United States · Grades 9 to 12 · The 2027 cycle

Computer science summer programs for high school students

Most strong computer science summer programs for high school students close their applications in winter, months before school lets out, and several set firm age and grade lines. We read four of them from their own 2027 pages: Carnegie Mellon’s CS Scholars and Pre-College Summer Session, MIT’s Beaver Works Summer Institute, and California’s COSMOS. Below are their published rules side by side, what a week of work looks like in their own hour counts, a table of which program fits which grade, and the twelve-month plan our teachers use so a student arrives at each deadline with real code behind the application.

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In short

For summer 2027, Carnegie Mellon’s CS Scholars (fully funded, four weeks, for rising juniors) closes on February 1, 2027; COSMOS (California students only) closes on February 5, 2027; MIT Beaver Works requires a free online prerequisite course that opens on February 1. Modern Age Coders is not one of these programs: we teach the Python and problem solving they assume, over live video, as a group class or privately.

Get ready with a teacher

The courses that build what these programs expect

Python first, then problem solving, then a portfolio piece. Each course is live, with the student’s own code reviewed.

Python for Teens course thumbnail

CSSP / 01

Python for teens

For 13 to 18 year olds, in the language CS Scholars uses.

Open the syllabus →
Problem Solving for Teens course thumbnail

CSSP / 02

Problem solving and algorithms

For 13 to 18 year olds: lists, dictionaries, stepwise thinking.

Open the syllabus →
AP Computer Science Principles course thumbnail

CSSP / 03

AP Computer Science Principles

High school. The Create task plus the exam.

Open the syllabus →

Four programs

Four computer science summer programs, from their own 2027 pages

This is not a ranking. Each row holds only what that program publishes about itself for the 2027 cycle, read on 17 October 2026. Programs change their rules every year, so check the live page before applying.

Computer science summer programs for high school students, 2027 cycle, from each program’s own page
ProgramWho it is forWhen and whereDeadline
CMU CS Scholars16 by June 26, 2027; in 10th grade when applying; US citizen or permanent residentJune 26 to July 24, 2027, residential in PittsburghFebruary 1, 2027 (decisions April 1, 2027)
CMU Pre-College Summer Session16 by the start date; a current sophomore or juniorJune 26 to August 7, 2027, resident or commuter; in person onlyScholarship round February 1, 2027; basic round March 1, 2027
MIT Beaver Works Summer InstituteGrades 10 to 11 at application, generally finishing junior year; living in the USJuly 5 to August 1, 2027, Monday to Friday; some courses virtual, some at MITA free online prerequisite course first; it opens February 1
COSMOSCalifornia high school students completing grades 8 to 12Four weeks, residential, at one of six University of California campusesOpens January 6, 2027; closes February 5, 2027, 11:59 PM

What CS Scholars actually teaches

Carnegie Mellon describes CS Scholars as a "four-week deep dive into computer science" and a "fully funded, merit-based program": tuition, housing, meal plans and some field trips are covered. Because it is fully funded, documentation of financial need is part of every application.

The programming course is in Python and covers variables, functions, conditionals, loops, lists and dictionaries, testing and debugging. The page says plainly that "no coding experience is necessary", and that students who complete it may be invited back to the AI Scholars program the following summer.

What COSMOS publishes about selection

COSMOS is a four-week residential program run across six University of California campuses: Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, San Diego and Santa Cruz. Students apply to one campus.

Its home page is unusually direct: each campus can take "about 150-250 participants", "The selection is competitive." and "A typical COSMOS student has a GPA of 3.5 or above." It is open only to California high school students.

Sources: CMU CS Scholars, CMU Pre-College Summer Session, MIT BWSI FAQ and application page, COSMOS, all read 17 October 2026. We are not connected with Carnegie Mellon University, MIT or the University of California, and we make no prediction about any admission decision.

The workload

What a week of summer computer science really costs in hours

College-credit summer courses move at twice the normal pace. Carnegie Mellon is one of the few programs that publishes the hours, and the numbers are worth reading before a student commits.

