Summer Springboard Middle School Architecture

Class runs from 9am to noon, Monday to Friday, which makes five three-hour sessions, and Wednesday afternoon is set aside for extra academic time that may include an excursion or guest speaker. Sessions run Sunday to Friday, with check-out at 2:30pm on the last day.

For residential students at Berkeley and Vanderbilt the rest of the day is full. Afternoons start at 1:30pm with an excursion or recreational activity, followed by a skills lab from 3:30pm where students work on their final project and then free time from 5pm. Commuters leave at 6pm, while residents have dinner and supervised evening activities such as talent shows, trivia and karaoke, are back in the dorm by 8:30pm and have a mentor check-in at 9:30pm. At NYU the day ends at 5pm and students head home.

Each campus has its own instructor, and the two named so far are working designers. At Berkeley, Hara Chung trained at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in the UK and has worked on projects for CBRE, Lyft and HP as well as dozens of custom homes around the San Francisco Bay Area. She has also taught student-led projects at Quimby Oak School. At NYU, Emma Sumrow teaches at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, holds a Master of Architecture from Columbia and worked as an architectural designer at Bernard Tschumi Architects.

Vanderbilt's instructor hasn't been announced yet. Summer Springboard says it recruits faculty from area colleges, universities and professional forums, and it doesn't publish class sizes.

You need to have finished sixth grade by the time the program starts and to have at least a 3.0 GPA (or the local equivalent), and Berkeley and Vanderbilt set the age range at 12 to 14. NYU is the exception, taking 11- to 14-year-olds who have finished fifth grade. Summer Springboard says the course suits all experience levels, so you don't need a drawing background.

The application includes short-answer essay questions and signed agreement forms, and every application is reviewed against Summer Springboard's Essential Eligibility Criteria. These expect students to manage their own personal care and medications, walk more than a mile between buildings and follow staff instructions in English, and students with some health conditions may be asked for medical clearance. International students show their English in a phone interview or with test scores. Summer Springboard publishes no acceptance rate or cohort size.

Once you add the required $250 course supplement, which pays for drafting equipment, sketchbooks and supplies you keep, a residential week costs $3,248 at Berkeley, $3,448 at NYU and $3,048 at Vanderbilt. Commuter places come to $1,848, $2,048 and $1,648. The application fee comes on top, starting at $99 and rising to $149 after 21 February 2027 and $199 after 18 April 2027. Summer Springboard lists these prices for applications made by 30 November 2026 and says tuition goes up on 1 December, without publishing the new figures.

Residential tuition covers all meals, your room, excursions, the course and evening activities. Commuter tuition covers lunch, the course, excursions and daytime programming. Flights and health insurance are extra, and so is the optional airport pickup ($95 each way for group transfers). Commuters at Berkeley and Vanderbilt can add weekend excursions for $125 a day.

One thing to check before booking NYU: Summer Springboard describes its NYU middle school program as a commuter program where students go home at 5pm, yet it also lists a residential price, so ask what that price includes.

• Paying

  You pay a $600 deposit and the application fee when you apply. If you apply before 10 March, the balance is due in three parts on 10 March, 10 April and 10 May, and payments after 10 May carry a $150 late fee.

• Cancelling

  Cancel before 1 March and you get all tuition back except the $99 application fee. From 2 March to 1 April, everything except the deposit and application fee comes back, from 2 April to 1 May it's 75% of tuition, after 1 May it's 25%, and after 1 June nothing is refunded.

• Optional protection

  A Tuition Protection Plan lets you cancel for any reason up to the day the program starts. In its 2026 terms it cost $699, which was never refunded.

• Financial aid

  Need-based scholarships cover up to 30% of residential tuition or 60% of commuter tuition, but never the deposit or application fee, and Summer Springboard says it replies within 7 business days.

Middle school students have their own staff, housing and schedule, apart from Summer Springboard's high school programs, and the organizer describes the setting as more structured, with closer supervision. At Berkeley and Vanderbilt, staff live on each dorm floor, and other staff stay on campus to deal with emergencies around the clock. Dorms have 24-hour security and electronic keys for every building and room, housing is split by gender, and everyone is back in the dorm by 8:30pm. Summer Springboard staff supervise all excursions.

At NYU, classes are in the Kimmel Center, where entry is limited to people with an NYU connection. Students check in with the Summer Springboard team at the front desk each day, and anyone under 18 has to be accompanied by a chaperone inside the building. An optional airport service has staff meet arriving students and take them to their residence hall.

Applications go through Summer Springboard's online enrollment page.

1. 1

   Create an account with your basic contact details and confirm the verification email.

2. 2

   Start a new application from the dashboard and choose the campus, session, course and residential or commuter tuition, with the student present for the roughly 30-minute form.

3. 3

   Pay the $600 deposit and the application fee to hold the place. The fee starts at $99, rises to $149 after 21 February 2027 and to $199 after 18 April 2027, and some sessions may close or go to a waitlist at each of those dates.

4. 4

   Expect a decision within 5 to 7 business days, after which further forms open, including the code of conduct, waiver and medical consent.

5. 5

   Apply by 16 May 2027 at the latest, when Summer Springboard closes enrollment.