The Stanford Summer Humanities Institute (SHI), run by Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies, is a three-week residential humanities program for 10th and 11th graders. All courses are led by Stanford professors with Stanford PhD students, on topics such as politics, literature and philosophy. Each student takes one course, with classes Monday through Friday and Bay Area field trips on weekends. In 2026 there were two sessions, June 21 to July 10 and July 12 to 31.
The program describes admission as selective but does not publish application numbers or an admission rate. The application rests on academic work: unofficial transcripts, one humanities or social science work sample and one teacher recommendation, plus an optional video essay. 2026 tuition was $8,850 including room, board and field trips, and partial or full need-based aid is open to both domestic and international students without affecting admission.
2027 dates have not been announced; the last cycle had a single round closing February 2, 2026. In the application checklist, the work sample and teacher recommendation are the main evidence of a student’s humanities ability. EDUBUS suggests that interested students start keeping their best humanities assignments from 10th grade.