Weekly hours in CMU Pre-College Summer Session, from the program’s FAQ, with our totals
Course loadPublished hours per weekOur total for six weeks
One 9-unit course21126
One 12-unit course28168
A 9-unit and a 12-unit course (our sum)49294
Two 12-unit courses (our sum)56336

Reading the table

The FAQ says a student in a 9-unit course "should expect to spend 21 hours on average on that class per week", and 28 hours for a 12-unit course, both including class meetings. Residential students must take two courses for all six weeks.

Our arithmetic: two 12-unit courses come to 56 hours a week, more than a full-time job. That is why the program warns against summer jobs or test prep alongside it.

What the grades mean

Summer Session courses are the same undergraduate courses CMU students take, graded A, B, C, D or R. For Pre-College students in good standing, only A and B grades stay on the permanent Carnegie Mellon transcript.

The page is also clear that admission to Summer Session "does not guarantee admittance to Carnegie Mellon University" as an undergraduate, and that "We do not offer any courses online."

For CS Scholars, the published day runs Monday to Friday from morning into the early evening, with homework and office hours after. The page also rules out any concurrent summer program, virtual or in person, so students choose one summer commitment.

The online route

MIT Beaver Works: a summer program you qualify for by studying online first

Beaver Works Summer Institute works differently from the others. Admission depends heavily on a free online course taken in the spring, so a student’s preparation is visible to the selectors.

  1. Register for the online prerequisite course. Students can self-register; a teacher nomination is not required for the online course.
  2. Study from 1 February. The apply page says "The online course will open for study on 1 February". The FAQ says the online prerequisite courses are free.
  3. Work through the course properly. The FAQ says grades in the online course are an important part of enrollment decisions, and grades are evaluated on a curve within each course.
  4. Complete the summer application sent in March. It has "three short essays (500 words or less for each essay)", a teacher or mentor recommendation and parent details.
  5. Plan the summer. For 2027, classes run Monday to Friday, July 5 to August 1. Virtual classes run 10am to 6pm Eastern; in-person classes are on the MIT campus.

Rules families miss

The FAQ is blunt that "Our courses reset each year." A student who finished an online course last year must take it again to apply for this summer.

There is no residence hall. The FAQ says "We will not offer a residential program", and under MIT rules for minors an adult must stay with an in-person student for the month.

Who can apply, and the cost rule

Applicants must be in a grade no higher than 11th and not below 10th, and "Students must be living in the United States to be accepted into the summer program." Anyone may take the online courses.

BWSI says the summer program is free for qualifying families and charges a fee to families above an income-and-assets threshold it states on its apply page and FAQ. Housing is never included. Read the current wording there.

Beaver Works lists 14 summer courses, among them CogWorks, Cyber Operations, Medlytics and Quantum Software. Many require the Python Core course alongside the course a student wants, which is why Python comes first in our plan below.

A practice program

Count down the 2027 deadlines in ten lines of Python

A small program that uses exactly the ideas the CS Scholars syllabus lists: variables, a dictionary, a function and a loop. It is ours, and it runs in any Python 3 install.

Program · a deadline counterpython
from datetime import date

# 2027-cycle deadlines exactly as each program publishes them
deadlines = {
    "CMU CS Scholars": date(2027, 2, 1),
    "CMU Summer Session, scholarship round": date(2027, 2, 1),
    "COSMOS (California students only)": date(2027, 2, 5),
    "CMU Summer Session, basic round": date(2027, 3, 1),
}

def days_left(deadline, today):
    return (deadline - today).days

today = date(2026, 10, 17)
for name, when in sorted(deadlines.items(), key=lambda pair: pair[1]):
    print(f"{days_left(when, today):4d} days  {name}  ({when.isoformat()})")

The four dates are the 2027 deadlines the programs publish. Change today to the real date and the program recounts.

Output, run on 17 October 2026text
 107 days  CMU CS Scholars  (2027-02-01)
 107 days  CMU Summer Session, scholarship round  (2027-02-01)
 111 days  COSMOS (California students only)  (2027-02-05)
 135 days  CMU Summer Session, basic round  (2027-03-01)

Our run. Python sorts by the date in each pair; the two February 1 entries keep the order they were written in, because Python’s sort is stable.

Extend it as practice

Add the BWSI online course start as a second kind of date, a start rather than a deadline, and print the two kinds differently.

Then make the program warn when any deadline is under 30 days away. Our arithmetic says COSMOS is open for exactly 30 days, January 6 to February 5, so the warning would fire for the whole window.

