Online Summer Camps & Virtual Summer Programs for High School Students

The best virtual summer learning programs for high schoolers end with something you can point to: a project presented to a startup founder, a research paper, a grade on a university transcript, or an AI application you built and deployed.

Our top pick for students interested in entrepreneurship and technology is the Venture & Tech Summer Program (VTSP), a six-week online program in which small teams complete an internship project for a venture-backed startup and present it to the company’s founder. The 16 programs below cover entrepreneurship, research, college coursework, and AI and engineering, with published costs from free to $12,500. Most are open to international students, and the earliest application rounds for summer 2027 are already open.

Harvard’s seven-week Secondary School Program cost $15,735 in the most recent year for a residential student taking eight credits. The online version of the same program cost $8,160 for the same eight credits, or $4,180 for a single four-credit course. Columbia, Stanford, Wharton, and MIT all run online June-July-August programs for high school students as well, alongside dozens of independent programs that were built online from the start. For a student in Lagos, Seoul, or rural Texas, a virtual program removes the cost of airfare, housing, and a U.S. student visa.

We’ve grouped the programs below by the kind of work you’ll do. Every figure comes from the program’s official website as published in October 2026, labeled with its cycle where a program hasn’t yet posted summer 2027 details.

How do the best online programs compare?

Program	Focus	Length	Cost (latest published)	International students
VTSP	Entrepreneurship and tech	6 weeks	$4,750	Yes
LaunchX Online Entrepreneurship	Entrepreneurship	5 weeks	$7,495	Yes
Leangap Online	Entrepreneurship	4 weeks	$6,450	Yes
Wharton Future of the Business World	Business	2 weeks	$4,099	Yes
Ladder Internships	Startup internship	8 weeks, part-time	$3,190	Not stated
Echelon Scholars	Research and publication	6 to 8 months on average	$12,500	Yes
Pioneer Research Institute	Research	About 12 weeks (summer term)	$7,465	Yes
MITES Semester	STEM and college prep	6 months	Free	No
Harvard Secondary School Program Online	College courses for credit	7 weeks	$4,180 to $8,160	Yes
Columbia Pre-College Online	College-level courses	2 weeks	$4,018 (2027 estimate)	Yes
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes	College-level courses	2 weeks	$3,200	Yes
SUMaC Online	Advanced mathematics	3 weeks	$3,750	Yes
Inspirit AI Scholars	AI and coding	25 hours	$1,400	Yes
Stanford AI4ALL Online	AI research	2 weeks	$4,120	Yes
BlueStamp Engineering Remote	Hardware engineering	3 weeks	$2,400	Yes
Girls Who Code Pathways	Computer science	7 weeks, self-paced	Free	Yes

Costs are for the 2026 cycle unless a program has already published 2027 figures.

Which online summer programs teach entrepreneurship and business?

These programs teach how companies are started and run. Some have you found a company with a team, and others put you to work on a question an existing company is facing. All of them run fully online.

1. Venture & Tech Summer Program (VTSP)

VTSP is a six-week virtual innovation program that matches students with venture-backed startups based on their career interests. You work in a small team on an internship project built around a real problem or opportunity facing your paired startup, and your team presents the finished project to the company’s founder at the end of the session. The participating startups are backed by investors including Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, and Y Combinator.

The project sits inside a full schedule of near-daily seminars, workshops, and fireside chats. Lectures cover how companies get started, how founders reach a minimum viable product (the simplest version of a product that can be tested with real users), how startups approach marketing, and how leaders build teams. Workshops work through business case studies, public speaking, and iterating on ideas based on feedback. Every student also receives one-on-one mentorship from the VTSP core team. Past guest speakers include Mark Cuban, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, and DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang.

Tuition is $4,750 for either session, plus a $35 application fee. Session I runs June 8 to July 16, 2027, and Session II runs July 5 to August 13, 2027. VTSP awards need-based and merit-based scholarships to admitted students, including a limited number of full-tuition awards for high-need applicants, and it reviews aid only after the admissions decision.

All high school students, their international equivalents, and gap-year students who haven’t yet started university are eligible, and no prior entrepreneurial experience is required. VTSP has brought together students from more than 85 countries. Some applicants are invited to an asynchronous video interview, which means you record answers to a few questions on your own schedule. Admission runs in rounds, and earlier rounds receive priority because spots are limited. The Invite-Only round closes October 31, 2026, and you can request access by emailing the admissions office. The Priority Decision round runs November 15 to December 31 with decisions by February 6, 2027. Early Action runs through January 2027, Regular Decision through February 2027, and a final round and rolling admission follow.

