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The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program

The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program pairs high school students online with established writers for one-on-one work in poetry, fiction and nonfiction. The program reports about an 8% acceptance rate over the past two years; tuition is $575 with no application fee.

Open to international students
Tuition · aid available

Plan your summer program applications Official website ↗

Size and selectivityAbout 8% admitted

Photo: SHVETS production / Pexels

Eligibility: Open to international students
Cost: Tuition · aid available
Latest deadline: Mar 1, 2026

Adroit at a Glance

Host: The Adroit Journal, a literary journal
Field: Creative writing with one-on-one mentoring by established writers, in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction. Poetry students share new work weekly, and fiction and nonfiction students every two weeks, with mentors and peers.
Grades and age: Students currently in grades 9 to 12 (including graduating seniors) and gap year students; rising 9th graders are not eligible
Citizenship and residency: Online, with no citizenship or residency requirement. The FAQ says students living abroad can take part and arrange call times with their mentors.
Cost: Tuition for the full program is $575, with no application fee. Fee remission and financial aid are available; readers see financial need only after admission decisions are made, so aid requests do not affect admission.
Dates and format: Online, about six weeks; the 2026 program ran June 15 to July 27. It is individualized, flexible correspondence between mentor and student rather than formal instruction, offers no academic credit, and is not a route to publication in The Adroit Journal.
Application dates: 2027 dates have not been announced. The last cycle closed at 11:59 pm Pacific on March 1, 2026, with admitted and waitlisted students notified in mid-March.
Application materials: Three application essays; a writing sample (8 to 10 pages of poetry, or 8 to 12 pages of fiction or creative nonfiction); an optional transcript, used only to verify student status; an optional additional information section. Applicants in two genres put both samples in one file, first choice first.
Size and selectivity: The program's FAQ says it has maintained about an 8% acceptance rate for the past two years. About 95% of admitted students accepted their places in those years, and the waitlist is not ranked.

Verified against official pages on 2026-10-06 · theadroitjournal.org/about/mentorship

About Adroit

The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program is an online creative writing mentorship run by the literary journal The Adroit Journal. Students are grouped by genre (poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction) and paired with an established writer; poetry students share new work weekly and fiction and nonfiction students every two weeks, with mentors and peers responding. The 2026 program ran from June 15 to July 27.

The program’s FAQ says it has maintained about an 8% acceptance rate for the past two years, and about 95% of admitted students accepted their places. It is open to current 9th through 12th graders, graduating seniors and gap year students, and students abroad can take part. Tuition is $575 with no application fee, and fee remission and financial aid are available without affecting admission.

The program offers no academic credit and is not a route to publication in The Adroit Journal. 2027 dates have not been announced; the last cycle closed on March 1, 2026. Because it is online, it fits around other summer plans without travel, though the program discourages doing two writing programs at the same time.

How to Apply to Adroit

The program says every successful application expressed a clear, authentic passion for writing and what drives the student to write. Use the three essays on specific writing experiences; awards and publications do not make the difference.
Page limits are enforced: 8 to 10 pages for poetry, 8 to 12 for fiction or nonfiction. If two stories together run over, send one complete story and an excerpt of the other.
Applications are scanned for plagiarism and generative AI, and the program has zero tolerance for AI-written work. Every essay and sample should be entirely the student's own.

Application Support for Adroit

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FeatureSummer Programs Recommended by MIT AdmissionsMIT Admissions lists 23 selective summer programs on its website. Each one is in this library, with eligibility, cost and selectivity.

Adroit: Frequently Asked Questions

Can an Irvine 9th grader apply to the Adroit Summer Mentorship Program?

Yes. Current 9th through 12th graders, graduating seniors and gap year students may apply; only rising 9th graders are excluded.

Adroit is online. Can an Irvine student combine it with another summer program?

The program decides case by case. A student may pair it with other summer programs as long as there is internet access for the whole period and time for writing, discussion and peer review, but the program discourages taking part in two writing programs at once.

How much does the Adroit Summer Mentorship Program cost?

Tuition is $575 with no application fee. Students who need help can request fee remission; readers see financial information only after admission decisions, so it does not affect admission.

Is it worth reapplying if an Irvine student is not admitted the first time?

It is worth considering. The program says at least 40% of each cohort is usually made up of reapplicants, including students who were previously waitlisted. An Irvine student should refresh the writing sample with the new year's work before reapplying.

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Sources2 sources · checked 2026-10-06

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