Stanford Summer Quarter for High School Students
16–19 岁High school students register for real Stanford courses and study them alongside undergraduate, graduate and gap-year students. All Summer Session courses carry Stanford University credit and appear on an official Stanford transcript. Students who live on campus must take a minimum of eight units, which the school describes as two to three courses; students who commute must take a minimum of five. Admission asks for transcripts, one essay and proof of English proficiency where that applies, and the school states that applicants must be current sophomores, juniors or seniors at the time of application.
The summer quarter condenses Stanford's usual ten-week term into eight, and the school says course loads increase in proportion. Stanford's own measure of workload is the unit: for the average Summer Session student every unit represents approximately three hours of work each week, so a residential minimum of eight units is roughly twenty-four hours of study a week before any extra-curricular programme. Instruction begins on the Monday after arrival and runs to the end of the quarter, with a study-list deadline early in the term and course-withdrawal deadlines published in the school's academic calendar. Academic support runs the whole way through: the Summer Academic Resource Center provides advising, tutoring and workshops from before the term starts to the final exams.
Courses are chosen from the Stanford Summer Session catalogue, which the school groups into eight subject areas: Social Sciences and Humanities, Computer Science and Engineering, Personal Development, Natural Sciences, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Math and Data Science, Writing and Public Speaking, and Creativity and Design. The school publishes more than 130 courses in total, from foundational core courses to options it describes as unique to Stanford, and invites students to use the summer to go deeper on a favourite topic or explore a subject their school does not teach. Course registration opens in April, after admission is accepted.
