Remote Programs
Information for Admitted Pre-College Students
Congratulations on your admission to UChicago's Summer Session! We look forward to having you be a part of our learning community this summer. Prior to the start of class, we will be in regular communication with you, and you will need to complete forms and register for accounts. Below, we have shared some key information and policies relating to your time as a UChicago Summer Session student.
All students and their families are expected to adhere to the policies and rules as set forth below.
Preparing for Class
o secure space in UChicago Summer Session, students and their families need to complete all the items on the checklist below. All items are accessible through the Status Page.
Submit your Reply to Offer of Admission form.
Pay the non-refundable $1,000 enrollment deposit within a week of receiving your acceptance letter.
Enrolled students must pay the remaining balance on the program fee within four weeks of receiving your offer of admission.
Claim your CNET ID and password at cnet.uchicago.edu using the UCID listed on your status page. Your CNET ID will be your email address while you are on campus. You must create your CNET ID before you arrive so that you can upload a current photo for your UChicago Card and also for international students to secure an F-1 visa.
Complete and submit the required forms via your UChicago Account:
Parental Release Form (to be completed by parent or guardian ONLY)
Academic, Social, and Residential Policies Acknowledgment
Student Waiver of FERPA Rights
Summer Session Orientation provides information for students (and parents/family members, should they wish to attend) to become acquainted with class expectations, online community standards, and what typical day will be.
All students must attend Summer Session Orientation for their session. We will send emails with the dates and times of Online Orientation closer to the start of Session I.
Technology Requirements
Students will need reliable and regular access to wifi and a laptop.
Summer Session courses will be supported by a suite of platforms for online learning.
Canvas is the official learning management system already in use for instructors across campus to manage individual courses. Canvas provides access to the course syllabus, links to online resources, assignments, discussion boards, and other essential teaching tools.
Zoom (Enterprise) is the official video conferencing platform, which allows for real-time interactions among instructors, teaching assistants, and students. All instructor-led class sessions on Zoom will be recorded, so that a student who misses the session may view it later on their own schedule. Students may also use Zoom to engage with each other on assignments and group projects.
Other online tools such as Microsoft Teams and Google’s G-Suite may be used by instructors depending on the course’s specific curricular needs, but all will be required to fulfill the privacy requirements articulated at: studentprivacypledge.org
Within one week of admission, students must accept their offer of admissions and submit a non-refundable deposit of $1,000 via the students' UChicago Account. The deposit holds a student's place in the program and can be paid via credit card. The full remaining balance of the program fee will be due within four weeks of admittance to Summer Session. Students will forfeit their place in the course if we do not receive payment.
Withdrawing
All students who have confirmed their admission will be registered for their course(s); if you decide to withdraw after you have sent in your confirmation form and deposit, you must email summersession@uchicago.edu with an official withdrawal request. Students will be billed for the program fee if they have not officially withdrawn.
Please Note: verbally informing an instructor that you are withdrawing or failing to attend classes does not constitute an official withdrawal.
Refunds
All requests for refunds must be made in writing to summersession@uchicago.edu.
After receiving the written request for a refund, the program fee (minus deposit) can be refunded until May 5, 2025.
After May 5, no refunds will be issued.
Application fees and the enrollment deposit are nonrefundable for all programs.
In Session
Academic Integrity
It is contrary to justice, academic integrity, and to the spirit of intellectual inquiry to submit another’s statements or ideas as one's own work. To do so is plagiarism or cheating, offenses punishable under the University's disciplinary system. Because these offenses undercut the distinctive moral and intellectual character of the University, we take them very seriously.
Proper acknowledgment of another's ideas, whether by direct quotation or paraphrase, is expected. In particular, if any written or electronic source is consulted and material is used from that source, directly or indirectly, the source should be identified by author, title, and page number, or by website URL and date accessed. Any doubts about what constitutes "use" should be addressed to the instructor.
To inappropriately reference outside sources or consult with others to complete assignments intended to measure the individual’s mastery of content is also a violation of the university’s standards regarding academic integrity. The expectation that students present evidence of their own ideas, skills, and effort extends to the use of any AI tools, such as ChatGPT or DallE 2, unless the course instructor explicitly permits the use of automated tools for a particular assignment. If you are unclear if something is an AI tool or otherwise constitutes an inappropriate source or consultation, please check with your instructor.
Class Expectations
Your day to day life may look a little differently based on your particular course. Depending on the course, students in Summer Online will have synchronous activities scheduled Monday through Friday for 2 hours per day or specifically scheduled synchronous sessions.
Online courses have a mixture of synchronous work, meaning everyone does the same activity at the same time, and asynchronous work, meaning students do activities on their own schedule, by a certain due date.
Synchronous activities will feel much like the traditional classroom activities you are used to -- lectures, discussions, hands-on projects -- with the only difference being that you will engage with your instructor and fellow students online, via Zoom.
