The Telluride Association Summer Seminar (TASS) is a residential humanities and social science seminar of about five weeks for high school sophomores and juniors, run by the Telluride Association. Students attend a three-hour college-level seminar each weekday, taught by two faculty members, and outside class they take part in democratic community life, community service and public speaking. The 2026 session ran from June 21 to July 25 at Cornell University and the University of Maryland.
Under the 2026 rules, TASS was entirely free: the Association covered tuition, books, room and board and field trips, and students who needed it could also get help with travel and lost summer earnings. Both US and international students could apply, but students studying outside the US without a US passport could apply only as sophomores. The Association does not publish application numbers or an admission rate; selection is based mainly on essays and interviews.
On September 21, 2026, the Association announced that it will not offer TASS in 2027 while it reviews the program’s curriculum, staffing, student safety and other areas; one trigger was the early end of the 2026 Ithaca session after a staffing shortfall. No return date has been announced. EDUBUS suggests that students who planned to apply turn to humanities programs that are still admitting, such as the Stanford Summer Humanities Institute (SHI) and Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS), and watch for further announcements from the Association.
