, not a ranking: each route suits a different teenager.

Three ways to spend an AI summer (ours)
Route	Suits	Watch out for
Residential program (CMU AI Scholars)	A rising senior ready to live away for four weeks	Early deadline; nothing else that summer
Virtual program (BWSI CogWorks)	A junior or younger student who did the prerequisites	Competitive entry; a strict July schedule
Live classes at home	Any teenager, any grade, any start date	Needs a plan and a finished project to mean anything
Self-study alone	A very self-driven student	Hard to sustain without weekly feedback

Check eligibility first. Grade, age on a specific date, and citizenship or residence each rule a student in or out before anything else matters.
Mark the deadlines now. February 1, 2027 for CMU AI Scholars; BWSI sends its summer application only to students in its online prerequisites.
Start Python before applying. Both programs prepare students in Python; arriving fluent makes the summer about AI, not syntax.
Keep a home plan in reserve. Selective programs cannot take everyone who applies. A plan B that is already written makes a no less disappointing.
Pick one project for the summer. Whatever the route, finish one thing that you can show and explain in September.

Plan B is a good plan

An eight-week AI summer a student can run from home

Any teenager can learn AI over a summer at home. This is our plan for that summer: eight weeks, about six to eight hours a week, ending in one project. It works with live classes or alone, though feedback each week is what keeps it on track.

Eight weeks of AI at home, for a high schooler with a little Python (ours)
Week	Learn	Make
1	Python refresher: lists, loops, functions	Ten small programs, each under 20 lines
2	Data: loading a dataset, looking at it	A short description of the digits dataset
3	A first model and a test set	The learning-curve script below, run and explained
4	Why models fail: overfitting	One page on the gap between training and test scores
5	Choose a question of your own	A one-sentence question and a dataset to answer it
6	Build and test	A model, a baseline and a results table
7	Improve one thing at a time	Three changes, each with its effect recorded
8	Write it up and show it	A readme, a short demo and what you would do next

Rising ninth and tenth graders

Spend weeks 1 to 4 slowly and stop at a well-explained first model. That is a strong summer at 14 or 15.

Rising eleventh graders

Do all eight weeks, and use week 5 to choose a question that could grow into next year's fair project.

Rising seniors

Finish the project early so August is free for applications. A clear write-up is worth more than a bigger model.

Week 3, in code

The summer project in miniature: does more data make a model better?

This is the week 3 script from the plan above. It is ours: it trains the same decision tree on more and more handwritten digit images and tests each one on the same 500 held-back images. Our test run used Python 3.13 and scikit-learn 1.7.2, on 17 October 2026.

A learning curve in 15 linespython

# Summer week 3: does more data help? (ours)
from sklearn.datasets import load_digits
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
from sklearn.tree import DecisionTreeClassifier

X, y = load_digits(return_X_y=True)
X_pool, X_test, y_pool, y_test = train_test_split(
    X, y, test_size=500, random_state=0, stratify=y)

for n in [50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1297]:
    tree = DecisionTreeClassifier(random_state=0)
    tree.fit(X_pool[:n], y_pool[:n])
    acc = tree.score(X_test, y_test)
    print(f"trained on {n:4} images: {acc:.3f}")

Output on our run: 50 images 0.440, 100 images 0.604, 200 images 0.674, 400 images 0.792, 800 images 0.808, 1297 images 0.844. The dataset has 1797 images, so after holding back 500 for testing, 1797 - 500 = 1297 are left to train on.

What the numbers say

Accuracy climbs from 0.440 to 0.844 as the training set grows, a gain of 0.844 - 0.440 = 0.404, our arithmetic. The jumps shrink as the data grows: doubling from 400 to 800 images added only 0.016.

That flattening is the most useful thing a student learns all summer. It means the next improvement will come from a better model or better features, not just more of the same data.

Making it yours in weeks 5 to 8

Swap the decision tree for another classifier and draw both curves on one chart. Or collect your own small dataset and ask whether it is big enough to learn from.

Keep test_size and random_state fixed while you experiment. scikit-learn's score method returns accuracy on the data you pass it, so the comparison is only fair if every model sees the same test images.

For more project ideas at this level, our AI projects for high school students page climbs from a first model to research-grade work, and how to train machine learning models covers the craft in more depth.

From curious to ready

Four stages between a first AI tutorial and a selective summer program

Where a teenager is in the fall, and what the next summer can realistically achieve.

