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Immersion

UChicago's gothic rooftops against a backdrop of the Chicago skyline

Summer Immersion Programs for Pre-College Students

THE DEADLINE TO APPLY SUMMER SESSION COURSES HAS PASSED FOR SUMMER 2023!

Immerse yourself in one of your passions and take advantage of the rich educational resources offered by the University through our summer Immersion programs for high school students. In these undergraduate-level courses, you will get personalized attention from faculty, researchers, and other professionals who will lead you through workshop discussions, research projects, and other hands-on activities.

The biggest advantage of this program is its caliber in teaching. The depth and style of teaching was perfect, keeping a perfect balance of serious work and an exciting atmosphere. Despite having to read tons and writing an essay, I was still eager to jump out of bed and dash into class

Lawrence X., Western Academy of Beijing, Beijing, China -

Whether you’re looking for creative writing workshops, preview courses in STEM fields, or to explore theories of economic policy, philosophy, and free expression., the University of Chicago’s summer Immersion courses offer you the opportunity to explore a topic of interest in-depth.

THE IMMERSION PROGRAM IS RESIDENTIAL. Students live in residence and attend class in-person. There is no hybrid or remote option for Immersion courses.

2023	Session I	Session II
Course Dates	June 12 – June 29	July 5 – July 21
Move in	Sat., June 10	Mon., July 3
Move out	Fri., June 30	Sat., July 22

Eligibility: Current high school freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, who are at least 14 years old.

To search for courses based on your grade level and academic interest, check out the course finder.

Each summer course is the equivalent of a full, quarter-long (10 week) course.

Courses are three weeks long. Students will be class from 9am – 3pm CST with a lunch break Monday through Friday. Read each course listing carefully.

Once you choose the course(s) for which you would like to apply, make a note of the department code and course number (ex. ANTH 21501).

See individual course descriptions for prerequisites, if any.

Courses in Program

Biology and Its Modern Applications (Session 1)

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session I

Biology and Its Modern Applications (Session 2)

This course is currently at capacity. We are admitting students to the waitlist only, and students who currently are on the waitlist will be given priority if places become available.

Session(s)

Session II

Biotechnology for the 21st Century (Session 1)

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session I

Biotechnology for the 21st Century (Session 2)

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session II

Cinema, Media and Society: A Global Survey

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session II

Collegiate Writing: The Meaning of Fantasy

Fantasy has often been regarded as a somehow inferior genre because it supposedly leads us to “escape” from reality. But what if fantasy is in fact a pursuit to uncover things that otherwise confound us about the human condition, especially in unsettling moments that lack precedent? Could fantasy provide a necessary way to reimagine our world and our lives? This intensive course in analytical writing at the collegiate level will offer a chance to think through these questions and to craft rhetorically-effective essays that explore the meaning of fantasy.

Session(s)

Session I

Communicating Effectively: Free Expression, Civic Argument, and Public Advocacy

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session II

Confronting a Political Economy in Crisis: Examining Causes, Creating Change

Young people, both in the US and elsewhere, are increasingly concerned about how climate change, toxic politics, and the fracturing of stable work arrangements will bear on their life prospects. This course speaks to all three concerns from a political economy perspective.

Session(s)

Session I

Contagion: Infectious Agents & Diseases (Session 1)

COVID, Zika, Ebola, HIV, SARS…in our increasingly globalized and mobile world, infectious diseases can emerge and spread faster than ever before, making epidemics, even pandemics, a real possibility. That, together with increasing antibiotic resistance, makes understanding where these threats come from and how we can control their spread one of the most urgent issues of our time.

Session(s)

Session I

Contagion: Infectious Agents & Diseases (Session 2)

COVID, Zika, Ebola, HIV, SARS…in our increasingly globalized and mobile world, infectious diseases can emerge and spread faster than ever before, making epidemics, even pandemics, a real possibility. That, together with increasing antibiotic resistance, makes understanding where these threats come from and how we can control their spread one of the most urgent issues of our time.

Session(s)

Session II

Creative Writing

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

"What is education?" asks the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard: "I suppose that education was the curriculum one had to run through in order to catch up with oneself." When we speak of "finding your voice" or "writing your story" or "mining your material," we speak of things you already possess but that take work to realize. Creative Writing is that work.

