UC Berkeley Pre-College Scholars — Berkeley Campus, California

The camp runs two distinct academic routes. On the credit-bearing residential track, students enrol in two lower-division university courses from the Berkeley Summer Sessions catalogue and carry a full-time unit load for the session they join; the longer session requires six units and the shorter one five. Courses are numbered between 1 and 99, must be open to high school students, and online options are not permitted. The separate non-credit route is a two-week Computer Science Academy built on the introductory computing course taken by Berkeley undergraduates, taught in the block-based language Snap! and extended this season with an artificial intelligence strand.

The programme fee covers tuition and university fees, campus housing, meals, orientation, excursions and activities, a basic health insurance plan and on-site support from programme staff. Flights to and from the Bay Area, personal spending and any other individual expenses are the family's responsibility. A separate non-refundable application fee is charged when the application is submitted and is listed among the camp's mandatory extras.

Participants are required to live in the campus housing provided by the programme for the full duration of their stay. Residential track students are placed in Bowles Hall and Stern Hall, and Computer Science Academy students in Bowles Hall, both within walking distance of the main campus. Rooms are shared as doubles or triples, with assignments made at random on arrival and not open to negotiation. Residence halls include study rooms, high-speed wifi, a game room, laundry machines and lounge areas, and rooms are furnished with beds, desks, dressers, mirrors and closets. Students are under full-time supervision of residential staff and undergraduate resident assistant mentors.

A daily meal plan on campus is included in the programme fee for every participant, alongside housing. The provider does not publish the individual menus or the number of meals per day, so families who need specific dietary arrangements should raise them with the programme team when the place is confirmed.

Beyond classes, students take part in an extracurricular programme planned by programme staff and undergraduate resident assistant mentors: social activities designed to help participants meet each other, local excursions into Berkeley and the wider Bay Area, and a workshop series on college exploration and admissions delivered by admissions professionals. Orientation is a two-step process — a pre-arrival welcome webinar followed by an in-person orientation on campus — and attendance at both is compulsory.

The camp uses the main University of California, Berkeley campus, so teaching takes place in university classrooms and students have the run of campus life alongside undergraduate and visiting summer students. Residential facilities include the residence halls themselves, study rooms, high-speed wifi, laundry machines, lounge areas and a game room; the Computer Science Academy's hall also has a historic library. Meals are served on campus as part of the included meal plan.

This is a university experience rather than a traditional summer camp: participants live in supervised halls, study alongside Berkeley faculty and students, and are held to the same academic standards as other summer students, including a passing-grade requirement to earn credit and a letter of commendation. It suits academically confident teenagers in their final years of school who want to test what university study feels like, explore a possible major, and build an international peer group in the San Francisco Bay Area. Places are limited to students who are sixteen or seventeen for the duration of the programme, and living in programme housing is a condition of participation.