Readiness for an AI summer program (ours)
Stage	What you would notice
1. Curious	Uses AI tools and wants to know how they work
2. Started	Writes simple Python and has run someone else's model
3. Building	Has trained and tested a model of their own
4. Ready	Has one finished project they can explain to a stranger

For parents

Stage 2 by the spring is enough to apply to the programs above. Stage 4 by the next fall is what makes a student stand out anywhere.

A summer at home that ends at stage 3 or 4 is a real achievement, admitted to a program or not.

For students

Pick the summer route by your stage, not by the program's name. A program you are not ready for is a stressful four weeks.

Write a little every week about what you built. By August it becomes your project write-up.

The course catalog

Nine courses for an AI summer and beyond

All live online with a regular teacher, in a batch or one to one, starting any week of the summer.

I

Start here

Ages 13 to 18

ASPH / STR / 01

Python for teens

The language every program on this page asks for.

Open the syllabus

ASPH / STR / 02

Vibe coding for teens

Three months of building with AI, explained line by line.

Open the syllabus

ASPH / STR / 03

AI tools for teens (13+)

Prompting and checking, for ages 13 and up.

Open the syllabus

II

Go deeper

Ages 13 to 18

ASPH / DPR / 01

AI and ML for teens

Models trained, tested and explained.

Open the syllabus

ASPH / DPR / 02

Data science for teens

From a raw table to a defensible chart.

Open the syllabus

ASPH / DPR / 03

Orange data mining

Visual machine learning before the code.

Open the syllabus

III

Show it off

Teens

ASPH / SHW / 01

Hackathon preparation

A summer project, pitched in five minutes.

Open the syllabus

ASPH / SHW / 02

App development for teens

Put a trained model inside an app.

Open the syllabus

ASPH / SHW / 03

Problem solving for teens

The reasoning behind clean, fast code.

Open the syllabus

How lessons run

Summer classes that bend around vacations

Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays.

Weekdays

Morning or evening slots across US time zones.

Weekends

Weekend mornings around summer jobs and trips.

1-on-1

Paused for a family vacation, resumed after.

One teacher all summer

Someone who sees the project grow each week.

The eight-week plan

Used as the backbone, adjusted to the student.

Code in every class

Typed, run and debugged live.

A finished project

The goal for the summer, agreed in week one.

From home

Live video, in any state.

Batch or private

Fifteen to twenty students, or one to one.

Student work

Projects our teenage students have built

The kind of finished work a summer should end with. See more in the student labs.

AI and ML

NutriLife

An AI nutrition coach that reads what you eat and works you toward a target.

by Bhavya · Open it

AI and ML

Misti

A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student.

by Harshit · Open it

AI and ML

GuardianX

An assistant that helps a young person recognise unsafe situations online.

by Vivaan · Open it

Web app

SkyCast

A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.

by Krish

Fees

The university programs above set their own terms. Our summer classes are paid month by month in US dollars, with nothing to sign for the whole summer, so a family can stop after July if plans change.

Free first class

USD 0

no card required

A free first class
Bring your summer goal
No card details

Book it

Group batch

USD 100

a month, billed in US dollars

Fifteen to twenty students
One regular teacher
Choose your batch
Monthly

Start here

One to one

USD 150

a month, billed in US dollars

A teacher to yourself
Built around vacations
Times at your convenience

Enquire

What families say

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

What parents said on Google, as they wrote it.

★★★★★

"The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content."

Ria Mukherjee

Parent

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease."

Samriddha Mondal

Student

★★★★★

"One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development."

Vansh Agarwal

Student

★★★★★

"My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative."

Sonam Oswal

Parent of Dhairya

★★★★★

"Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation."

Sonu Goyal

Parent

★★★★★

"I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding."

Ritu Kedia

Parent

Questions from families

AI summer programs for teenagers: common questions

What AI summer programs are there for high school students?

Two university options we verified for summer 2027 are Carnegie Mellon's AI Scholars, a four-week residential program for rising seniors, and MIT Beaver Works courses such as CogWorks, listed as virtual. Paid university and commercial camps exist too.

When is the CMU AI Scholars 2027 deadline?

CMU lists the application deadline as February 1, 2027, with decisions released on April 1, 2027. The program runs from June 26 to July 24, 2027.

Is CMU AI Scholars free?

CMU describes it as fully funded, says all program costs are covered, and says there is no option for participants to pay tuition themselves.

