Summer Science ProgramSSP

SSP at a Glance

Host

SSP International, a nonprofit, on partner college campuses in the United States and Canada

Field

One of four research tracks: Astrophysics (observing and calculating near-Earth asteroid orbits), Bacterial Genomics (studying the evolution of antibiotic resistance), Biochemistry (designing enzyme inhibitors against fungal crop pathogens) or Cell Biology (gene editing in yeast to study cell cycle genes)

Grades and age

High school juniors only; freshmen, sophomores and seniors are not eligible. Participants must be at least 15 and not yet 19 during the program

Citizenship and residency

International students are accepted. Students who attend school outside the US, or who are not US citizens or permanent residents, apply as international applicants, with an earlier deadline and an English proficiency score requirement; US citizens or permanent residents attending school in the US apply as domestic applicants. Each track has prerequisite courses that must be completed for credit and a grade by June; self-study does not count.

Cost

The 2026 program fee was $11,800, covering tuition, room, board, supplies and local transportation; the 2027 fee will be posted in December 2026. There is no application fee. Admission is need-blind and aid covers 100% of demonstrated need, including airfare, with no loans: assuming typical expenses and assets, the program is free for family incomes of $75,000 or less, and incomes under about $140,000 qualify for a discount. A limited number of $3,000 lost-wages stipends are also available. In 2026 SSP granted over $4,100,000 in aid, and over half of participants received some form of aid.

Dates and format

Five weeks living on a partner campus, doing research in teams of three, with field trips and group activities outside the lab. In 2026 the program ran at 13 campuses, including Purdue University, Indiana University, Lehigh University, Colby College and the University of Guelph in Canada. The 2027 programs begin in mid-June.

Application dates

Applications for 2027 open in December 2026; the exact date has not been announced. SSP anticipates a January 2027 deadline for international applicants and a February 2027 deadline for domestic applicants; decisions go out in mid-March for international applicants and mid-April for domestic applicants. Late materials are not accepted.

Application materials

The site does not publish a full checklist. Known parts: an online application with one chosen research track; at least one recommendation from a math or science educator at the student's school, with a second strongly preferred; and a transcript sent by the school. SSP is not collecting or considering standardized test scores (PSAT, SAT, ACT, AP) for 2027, except that international applicants must submit English proficiency scores.

Size and selectivity

SSP says it admitted around 700 participants in 2026 and that thousands of students apply each year, but it does not publish application counts or an admission rate. In 2026, complete applications went through the usual review; selected applicants who, with parental permission, agreed to join an impact evaluation run by Abt Global entered a lottery, and those not drawn were placed on a waitlist. The site does not say whether the lottery will continue in 2027.

Verified against official pages on 2026-10-06 · ssp.org

How to Apply to SSP

• Each track has prerequisites: Astrophysics needs physics and precalculus, Bacterial Genomics and Cell Biology need biology and Algebra II, and Biochemistry needs biology, chemistry and strong algebra skills. Check these when choosing sophomore-year courses.
• Students on a visa at a US school apply as international applicants, with an anticipated January deadline about a month before the domestic one. Start as soon as the application opens in December.
• SSP does not consider test scores. It says the most important parts of an application are personal motivation, interests and what the student brings to the program, so explain why you chose the track and what you would contribute to a team of three.