Summer Springboard Behavioral Economics High School Course

Class runs from 9am to noon, nine three-hour sessions in all. Because the session starts on Monday 5 July rather than the usual Sunday, for the holiday, week one's classes fall Tuesday to Friday and week two's Monday to Friday. A typical day starts with breakfast at 8am, then class, lunch at noon, a recreational activity or academic excursion at 1:30pm, and a College Readiness Workshop or True You session at 3pm.

• Workshops

  You choose two of four 90-minute workshops: Speaking with Confidence, Mastering Money, Developing Leadership, and Prepping for College and Career.

• Bring a laptop

  Summer Springboard asks every student to bring a computer for the course, and phones have to be off during program activities.

Commuters head home at 5pm. Residential students have dinner at 6pm, clubs or evening activities from 7pm and dorm checks at 10:30pm. The course's own trips are a visit to a New York lab where students see behavioral economics research in action and a trip to a financial lab or decision-making center, while weekends bring outings such as Top of the Rock, a Circle Line boat tour and Six Flags Great Adventure.

The Barnard session is taught by Michelle Lei, a behavioral scientist who has worked with healthcare and fintech organizations to design products and decision frameworks that help people make better financial and health choices. Her research, done alongside other behavioral scientists, statisticians and engineers, compares how generative AI models and humans make judgments, including when chatbots may amplify common human blind spots.

We couldn't find a class size or student-to-teacher ratio for the course in Summer Springboard's published material, so ask admissions if that matters to you.

You leave with a completion certificate, a letter of recommendation from your instructor and the experiment you designed, ran and presented at the end of the course. There's no college credit, because Summer Springboard gives credit only at its Cal Poly and New York School of Interior Design programs.

What you get is a short piece of hands-on research you can describe in your own words, not a formal qualification.

Places are open to students entering grades 9 to 12, including those starting high school in the fall and seniors who graduated that spring, as long as they've finished 8th grade by the start date and have a 3.0 GPA or the local equivalent. International students also need to show their English is strong enough, either in a telephone interview or with one of the minimum scores below.

The application takes about 30 minutes, needs the student there to complete it, and includes short-answer essay questions and signed agreement forms. Summer Springboard reviews each one against its Essential Eligibility Criteria, which expect students to manage their own care and medication, walk more than a mile between buildings and disclose their full medical history, and it may ask for input from a doctor. Decisions take 5 to 7 business days. Courses are filled first come, first served, and Summer Springboard warns that some will close or move to a waitlist after 21 February 2027.

• TOEFL

  490 on the paper test or 60 on the iBT.

• Cambridge

  PET with Distinction or FCE at grade C.

• SAT

  450 in Reading and Writing.

Residential places cost $5,998 and commuter places $3,298 for families who apply by 30 November 2026. Summer Springboard raises tuition on 1 December 2026, and we couldn't find the new price in its published material. The residential price covers your room, all meals, the course and every excursion, weekends included. The commuter price covers lunch, the course, the course excursions and weekday programming from 9am to 5pm, and weekend excursions cost $125 a day extra. Behavioral Economics doesn't carry the $250 supplement that some Barnard courses do.

When you apply, you pay a $600 deposit along with a non-refundable application fee of $99, which rises to $149 after 21 February 2027 and $199 after 18 April 2027. If you apply before 10 March 2027, the balance is due in three parts on 10 March, 10 April and 10 May, with a $150 late fee for payments received after 10 May.

Cancel before 1 March and only the application fee is kept. From 2 March you also lose the deposit, from 2 April you get back 75% of tuition, after 1 May 25%, and after 1 June nothing at all. Need-based scholarships cover up to 30% of residential or 60% of commuter tuition, but never the deposit or application fee.

• Getting there

  Flights aren't included. The airport shuttle costs $95 each way, and students aged 14 or younger must fly as unaccompanied minors, which adds $50 each way plus the airline's own fee.

• Spending money

  Summer Springboard suggests about $100 a week for snacks and souvenirs, and a two-week gym membership costs $50 if you want one.

• Cancellation cover

  An optional Tuition Protection Plan, bought when you apply, lets you cancel for any reason up to the start day. It cost $699 under the 2026 terms, and that fee isn't refunded unless Summer Springboard cancels the program itself.

Summer Springboard staff live on every floor of the residence hall, and the campus director and other senior staff live in the dorms too, on call around the clock. For 2027, students stay in single or double rooms in Elliott Hall, in gender-separated suites with a shared bathroom, and the building is access-controlled, so each student uses their own card to get in.

Barnard Security patrols the campus 24/7, students must be in their rooms from 10pm, and staff check rooms at 10:30pm. Urgent and emergency care is close by, including Mt. Sinai Morningside Hospital, and students carry and take their own medication, which has to be listed on the health form.

• Conduct rules

  Most code of conduct breaches mean immediate expulsion, and a student sent home flies on the next available flight at the family's expense, with no refund.

• Getting around

  Chaperones travel with students to excursions by subway or private bus, and staff meet shuttle passengers at the airport within set flight windows.