Summer Discovery UC Santa Barbara

That depends on the program. In RMP, mentors pitch their projects during the virtual component, and once you're on campus you're matched to the project you choose and paired with its mentor, who may be a graduate student, a postdoc or a faculty member. UC Santa Barbara says topics change each summer with the mentors available, and its list of research areas runs from anthropology, marine biology and neuroscience to economics, music and statistics.

In SRA you work in a group of three within one track, led by an instructor who is doing active research in that field. The 2026 tracks ranged from probabilistic computing and CRISPR gene editing to online social movements and bioethics, and the 2027 tracks are due in December 2026. Both programs also include GRIT talks, a lecture series in which UCSB researchers present their own work.

Most of it. UC Santa Barbara expects 35 to 50 hours of research a week in RMP, depending on the project, and 25 to 40 in SRA. In RMP that time goes into library work, fieldwork and data collection, and in both programs the university warns that you may sometimes be working into the night. RMP starts with a virtual component from 14 to 17 June 2027 and then runs six weeks on campus, where you also take two courses: Introduction to Research, on writing a formal research paper, and Presentation Techniques, which covers talks, posters and elevator pitches.

SRA opens with a Welcome Event and a two-day Academic Intensive on 26 and 27 June 2027. In the first two weeks you form your group, settle on a research question and do hands-on labs alongside lectures and discussions, and in the last two the labs stop so you can concentrate on investigation and analysis before the capstone seminar. Outside the research, both programs run development workshops with researchers, staff drop-in hours, Friday mixers and social events such as game nights and watch parties.

Both programs want high school students with strong grades. SRA takes 9th, 10th and 11th graders with a weighted GPA of at least 3.60, while RMP is for 10th and 11th graders with at least 3.80 and considers outstanding 9th graders case by case. UC Santa Barbara calls RMP competitive, reviews applications for both programs holistically and on a rolling basis, and makes its admissions decisions need-blind. In 2026, decisions came about 3 to 6 weeks (RMP) or 3 to 5 weeks (SRA) after a complete application went under review, and the wait could be longer for applications sent in late in the cycle.

The 2026 application was mostly writing. Alongside an unofficial transcript covering your whole high school record, you wrote a personal statement of up to 500 words and answered four short questions in 150 words or fewer each. The RMP statement asked you to propose a process-based research question and explain how you'd investigate it, while the SRA statement asked why your chosen track interests you, so read the track descriptions closely before you start. RMP also accepted AP score reports and dropped its recommendation in 2026.

To commute, you need to live within a 60-minute drive of campus, and in 2026 UC Santa Barbara also required commuters to attend a local high school and have a permanent address between Lompoc and Ventura.

UC Santa Barbara hasn't published 2027 prices yet and says they'll come out in early December 2026, so the 2026 totals are the best guide. In 2026, SRA cost $3,475 for commuters and $9,874 for residential students, and RMP cost $5,675 for commuters and $13,274 residential. Each total includes the $75 application fee and the tuition and program fees ($3,400 for SRA, $5,600 for RMP), and the residential totals add housing and meals ($6,399 for SRA, $7,599 for RMP), which Summer Discovery collects separately on its own payment schedule.

Summer Discovery lists housing, three meals on weekdays and two on weekends, laundry, recreation facilities and transport to included activities as covered. Flights, airport transfers, linens, medical costs, meals off campus and spending money are extra, and international residential students pay a $379 international registration fee. Paying tuition by credit card adds 2.75%.

The enrollment deposit ($900 for SRA, $1,000 for RMP) counts toward tuition but, like the application fee, is never refunded. In 2026 the rest of the tuition was due by 8 May, and withdrawing by email got all of it back through 15 May, half through 22 May and nothing after that. That schedule covers UC Santa Barbara's tuition only, so check Summer Discovery's own terms for the housing and meal fees. UC Santa Barbara offers a limited number of need-based full and partial scholarships, with priority for California residents. You flag your interest in the application, and if you're admitted your guardian completes the scholarship application with the family's tax documents. You can also ask for an application fee waiver when you apply.

Residential students live under the supervision of Summer Discovery, whose program staff keep an office open 24 hours a day. You'd share a double or triple room in Santa Cruz Residence Hall with other pre-college students and eat at the De La Guerra dining commons, where plant-forward dishes are always available.

Summer Discovery's enrollment terms ask families to disclose in writing every medical, psychological and emotional condition and any medication, and failing to do so can lead to dismissal. A student sent home for breaking its rules travels at the family's expense, gets no refund and can't finish the course credit. Commuters take part in all on-campus programming but travel in every day, weekends included.

You leave with letter-graded UC Santa Barbara credit, 8 units from RMP or 4 from SRA, which the university says becomes part of your permanent record. You also leave with a technical research paper and the experience of presenting at a formal symposium (RMP) or capstone seminar (SRA). UC Santa Barbara doesn't say how other colleges treat the units, so ask any college you plan to attend before counting on them.

Be careful before you mention the research elsewhere. To reference it in a competition, a college application or another academic setting, UC Santa Barbara requires permission from your mentor, the project's Principal Investigator and the Director of Academic Programs for RMP, or from your instructor and that director for SRA, and it warns that failing to get permission is subject to legal action. In some cases you can carry the research on remotely during the school year, but only with the guidance and consent of your mentor or instructor and the Director of Academic Programs.