2. LaunchX Online Entrepreneurship Program

LaunchX places you on a team of students with complementary skills, and your team starts a company over five weeks. The curriculum moves through six stages: problem and ideation, market and customer, product and prototyping, sales and marketing, finance and fundraising, and pitching. Teams present their ventures to outside judges at Demo Day, and LaunchX reports that more than 90 percent of its teams have made customer sales.

The online program runs July 5 to August 6, 2027, and costs $7,495. LaunchX also offers a two-week Online BootCamp at $2,495, held for about two hours a day and designed for beginners. Students ages 14 to 18 are eligible, and the online programs are open worldwide. LaunchX states an acceptance rate of around 30 percent for its Entrepreneurship Programs. The application fee this year rises from $50 to $100 across four deadlines: November 11, 2026, January 21, 2027, March 4, 2027 (the last date to apply for a financial award), and March 31, 2027.

3. Leangap Online

Leangap runs a four-week startup program in which teams form companies, acquire real customers, and pitch to Silicon Valley investors at a closing Demo Day. Each cohort caps at 40 students. Week one covers pitching and team formation, week two covers user research and a first build, week three covers go-to-market planning, and week four is pitch preparation.

The online program runs June 14 to July 9, 2027, and costs $6,450. Online students also complete a prep week. Need-based scholarships cover 10 to 80 percent of online tuition, and Leangap states that it doesn’t offer full scholarships. The online program is open to high school students worldwide with no prerequisites. Leangap doesn’t publish an application deadline, and recent cohorts have filled, so apply early in the cycle.

4. Wharton Global Youth Program: Future of the Business World (Online)

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania runs this two-week online program with daily live instruction and teaching assistant recitations. It costs $4,099, less than half the price of Wharton’s on-campus programs, which run from $8,299 to $11,899 for two to three weeks.

Most Wharton Global Youth programs accept students in grades 9 through 11 with a minimum unweighted GPA of 3.3. Admission is need-blind, which means your ability to pay doesn’t affect the admissions decision, and scholarships for online programs typically run $500 to $4,000. Students whose first language isn’t English submit TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo English Test scores. The priority deadline falls in late January and the final deadline in mid-March, with a $100 application fee.

5. Ladder Internships

Ladder matches high school students with startups for an eight-week, part-time remote internship at 5 to 10 hours a week. You work on a real deliverable for the company, meet regularly with a company coach or founder, and give formal presentations in weeks four and eight. The host company issues a letter of completion. Placements span AI and machine learning, software engineering, fintech, healthcare technology, and environmental science.

The startup internship program costs $3,190, paid in two installments. A $200 deposit holds your spot, and the balance is due after you approve your company match. Ladder reports that 10 to 20 percent of each cohort receives financial aid. It runs four cohorts a year, with rolling deadlines about three weeks before each start date. Ladder doesn’t state an international eligibility policy, so ask before you apply. The part-time schedule lets you pair it with a summer job or with one of the other programs on this list.

Which virtual research programs lead to a paper or publication?

Research programs pair you with a mentor and end with a written paper. They differ most in who mentors you, how long the work takes, and where the paper is meant to end up.

6. Echelon Scholars

Echelon Scholars pairs each student with a published researcher for one-on-one mentorship on an original research project, with the goal of first-author publication at a postgraduate-level, peer-reviewed journal or conference. Echelon’s mentors conduct research at institutions including Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Duke, and Caltech. The program reports more than 75 student publications with IEEE, the engineering association behind many of the largest technical conferences, and a 100 percent publication rate for its students. Mentorship hours are unlimited, and the work is done remotely, so students participate from anywhere.

Echelon does typically run on a longer timeline, but their summer cohort is a fantastic time to get a head start if you want something more advanced than STEM summer classes. Students spend six to eight months in the program on average, and cohorts start each season. Research topics involve at least one technical method, such as machine learning, data science, molecular biology, statistics, applied mathematics, or medical research, and each student chooses a topic after a literature review with their mentor. No prior research experience is required. Echelon admits about 30 students a year through an application, interview, and document review.

Tuition is $12,500, paid in two installments, and need-based aid covers 10 to 50 percent. Students can earn up to eight units of graduate-level extension credit through the University of San Diego. If a student’s paper isn’t accepted by a peer-reviewed venue, Echelon continues mentoring at no added cost until it is. Rolling applications for the fall 2026 cohort close October 31.