Why a planning script is a good first project

It solves a real problem the student has right now, so they care whether it is correct. Every bug shows up as a wrong number of days.

Written up honestly, a tool like this is also something to describe in an application essay about why the student enjoys programming.

By grade

Which program fits which grade in summer 2027

Our reading of the published rules, set out by the grade a student is in during the 2026 to 2027 school year. Every line still depends on the program’s own final decision.

Programs a student can apply to for summer 2027, by current grade (our reading of each program’s rules)
Grade in 2026 to 2027Programs whose published rules fitOur suggestion
8th grade, in CaliforniaCOSMOS (completing grades 8 to 12)Apply if the student already codes; otherwise build Python this year
9th gradeCOSMOS if in California; BWSI online courses are open to anyoneTake the BWSI online course as practice, even before eligibility
10th gradeCMU CS Scholars; CMU Summer Session if 16 by June 26; BWSI; COSMOS in CaliforniaThe widest choice of any year; decide by December
11th gradeCMU Summer Session; BWSI; COSMOS in CaliforniaBWSI fits the rising-senior summer it describes
12th gradeOnly COSMOS, whose page lists students completing grades 8 to 12; confirm with COSMOS for a graduating seniorLook at college courses and the research programs as well

Research-style programs such as RSI, SSP and MIT PRIMES work very differently and are covered on our summer research programs page. For activities that run all year, see computer science extracurriculars.

Twelve months

Our twelve-month plan toward a 2027 summer program

This is our plan for a 10th grader starting in October 2026 with little or no code. It assumes about four hours a week: two live lessons plus practice.

October 2026 to September 2027 (our plan; the dates in bold type are the programs’ own)
MonthWhat the student doesDone when
October 2026Start Python: variables, loops, functionsWrites the deadline counter above unaided
November 2026Lists, dictionaries, debuggingFixes three of their own bugs and explains each
December 2026Choose programs; ask two teachers for recommendationsA shortlist and two yes answers
January 2027Essays drafted; COSMOS opens January 6Drafts read by a teacher
February 2027CS Scholars closes February 1; BWSI online course opens February 1; COSMOS closes February 5Applications in, BWSI course started
March 2027CMU Summer Session basic round closes March 1; BWSI summer applicationEvery application submitted
April to June 2027Keep building one real projectA finished project on a public page
July to September 2027The program, or our live summer classesOne project written up for next year

Our arithmetic: four hours a week from mid-October to February 1 is about 15 weeks, roughly 60 hours of Python before the first deadline. That is enough to write and explain small programs like the one above, which is what a "no coding experience is necessary" program still rewards in an essay.

Where your student is now

Four stages on the way to a strong summer application

The places students usually start from when they first look at these programs.

From curious to ready (ours)
StageWhat it looks like
1. InterestedLikes computers, has not written a program
2. BeginnerWrites short Python programs with help
3. IndependentPlans, writes and debugs a small program alone
4. ApplicantHas one finished project and can explain every line

For parents

A 10th grader at stage 1 in October can reach stage 3 by February with steady weekly work.

Recommendation letters come from teachers who have seen effort. Ask early in the fall.

For students

Pick programs by the rules first, then by interest. A program you are not eligible for is not a choice.

Keep notes on what you built and what broke. Essays are easier when the stories are written down.

The catalogue

Nine courses for high school students heading for summer CS

All are live online with one regular teacher who reads the student’s code, in a batch or one to one.

I

Foundations

Grades 9 and 10

CSSP / BASE / 02

JavaScript for teens

Code that runs in the browser.

Open the syllabus

CSSP / BASE / 03

Git and GitHub

Show the work, version by version.

Open the syllabus
II

Depth

Grades 10 and 11

CSSP / DEEP / 01

Algorithms for teens

Data structures and reasoning.

Open the syllabus
III

Projects

Grades 11 and 12

How lessons run

Live lessons through the application year

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

After school, in Eastern, Central, Mountain or Pacific time.

Weekends

Useful in the weeks before a February deadline.

1-on-1

Fitted around one student’s programs and dates.

Python first

The language most of these programs start from.

Real projects

Code a student can describe in an essay.

Deadline map

The twelve months above, adjusted to the student.