Asynchronous activities will involve the sorts of things you might have done as homework, such as problem sets, taking notes on readings, and writing papers. They will also include activities that take advantage of online course delivery such as contributing your thoughts to discussion boards or class blogs, making videos or curating virtual exhibits, and performing simulated experiments on virtual subjects or materials.
Whatever it is you are doing from day to day, your instructor and TA will work to ensure that students remain engaged with the subject matter and with each other throughout the course.
The Office of College Admissions welcomes you to Summer Session and invites you to join us for a series of workshops and presentations to help you navigate and prepare for the college admissions process. These are available to every registered pre-college student of Summer Session, and for our online sessions, parents or family members living in the same household are welcome to join! You may participate in as many of the sessions as you would like.
Each Sunday session will be hosted virtually via Zoom for any and all students enrolled in Summer Session. Students will be emailed invitations to register for each session.
All of the sessions provided below are exclusive to our enrolled Summer Session students. Summer Session students are also invited to register for any of our undergraduate information sessions and virtual campus tours, or any of our student life or campus partner sessions, all of which can be found on College Admissions.
Summary of Sessions
Presenting…YOU!: Essay Writing: From the personal statement to institution-specific programs, essays are an integral part of the admissions process at highly selective institutions. We will review some basic do’s and don’ts and share some insight into how essays add an important perspective to the application.
A Look Inside the Admissions Committee: A Case Study Exercise: This is your chance to see what an application looks like and how applications are reviewed. Together we will serve as the admissions committee for a university, review applications, and decide who is admitted, waitlisted, or denied admission.
Holistic Review & Highly Selective Admissions: Nuts and bolts session intended for younger students or family members who may not be as familiar with the application process to U.S. colleges and universities, especially regarding what the different components of the application are and how are they considered in a holistic review process. There will also be Q&A time.
The schedule for sessions will be updated in Spring of 2025.
All times are CST
Virtual Session
TBD
Presenting... YOU! Essay Writing
TBD
A Look Inside the Admissions Committee
TBD
Holistic Review & Highly Selective Admissions
Students will be emailed invitations to register for their desired sessions.
The University of Chicago courses expect to use online services including Google’s G Suite, Zoom, Canvas, and other services to deliver course content to students online. These services are integral to the courses and the University cannot provide these programs to students without them.
Steps have been taken to address the issue of users’ privacy when using these services. While no vendor will offer an ironclad guarantee of complete and perpetual security, the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy statements for the vendors listed have been vetted closely to verify that appropriate and customary security and privacy measures are in place to protect those using the service, and that they comply with University policies. This same vetting process will be applied to any additional services adopted during the Program.
When possible, the University works with third-party services on using branded or private label instances of these services to segregate the University user base from users at large. These branded or private label services offer the University a greater measure of control and choice about what levels of access we provision and to whom.
In order for students to use these third-party applications and services, certain basic personal identifying information must be provided to the web-operator. These web-operators must notify parents/guardians and obtain parent/guardian consent before collecting personal information from children under 13 years old, but the law permits schools, like the University of Chicago, to consent to the collection of personal information on the student's behalf.
The University of Chicago believes it is in our collective best interests as a learning community to approach potentially sensitive matters like this as openly and transparently as possible. Students and instructional staff use electronic tools that meet our high standards of scholarship, inquiry, and rigor to further our quest for excellence. To implement fully the curricular plans instructors have for our students, your consent is necessary.
Recording Policy
Neither parents nor students will: (i) record, share, or disseminate University of Chicago course sessions, videos, transcripts, audio, or chats; (ii) retain such materials after the end of the Program; or (iii) use such materials for any purpose other than in connection with participation in the Program.
Students and parents will not share links to University of Chicago course sessions with any persons not authorized to be in the course session. Sharing course materials with persons authorized to be in the relevant course is permitted. Syllabi, handouts, slides, and other documents may be shared at the discretion of the instructor.
Post-Program Matters
To order transcripts, please log in to your myUChicago to view and request a transcript from the Registrar's Office. The Summer Session Office cannot issue transcripts; only the Registrar's Office can act in this capacity.
On your my.uchicago account, you should be able to request an official transcript by following these directions:
Students should select Academics (on the top left of the page) --> Academic Records --> Request Official Transcript
If you do not have access to your CNET ID, you can request a transcript through Parchment.
Students who have completed either a UChicago residential or online UChicago Pre-College Summer Session program, and who are in their final year of high school, are eligible to apply to UChicago for undergraduate admission through our binding UChicago Summer Student Early Notification option under the Early Decision I plan. Eligible students may apply using this option from September 1 to October 15, and will receive an admissions decision three weeks (or prior to November 1) after completing their full application during this time frame.
Rising seniors who have completed a Summer Session program will be notified of their eligibility via email and provided detailed instructions on how to complete their application. Interested students will then have the opportunity to opt into being considered for admission through this early notification option. For more information on this option and admissions process, please review the detailed FAQ resource.