Summer Springboard Middle School Aerospace Engineering

Class runs from 9am to noon, Monday to Friday, which adds up to five three-hour sessions of designing, building and launching gliders and model rockets in small teams. Wednesday afternoon is set aside for extra academic time, possibly with an excursion or guest speakers. The course's outings include a tour of the Museum of Flight and a visit to a lab or department where engineers design and test aircraft and spacecraft.

• 8am

  Breakfast in the campus dining hall.

• 9am to noon

  Aerospace engineering class.

• Noon

  Lunch in the dining hall.

• 1:30pm

  A recreational activity or an academic excursion.

• 3:30pm

  Academic skills lab, with extra time to work on projects.

• 5pm

  Structured free time, then dinner at 6pm.

• 7pm

  Supervised evening activities for residential students, such as trivia nights, talent shows and karaoke.

• 8:30pm

  Back in the dorms, with a mentor check-in for residential students at 9:30pm.

Everyone, commuters included, checks in on Sunday for orientation, icebreakers and dinner. The week ends with check-out at 2:30pm on Friday. Outside class there's an afternoon of games and bowling at the Husky Hub, UW's student union, and a campus tour led by current students. Summer Springboard lays out a typical day like this:

Summer Springboard names Bryce Schaefer as the instructor. He's an aerospace engineer with a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota and a master's from the University of Colorado Boulder, both in aerospace engineering. He interned at NASA's Langley Research Center and Marshall Space Flight Center and at SpaceX. At Virgin Orbit he ran more than 50 hotfire tests on orbital-class rocket engines and became the first flight crew member for its orbital launches, flying aboard the Boeing 747-400 launch platform known as Cosmic Girl. He now works in Seattle at Helion Energy as a senior integration and test engineer.

Summer Springboard also lists the 2027 University of Washington instructor as to be announced, so it's worth asking admissions who will teach the July 2027 session. Students also meet working aerospace engineers and guest speakers during the week. Summer Springboard doesn't publish a class size or a student-to-teacher ratio.

Summer Springboard takes students aged 12 to 14 who have finished 6th grade by the time the program starts and have at least a 3.0 GPA or the local equivalent. International students also need to show English proficiency, either through a telephone interview or with a minimum test score.

The application takes about 30 minutes, and the student has to be there to complete it. Along with short-answer essay questions and signed agreement forms, it asks for the $600 deposit and the application fee up front, and Summer Springboard says you'll get a decision within 5 to 7 business days. It doesn't publish an acceptance rate. Courses are assigned first come, first served, and if the session fills up you go on a waitlist and pay nothing until a place opens.

Every applicant is also screened against Summer Springboard's Essential Eligibility Criteria. Students need to manage their own medication, walk more than a mile between buildings and follow instructions in English, and Summer Springboard states that its programs aren't therapeutic. Students with some health conditions may be asked for medical documentation and proof of 12 months of stability before they're accepted.

If you apply by 30 November 2026, a residential place comes to $3,147. That's $2,798 tuition, plus the mandatory $250 supplement for this course and the $99 application fee. A commuter place comes to $1,747 on the same basis, with $1,398 tuition plus the same supplement and fee. Tuition goes up on 1 December 2026, and Summer Springboard confirms the new figure when you book. The application fee rises to $149 after 21 February 2027 and to $199 after 18 April 2027.

Residential tuition covers the dorm room, all meals, excursions, the course and evening activities. Commuter tuition covers lunch, the course, excursions and daytime programming from 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and until 2:30pm on Friday, but not lodging, breakfast, dinner or evening activities. Flights are extra, and so is the airport shuttle at $95 each way. Students 14 or younger who fly alone must travel as unaccompanied minors, which adds $50 each way to the shuttle fee on top of the airline's own charges. Families also have to show proof of health insurance and pay any medical bills, and Summer Springboard suggests bringing about $100 a week in spending money.

Need-based scholarships cover up to 30% of residential tuition or up to 60% of commuter tuition, but never the deposit or the application fee. If you apply before 10 March, the balance is due in parts, with roughly a third on 10 March, a third on 10 April and the rest on 10 May, and any payment after 10 May carries a $150 late fee. The optional $699 Tuition Protection Plan lets you cancel for any reason up to the first day and get back everything you've paid apart from the plan's own cost, but it has to be bought when you apply. Without it, refunds follow this scale.

Middle schoolers have their own staff, housing and schedule, separate from Summer Springboard's high school students, in what it describes as a more structured setting. Residential students share a double or triple room in the University of Washington's renovated North Campus dorms. Summer Springboard takes the whole floor, boys and girls are housed on separate wings or floors, and staff live on each floor. Other staff live on campus and are on call 24 hours a day, and the dorms have round-the-clock security with electronic keys. There's no air conditioning, but fans are provided.

Residential students are back in the dorms by 8:30pm and get a mentor check-in at 9:30pm, and leaving your room overnight is grounds for dismissal. During free time, students can move around within set campus boundaries in groups of three or more. Phones are allowed but have to be off during activities. If a student is ill or injured, staff take them for care, most likely to the emergency department at UW Medical Center – Montlake or the urgent care clinic at Ravenna, and let parents know. Serious breaches of the code of conduct mean being sent home on the next available flight at the family's expense, with no refund.

Students who complete the week get a certificate of completion and a letter of recommendation from their instructor. Neither is automatic, and Summer Springboard can withhold them for poor participation or for breaking the code of conduct. There's no college credit, since Summer Springboard offers credit only at its Cal Poly and New York School of Interior Design programs. The certificate also comes from Summer Springboard, not from the University of Washington.