Gifted children have a passion for learning that doesn’t stop when the traditional school year ends.
Thanks to some of the best summer camps for gifted students we mention down below, you won’t have to worry about throttling down on the learning experience your children can enjoy while school is out.
A number of excellent opportunities exist all over the country, but these are some of the best options for talented youth.
Best Summer Camps For Gifted Students
1. Boston Leadership Institute
The Boston Leadership Institute provides award-winning summer camps for gifted students. There are one-week and three-week programs available to accommodate different schedules.
Teens get on-hands learning through in-person labs, working with robotics equipment, and much more. Students can choose between camps based on science, math, medicine, and business. With unique focuses like CSI, sports statistics, Astrophysics, and more, kids can have fun while gaining a worthwhile education.
The camps are offered in multiple locations throughout Boston, including Longwood Medical Area, Gann Academy, and Dana Hall.
2. World Scholars Academy
World Scholars Academy offers a elite summer courses in a variety of subjects specifically designed with gifted students in mind. Students are taught by world-leading scholars from top universities while attending classes grouped with their exceptional peers from around the world.
They offer courses in leading subjects like Computer Science, Engineering, Business, Law, Medicine and much more. They offer courses for both high school and middle school students, so it’s the perfect place for highly-intelligent students from ages 12-18 to spend their summer and meeting like-minded classmates.
Students can learn advanced study skills, develop a deeper conceptual understanding of complex subjects, and have a unique opportunity to build connections with other high-achieving students that can serve them well for years to come.
3. Data Science Research Program with Columbia University
An easy way to impress a college admissions officer is to demonstrate that you can conduct research and already work like a college student! In an opportunity rarely available to high school students, The Coding School’s Data Science Research Program with Columbia University allows driven students the opportunity to conduct real-world research in collaboration with Columbia University faculty.
Through this five-week program, students develop tangible data science analysis and programming skills, conduct research alongside Columbia University faculty and PhDs, and develop a research project and presentation to showcase in their college applications.
For high school students who are leaders and are looking for a competitive edge, this program is ideal for you. This program, run by The Coding School, is held virtually with supportive and live instruction – so you can work with Columbia faculty from anywhere in the country. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, so the earlier you apply, the better your chance of acceptance.
The Coding School offers programs for high school students in cutting-edge technologies to help prepare students for success and become the world’s future leaders and innovators. They’ve taught more than 50,000 students from 125 countries since 2014 and are proudly partnered with leaders in tech, education, and government, including IBM, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Stanford, Caltech, Harvard, and the White House.
For K-12 students interested in other emerging technologies, The Coding School also offers summer camps in Quantum Computing, EmergingTech, Pre-AP CS, and more!
4. Andover Summer at Phillips Academy
Andover Summer at Phillips Academy offers two- and five-week programs designed with the gifted student in mind.
Their five-week residential program, Summer Session, features over 60 course offerings ranging from the performing and studio arts to STEM-related fields. Off-campus experiential excursions as well as weekly college trips to schools throughout New England help prepare students for a higher level of education.
Andover Summer Advantage is their two-week day-only offering for students a way to refresh and get ahead in their academics during the summer months. Both programs are open to rising 7th- through 12th-grade students and invite students from all over the world to apply.
5. Davidson Institute THINK Summer Programs
This summer program is held in Reno, Nevada. The University of Nevada at Reno is home to the THINK Summer sleep-away program designed specifically for gifted children from ages 12 through 15.
The entire program here has been designed from the ground up to give exceptionally gifted students an opportunity to learn and develop in ways that traditional school solutions cannot provide.
Getting into this summer program is a little more competitive than others, but at the end of the day, many worldwide consider this to be one of the top three summer programs for gifted youth. It’s easy to see why it is so competitive and why graduating from this course is such a big deal.
Participants can even earn upwards of six transferable college credits in the three-week condensed courses they take here.
6. Summer Institute for the Gifted
This program for gifted students provides both residential and day program solutions in seven different states throughout the US, with programs designed for children in kindergarten all the way to high school seniors.
These programs vary wildly from year-to-year but are always designed to give gifted young people ample opportunity to develop new skills, knowledge, and a wealth of experiences that will help set them up for success moving forward.
There are locations in a variety of elite universities throughout the United States.
7. The Lawrence Hall of Science
Headquartered at the University of California at Berkeley, a number of weeklong programs are available as “science camps” for gifted students starting from pre-k through senior year of high school.
A number of other programs are available from the Lawrence Hall of Science, including half-day, full-day, and sleep away camp schedules.
Programs focusing on coastal ecology and wildlife biology are particularly popular here, though there are a lot of more traditional STEM-focused programs available.
8. Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
Johns Hopkins is a legendary name in the world of higher education, and the Center for Talented Youth summer programs that they make available live up to the name.
Hosted at 25 different locations on both the East Coast of the United States and the West Coast of the US – as well as in Hong Kong – these three-week programs cover a wide variety of studies, including humanities, math, science, writing, and much more.
Some of them can even be used towards high school credits.
9. Northwestern Center for Talented Development
Every one of the summer camps provided by Northwestern University is situated on the Northwestern campus in northern Illinois.
Gifted children in grades 4th through 6th have an opportunity to attend one week or three-week-long day class schedules. Meanwhile, children in grades 7th through 9th have an opportunity to attend three-week sleep away or commuter courses.
Gifted youth in grades 10th through12th are invited to attend very intensive three-week residential programs each summer, programs that prepare them for life after high school, and which can provide college credits at the conclusion of the course.
Other Educational Summer Camps