Do I need coding experience for an AI summer program?

Not always. CMU says no coding experience is necessary for AI Scholars and runs a virtual Python course before arrival. BWSI requires its free online prerequisite courses, which teach the Python its courses use.

Can a senior attend MIT Beaver Works?

No. The BWSI FAQ says students must be in a grade level no higher than a junior, and it does not accept current seniors. Accepted students are generally rising seniors.

Is AI4ALL a summer program for high schoolers?

Not at present. AI4ALL's home page describes its main program, AI4ALL Ignite, as a no-cost virtual accelerator for college students.

What should my teenager do if they are not accepted?

Run the summer at home with a plan and a finished project. Our eight-week plan on this page is built for that, and BWSI keeps its online courses open to independent learners even if they are not accepted.

Are you connected with CMU or MIT?

No. We are an independent online school. The program facts on this page come from the programs' own pages, linked so you can check them.

When are your summer classes?

Weekdays or weekends, flexible: choose your batch, or for a very personalised plan choose 1-on-1 at your convenience, weekend mornings or weekdays.

How much are your summer classes?

The first class is free. After that, families pay monthly with no summer-long contract, and the fees section of this page shows the figure in US dollars.

Elsewhere on this site

Related pages

More for US teenagers planning a summer.

Coding classes in the USA

Our full set of pages for American families.

Summer research programs

RSI, PRIMES and SSP, and how to prepare.

Summer coding camp

Our own live summer camp.

AI classes for teenagers

The year-round AI track, ages 13 to 18.

AI projects

What to build once the basics are in place.

AI tool age guide

Which AI tools are open to under-18s.

AI literacy for elementary students

AI literacy for K-5: what it means, what standards expect, and two activities.

Machine learning competitions for high school students

ML and AI competitions for US high schoolers, 2026-27, from the official rules.

AI courses for high school students

AI courses for US high schoolers: school, free online and live, compared on what they actually teach.

Start here

Book a free first class

Tell us what your teenager wants from the summer: a program application, a project, or just a solid start. The first class turns that into a week-by-week plan.

To see a class before booking, read how we teach, or look through every course and its syllabus.

WhatsApp us · +91 91233 66161 · connect@modernagecoders.com

Our teachers work from India on live video, so summer classes run in every US state, including Alaska and Hawaii. WhatsApp is the quickest way to ask us anything.

Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo

A priority demo is a full class of about 45 to 60 minutes. After the class the mentor sends a written skill report and a personal learning roadmap on WhatsApp. If you enrol, the demo fee is adjusted against your first month's fee. Share your demo Order ID with us on WhatsApp and we take it off.

Book a priority demo

Three courses a teenager can start this summer

Vibe coding for teens, 13 to 17

Machine learning for teenagers

Python from the first line

The AI summer programs we could verify, and who each is for

Two that people expect, and why they are not here

What the free programs have in common

CMU AI Scholars: four weeks of AI for rising seniors

The rules that catch families out

How to prepare from now

MIT Beaver Works: AI courses inside a wider summer institute

CogWorks

Serious Games with AI

The prerequisites

Residential, virtual or at home: which summer fits

An eight-week AI summer a student can run from home

Rising ninth and tenth graders

Rising eleventh graders

Rising seniors

The summer project in miniature: does more data make a model better?

What the numbers say

Making it yours in weeks 5 to 8

Four stages between a first AI tutorial and a selective summer program

For parents

For students

Nine courses for an AI summer and beyond

Start here

Python for teens

Vibe coding for teens

AI tools for teens (13+)

Go deeper

AI and ML for teens

Data science for teens

Orange data mining

Show it off

Hackathon preparation

App development for teens

Problem solving for teens

Summer classes that bend around vacations

One teacher all summer

The eight-week plan

Code in every class

A finished project

From home

Batch or private

Projects our teenage students have built

NutriLife

Misti

GuardianX

SkyCast

Fees

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

AI summer programs for teenagers: common questions

What AI summer programs are there for high school students?

When is the CMU AI Scholars 2027 deadline?

Is CMU AI Scholars free?

Do I need coding experience for an AI summer program?

Can a senior attend MIT Beaver Works?

Is AI4ALL a summer program for high schoolers?

What should my teenager do if they are not accepted?

Are you connected with CMU or MIT?

When are your summer classes?

How much are your summer classes?

Related pages

Book a free first class

Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo

Keep exploring Modern Age Coders

Related courses and guides

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