Summer Springboard Dermatology High School Course

Class runs from 9am to noon, five mornings in the first week and four in the second, which adds up to nine three-hour sessions, or about 27 hours of teaching. In Summer Springboard's sample day at Barnard, lunch is at noon, an academic excursion or recreational activity follows at 1:30pm, and a College Readiness Workshop or True You session starts at 3pm. Commuters leave at 5pm, while residential students have dinner at 6pm, clubs or evening activities at 7pm and dorm checks at 10:30pm. Summer Springboard calls this a sample, so the exact timetable can shift.

The workshops are 90-minute sessions, and you pick two of the four: Speaking with Confidence, Mastering Money, Developing Leadership, and Prepping for College and Career. True You is a two-session group reflection on your goals. Weekends are for the city, with trips listed for 2027 including Top of the Rock, a Circle Line boat tour, the High Line and the Vessel, Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge and Six Flags Great Adventure. Bring a laptop, because Summer Springboard asks students to have one for the course.

A residential place comes to $6,347 before travel, made up of $5,998 tuition, the mandatory $250 Dermatology supplement and an application fee from $99 that rises as the cycle goes on. A commuter place comes to $3,647 on the same basis. Residential tuition covers your room, all meals, the course, excursions and weekend trips, with a meal stipend on weekends so you can eat out in the city. Commuter tuition covers lunch, the course, excursions and programming from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, and weekend trips cost $125 a day on top. Summer Springboard says tuition goes up on 1 December 2026 but doesn't publish the new figure.

Flights and health insurance aren't included. The airport shuttle is $95 each way ($195 outside the group window), unaccompanied minor service is $145 each way, a two-week gym membership is $50, and Summer Springboard suggests about $100 a week in spending money.

Cancel before 1 March and you get back everything except the application fee. From 2 March the $600 deposit is kept too, and the refund shrinks from there, as the table shows. An optional $699 Tuition Protection Plan lets you cancel for any reason up to the day the program starts and recover everything except the plan's own cost. Need-based scholarships cover up to 30% of residential tuition or 60% of commuter tuition, but never the deposit or application fee.

Getting in is about meeting the minimums rather than beating other applicants. Summer Springboard takes students who have finished 8th grade by the start date, up to seniors who graduated that spring, with a 3.0 GPA or the local equivalent. It admits on a rolling basis, fills courses first come, first served and publishes no cohort size or acceptance rate.

Alongside the deposit and fee, the application asks for short-answer essay questions and signed agreement forms. International students can show their English in a telephone interview or with a minimum score on one of three tests: the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) at 490 on paper or 60 on the iBT, the Cambridge PET-Distinction or FCE-C, or an SAT Reading and Writing score of 450.

Every applicant is also screened against Summer Springboard's Essential Eligibility Criteria, which expect students to manage their own care and medication, walk more than a mile and follow staff instructions in English. Summer Springboard says plainly that its programs aren't therapeutic, and a student with certain health conditions may be asked for medical documentation and 12 months of stable independence before the program.

Applications go through Summer Springboard's online enrollment page.

1. 1

   Create an account with basic contact details, confirm the verification email and fill in your account details on the dashboard.

2. 2

   Start a new application and choose Barnard College, Session 2, Dermatology and residential or commuter tuition, setting aside about 30 minutes with the student present.

3. 3

   Pay the $600 deposit and the application fee, which rises to $149 at the 21 February 2027 first-wave deadline and to $199 at the 18 April 2027 second-wave deadline, with some programs closing at each.

4. 4

   Expect a decision within 5 to 7 business days, after which the remaining enrollment forms open.

5. 5

   Return the signed forms and pre-departure documents by 1 May 2027 if you enrolled before 25 April, or within seven days of acceptance if you enrolled later.

6. 6

   Unless you paid in full, finish the payment plan by 10 May 2027 to avoid a $150 late fee, since a place not fully paid by 1 June 2027 can be canceled without refund.

7. 7

   Enrollment closes at the final general admission deadline on 16 May 2027.

You leave with a Summer Springboard completion certificate and a letter of recommendation from your instructor, plus the experience of working up and presenting cases at the closing mock grand rounds. Summer Springboard says both the certificate and the letter are earned rather than automatic, and it can withhold them for poor participation or a Code of Conduct breach.

There's no college credit for this course, so what it gives you on paper is the certificate and the letter.

Summer Springboard staff live on every floor of the residence, and the campus director and other senior staff live in the dorms too, available 24 hours a day. All staff are background-checked and trained. Students live in gender-separated suites in Elliott Hall, which they enter with their own access cards, and Barnard Security patrols the campus and residence halls around the clock. Students must be in their rooms after 10pm, with dorm checks at 10:30pm.

Staff supervise classes and excursions, but in free time students can move around within set campus boundaries in groups of three or more without a staff member. If you're sick or hurt, staff take you to the nearest medical facility and tell your parents, though the family pays any costs, and every student needs a completed medical form and proof of health insurance. Students keep and take their own medication. Breaking the Code of Conduct can mean being sent home on the next flight at the family's expense, with no refund.