Essay feedback

On the technical story, not ghost-writing.

Every state

Online, so location never limits the choice.

Batch or private

Fifteen to twenty learners, or one to one.

Student work

Projects our high school students have built

Work by our learners, from first Python tools to full web apps. The student labs page shows more.

NutriLife AI nutrition coach project screenshot

AI and ML

NutriLife

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

by Bhavya · Open it

Misti AI chatbot for maths and coding screenshot

AI and ML

Misti

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

by Harshit · Open it

GuardianX AI internet safety assistant screenshot

AI and ML

GuardianX

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

by Vivaan · Open it

SkyCast weather forecast application screenshot

Web app

SkyCast

A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.

by Krish

Fees

Fees

Applying to a summer program costs what each program sets; our fee is only for teaching. Classes are paid monthly in US dollars, so a family can cover the months before the deadlines and stop whenever they choose.

Free first class

USD 0

no card required

  • A free first lesson
  • Bring your program shortlist
  • No card details
Book it

Group batch

USD 100

a month, billed in US dollars

  • Fifteen to twenty learners
  • One regular teacher
  • Choose your batch
  • Monthly
Start here

One to one

USD 150

a month, billed in US dollars

  • A mentor to yourself
  • Your programs, your dates
  • Your own project
Enquire

What families say

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

Google reviews from parents, quoted as they wrote them.

★★★★★

"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

Computer science summer programs for high schoolers: common questions

When do computer science summer programs for high school students close for 2027?

Earlier than most families expect. CMU CS Scholars closes February 1, 2027, COSMOS closes February 5, 2027, and the CMU Summer Session basic round closes March 1, 2027.

Is CMU CS Scholars free?

Carnegie Mellon describes it as fully funded: tuition, housing, meal plans and some field trips are covered. The page says documentation of financial need is required with the application.

Do you need coding experience for CS Scholars?

No. The 2027 page says no coding experience is necessary. Applicants must be 16 by June 26, 2027, in 10th grade when applying, and a US citizen or permanent resident.

How does MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute admission work?

Students register for a free online prerequisite course that opens on February 1, then complete a summer application in March. The FAQ says online course grades are an important part of the decision.

Can a senior apply to these programs?

Mostly not, as published for 2027. BWSI takes students no higher than 11th grade, CS Scholars wants 10th graders, and CMU Summer Session wants sophomores or juniors. COSMOS lists students completing grades 8 to 12, so a California senior should ask COSMOS directly.

Who can apply to COSMOS?

Only California high school students. The home page lists applications opening January 6, 2027 and closing February 5, 2027, and says a typical student has a GPA of 3.5 or above.

How many hours a week is CMU Summer Session?

The FAQ gives about 21 hours a week for a 9-unit course and 28 for a 12-unit course, including class. Residential students take two courses, so 49 to 56 hours by our count.

Are any of these programs online?

BWSI runs some courses virtually over Zoom. CMU Summer Session says it offers no courses online, and CS Scholars and COSMOS are residential.

When are your 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 can Modern Age Coders help?

We teach the Python and problem solving these programs assume, help a student finish one real project, and keep the twelve-month plan on track. We are not connected with any of these programs.

Elsewhere on this site

Related pages

More for US high school students who want to go further in computer science.

Summer research programs

RSI, SSP, PRIMES and how to get ready.

CS extracurriculars

What counts across the whole year.

USACO coaching

Contest programming, bronze upward.

AP Computer Science A

Java and the AP exam.

Congressional App Challenge

A fall deadline for an app.

Coding classes in the USA

Every page for US families.

Coding summer camp for middle schoolers

Coding summer camp for grades 6 to 8: blocks to Python in four weeks.

Game design summer camp for teens

Game design summer camp for teens: engines, a real script, a six-week plan.

Free coding programs for high school students

Free coding programs for high schoolers, checked at the source, with a 16-week plan.

Start here

Book a free first lesson

Bring your shortlist and your student’s grade. In the first lesson the teacher checks which 2027 rules they meet and starts the Python that the programs build on.

To see a class before booking, the how we teach page describes one in order, and the courses page lists every syllabus.

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

Our teachers are in India and teach over video, so there is no US campus to visit. US families usually reach us fastest on WhatsApp.

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