7. Pioneer Research Institute

Pioneer Academics has run its online research program for high school students since 2012. The summer term runs from June to August and starts with group seminars in your research area, followed by five individual mentoring sessions with a university professor and an independent research paper. Students who pass earn four college credits through Oberlin College, which provides academic oversight of the program. Pioneer reports that students spend 8 to 14 hours a week on research.

Tuition is $7,465, with a lab or materials fee of up to 2 percent of tuition in some research areas. Need-based scholarships are available when financial need can be verified, usually through a partner nonprofit or school. The program is open to students worldwide. Pioneer will announce its final summer 2027 deadline in the second week of January 2027, and it states that applying earlier improves your chances because seats in each discipline are limited.

8. MITES Semester

MITES Semester is MIT’s six-month online STEM program for rising high school seniors (students who have just finished 11th grade). It runs from June through December and combines a core course in calculus, physics, computer science, or science writing with a project-based course, along with weekly webinars and college admissions guidance. MIT tells students to expect 15 to 20 hours a week of asynchronous assignments, which continue into the fall of senior year.

The program is free. You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, and you apply in 11th grade through the same application as MITES Summer, MIT’s six-week residential program. MIT encourages applicants to apply to both. The deadline is February 1.

Which online summer programs offer college courses for high school students?

These programs enroll you in university coursework taught by university instructors. Some courses carry college credit, which means the grade appears on an official university transcript and some colleges may accept it toward your degree. Others are non-credit and end with a certificate or an instructor’s evaluation.

9. Harvard Secondary School Program Online

Harvard’s Secondary School Program lets high school students take Harvard Summer School courses for credit, and the seven-week online option is open to students anywhere in the world. You take one or two four-credit courses, and online students can use Harvard’s online library resources. Harvard Summer School tells students to expect 8 to 12 hours of work outside class each week for every four-credit course.

This year, the online program cost $4,180 for four credits or $8,160 for eight credits, plus a $75 application fee with no waivers. The program ran June 20 to August 8, with a cohort of kids ages 16-18. Scholarships are available to students with strong academic records who demonstrate financial need, and Harvard limits need-based aid to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and DACA recipients (students brought to the U.S. as children who hold deferred action status).

10. Columbia Pre-College Online

Columbia’s School of Professional Studies runs two-week online learning courses for high school students. The courses are non-credit, and students receive a certificate of participation and an evaluation letter from their instructor. Columbia has listed the summer 2027 online program at $4,018, an estimate pending approval from its Board of Trustees, plus an $80 application fee. The same program on campus in New York costs $12,838 with housing included.

11. Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes

Stanford’s Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes now run online only. Students in grades 8 through 11 take two-week, non-credit courses, and the program cost $3,200 in 2026.

12. Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC) Online

SUMaC teaches advanced mathematics, including abstract algebra, number theory, and algebraic topology, through daily lectures, problem sessions, and a final research project. The three-week online program cost $3,750 in 2026, and the 2026 online cohorts enrolled 64 students. You’re eligible if you’re in 10th or 11th grade when you apply. The application includes proof-based problems you complete at home, so you demonstrate mathematical ability directly. Need-based aid is open to domestic and international students and doesn’t affect admission. The 2026 deadline was February 2.

Which online summer camps teach technical skills like AI and engineering?

These programs teach technical skills through an enrichment project you work on in a virtual environment. Several require no prior experience as the curriculums incorporate learning the basics, and three of them cost $2,400 or less.

13. Inspirit AI Scholars

Inspirit AI teaches Python and core machine learning concepts in live interactive virtual sessions at a 5:1 student-to-teacher ratio. The program runs 25 hours, delivered as ten sessions of 2.5 hours, and ends with an AI application you build and deploy on a social-good theme. Past project tracks include deepfake detection, wildfire prediction, healthcare diagnostics, and stock analysis.

AI Scholars costs $1,400, with need-based aid and payment plans available. Students in grades 9 through 12 are eligible, and Inspirit AI reports that about half arrive with no coding background. It has enrolled students from more than 70 countries. Admission is rolling, with decisions in one to two weeks.

14. Stanford AI4ALL (Online)

Stanford AI4ALL is a two-week program for ninth graders with lectures from Stanford computer science faculty and small-group research projects in computer vision, medical AI, natural language processing, or robotics, led by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The online session runs in June and cost $4,120 in 2026.

You’re eligible if you’re in 9th grade when you apply and will be older than 14 and younger than 16 during the program. No AI or programming experience is required. Limited need-based aid is available to domestic and international applicants. This year's deadline was February 6.

15. BlueStamp Engineering Remote

BlueStamp ships parts and tools to your home, and you build a personal engineering project, usually hardware, over three weeks at about 7.5 hours a week. Instructors work with students at a 4:1 ratio. You document your progress in milestone videos and a GitHub portfolio, add a modification of your own design, and present at a live Demo Night. You finish with a public portfolio of the build.