Session(s)

Session I

Developing Effective Economic Policy

This course is currently at capacity. We are admitting students to the waitlist only, and students who currently are on the waitlist will be given priority if places become available.

Session(s)

Session II

Developmental Psychology: Theories and Techniques

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session I

Economics from an Experimental Perspective

This course is currently at capacity. We are admitting students to the waitlist only, and students who currently are on the waitlist will be given priority if places become available.

Session(s)

Session II

Explorations in Neuroscience: Neurons, Behavior, and Beyond

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session II

Fairy Tales and the Construction of Childhood

In this course we will study fairy tales within the broader context of the history of childhood and practices of education and socialization. Today, fairy tales are commonly considered the stuff of children’s literature and film. But as historians such as Philippe Aries remind us, before the Enlightenment children were seen as little adults and childhood was therefore not considered as a distinctive period of life.

Session(s)

Session I

Freedom of Expression and the Politics of Social Media (session 2)

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session II

Fundamentals of Psychology: Theory & Research

This course is currently at capacity. We are admitting students to the waitlist only, and students who currently are on the waitlist will be given priority if places become available.

Session(s)

Session II

Gravitation to Levitation: Physics from Supernova to Superconductor

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session II

Hands-On Multimedia Design

The Media Arts, Data, and Design (MADD) Center at the University of Chicago is a 20,000-square-foot collaborative space for inquiry and experimentation. In this course, students will take advantage of the MADD Center’s resources as they experiment with the fundamentals of design hands-on, working up to large-scale independent projects that will be featured in a group exhibition. Students will explore the history of design through lectures, readings, and “design walks” at special sites throughout the campus and city at large.

Session(s)

Session I

Introduction to Creative Coding

This course is an introduction to programming, using exercises in graphic design and digital art to motivate and employ basic tools of computation (such as variables, conditional logic, and procedural abstraction). We will write code in JavaScript and related languages and we will work with a variety of digital media, including vector graphics, raster images, animations, and web applications.

See sample syllabus here.

Session(s)

Session I

Introduction to Proof-based Discrete Mathematics

This course will introduce you to higher-level mathematical argumentation and proof, an understanding of which is crucial to making the transition from high school to undergraduate math coursework. What we take as given early on in the study of mathematics actually has reasoning behind it, and this course will show you how to begin to uncover and articulate that reasoning for yourself.

Session(s)

Session I

Introduction to the Philosophy of Life and Death

The focus of this course will be how philosophy arises in response to problems in the conditions of human life, especially our mortality and the prevalence of social injustice. Every one of us will die one day; and every one of us suffers from and/or helps perpetuate some form of injustice. These can be sources of alienation, suffering, and bad choices; they can also be sources of conviction, bravery, and wisdom.

Session(s)

Session II

Justice, the State, and the Individual

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session I

Life in the Universe & The Laws of Physics

This course treats our current understanding of the role that the laws of physics play in the development, existence, persistence, and prevalence of life in the universe. Starting with the big bang theory, we will explore how the laws of physics guided the evolution of the universe through the processes most likely to have produced life on earth as it exists today. We will then consider what the laws of physics have to say about life elsewhere in the universe.

Session(s)

Session I

Mathematical and Computational Research in Biological Sciences

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session I

Pathways in Data Science

This course is currently at capacity. We are admitting students to the waitlist only, and students who currently are on the waitlist will be given priority if places become available.

Session(s)

Session II

Pathways in Economics

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session I

Pathways in Molecular Engineering

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session II

Pathways in World Politics

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session II

Physics of Stars: An Introduction

Understanding how stars work - what makes them shine - is one of the great accomplishments of 20th-century science. The theory of stellar structure allows us to investigate the interiors of stars, even though what we observe is radiation from their outer atmospheres. This theory also helps us determine how old stars are, how they create heavier nuclei from lighter nuclei in their centers, and how they evolve from birth to death, ending as a white dwarf, a neutron star, or a black hole.

Session(s)

Session II

Revolution and Resistance in the Modern World

This course is nearly at capacity. We strongly recommend you consider at least one alternative course option for your application.

Session(s)

Session I