The remote program costs $2,400, including all parts and tools, though shipping outside the U.S. may cost extra. Incoming 9th through 12th graders are eligible, and no prior engineering coursework is required. Admission is rolling until seats fill, with decisions in 7 to 10 days, and need-based aid is available.

16. Girls Who Code Pathways

Pathways is a free, self-paced remote summer stem program that runs for seven weeks, with a Discord community and optional in-person Industry Immersion Days in select cities. Students choose a track in Data Science and AI, Cybersecurity, Web Development, AI and Society, or Game Design, and build a personal project. U.S. students in grades 9 through 12 and international students ages 14 to 18 are eligible. Applications open in early January, with an early decision deadline in late February and a final deadline in April. Pathways replaced the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program, which ended after summer 2025.

How do you choose the right virtual summer program?

Start with eligibility, since grade, age, and citizenship rules remove options fastest, and check separately whether financial aid is open to you. Then decide what you want to finish the summer holding: a project presented to a startup founder, a company your team founded, a research paper, a college transcript grade, or a deployed AI application. Each program on this list is built around one or two of those. Finally, add up the weekly hours and check the time zone of any live sessions. A session at 3 p.m. Eastern time starts at 3 a.m. the next day in Singapore during U.S. summer time.

How do virtual programs fit into a college application?

Most U.S. colleges accept the Common App, a single online application that students in the U.S. and abroad use to apply to more than 1,000 colleges, and its activities section gives you 150 characters to describe each activity. Many colleges also offer Early Decision (ED), a binding early application, and Early Action (EA), a non-binding one, with deadlines usually on November 1 or November 15. Programs that continue into the fall, such as MITES Semester and Echelon Scholars, will still be in progress when early applications are due, so describe the work you’ve finished so far. Our guide to pre-college programs covers how to write the activity entry itself.

Frequently asked questions

Do colleges take online programs or virtual summer camp seriously?

Colleges don’t specifically publish how they weigh virtual camps and programs. What you can control is the work you finish. Harvard Summer School states that performing well in its courses will strengthen an application to any college, which points to the grade and the work itself. A paper submitted to a peer-reviewed venue, a credit-bearing grade, or a project delivered to a real company gives a reader something specific to evaluate, whether you completed it online or on a campus.

Which remote summer programs or virtual camps are free?

MITES Semester and Girls Who Code Pathways are free. NASA’s GeneLab for High Schools, a self-paced online program in space biology and bioinformatics, is free for rising juniors and seniors who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute opens its online prerequisite courses in autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity, and other topics to students anywhere in February, at no cost and with no application. Most of the free programs restrict eligibility by citizenship or grade.

Can international students attend virtual programs?

Yes. Of the 16 programs on this list, 14 accept international students. MITES Semester requires U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, and Ladder doesn’t state a policy. A virtual program also removes the need for an I-20, the document a U.S. school issues so an international student can apply for a student visa.

Can I do more than one virtual program in the same summer?

Yes, if the schedules allow it. Part-time programs such as Ladder, BlueStamp’s remote program, and Inspirit AI can run alongside a six-week program, and LaunchX’s two-week Online BootCamp runs outside the main summer window. Before you commit to two programs, add up the weekly hours each one states and check that their live sessions don’t overlap.

When should I apply to summer programs for summer 2027?

Start in October. VTSP’s Invite-Only round closes October 31, 2026, and its Priority Decision round runs November 15 to December 31. LaunchX’s first deadline is November 11. MITES closes February 1, Stanford AI4ALL and SUMaC in early February, and Wharton’s priority deadline is in late January. Rolling programs such as Inspirit AI, BlueStamp, and Ladder admit students until seats fill, so later applicants choose from whatever space is left.

Before you apply

Choose three programs from this list that match your eligibility, your schedule, and the outcome you want, and open their official pages side by side. Write down each admissions deadline, each financial aid deadline, the total cost, and the weekly time commitment. Then write the 150-character Common App description you’d hope to submit at the end of the summer, and start with the program whose description you can already picture.

Program details reflect what each organization published on its official website as of October 2026. Dates, tuition, and eligibility change every year, so verify them on the program’s own site before you apply.

About the Authors

Written by the team behind VTSP, a six-week virtual innovation program that has brought together high school students from more than 85 countries. Each session pairs students with internship projects at startups in Silicon Valley and beyond, and brings in guest speakers working in technology, innovation, and venture capital.