Summer Springboard Middle School Fundamentals of Engineering

Class runs from 9 a.m. to noon, Monday to Friday, which adds up to five 3-hour sessions, and the week ends with check-out at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Each day takes on a different branch of engineering, such as civil, mechanical or electrical, and you build things like rubber-band-powered vehicles, working circuits and programmable models, then test and redesign them. Wednesday afternoon is set aside for extra academic time, which may include an excursion or a guest speaker.

On the residential campuses at Berkeley and San Diego, the rest of the day is planned for you. After lunch comes a recreational activity or a course-linked trip, then an Academic Skills Lab at 3:30 p.m. for working on final projects, free time at 5 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m. and an evening activity such as trivia, karaoke or a talent show. Everyone is back in the dorm by 8:30 p.m., with a mentor check-in at 9:30 p.m. Commuters are on campus from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday and leave at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.

At NYU, classes meet at the Kimmel Center near Washington Square Park, afternoons go to excursions and the skills lab, and students head home at 5 p.m. In past years the New York group visited the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York Hall of Science and Mercer Labs, while Bay Area students visited local tech companies.

Each campus has its own instructor, and at Berkeley and NYU it's a university engineering professor. At Berkeley the class is taught by Dr. Roya Nasimi, an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at California State University, East Bay. She holds a PhD in structural engineering, runs a lab on dynamics and smart structures and has worked on full-scale bridge experiments. At NYU it's André J. Butler, an Industry Professor of civil, urban and environmental engineering at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering, who won two Teacher of the Year awards at Mercer University's School of Engineering.

Summer Springboard hasn't yet named the UC San Diego instructor and says only that its faculty are recruited from area colleges, universities and professional forums, so ask before you choose San Diego if the teacher matters to you. Industry professionals also join the course for Q&A sessions about engineering careers.

You need to have finished 6th grade by the time the course starts and have a 3.0 GPA or your school's equivalent. NYU is the exception on grade, because Summer Springboard lists it for ages 11 to 14 who have finished 5th grade. If you've only just finished 5th grade, confirm with Summer Springboard that the NYU course is open to you before you apply.

The application asks for short-answer essay questions and signed agreement forms along with the deposit and application fee, and Summer Springboard says it sends a decision within 5 to 7 business days. Admissions are rolling and courses are filled first come, first served, so when you apply matters, because a full session means a waitlist.

Every application is also checked against Summer Springboard's Essential Eligibility Criteria, which cover things like managing your own medications, walking more than a mile around campus and following staff instructions in English. Students with some health conditions may be asked for medical documentation, and Summer Springboard states that its programs aren't therapeutic.

For one week at Berkeley or UC San Diego, a family pays $3,347 for the residential option or $1,947 as a commuter. Those totals add the tuition Summer Springboard lists for applications made by 30 November 2026, the mandatory $250 supplement for this engineering course and the $99 application fee. At NYU the same sums come to $3,547 and $2,147. Tuition goes up on 1 December 2026 and the new figure isn't published yet, so check the price on the day you apply. The application fee also rises, to $149 after 21 February 2027 and $199 after 18 April 2027.

Residential tuition covers your room, all meals, the course, excursions and evening activities. Commuter tuition covers lunch, the course and weekday excursions, and at Berkeley and San Diego commuters pay $125 a day to join weekend excursions. Airport transfers are optional and extra, at $95 each way for the group transfer. One thing to check: Summer Springboard describes the NYU course as a commuter program, with students heading home at 5 p.m., yet it also lists a $3,198 residential price, so ask what that price includes before you book.

You pay a $600 deposit with the application. If you apply before 10 March, the balance is split into three payments due on 10 March, 10 April and 10 May. Cancel before 1 March and you get all the tuition back except the application fee. From 2 March the deposit and fee are no longer refunded, and the share of tuition you get back falls to 75% from 2 April, 25% after 1 May and nothing after 1 June. An optional $699 Tuition Protection Plan, bought when you apply, lets you cancel for any reason up to the day the program starts. Need-based scholarships cover up to 30% of residential tuition or 60% of commuter tuition, but never the deposit or application fee.

On the residential campuses, a Summer Springboard staff member lives on your floor, and other staff live on campus and handle emergencies around the clock. At Berkeley you share a dorm room on a gender-segregated floor, and the dorms have 24-hour security and electronic keys for each building and room. At UC San Diego you share a room in a suite separated by gender, with staff including the campus director living in the dorms. UCSD Police patrol around the clock, and students must be in their rooms after 9:30 p.m. At NYU, students check in each day with the Summer Springboard team at the Kimmel Center's front desk, and NYU's Campus Safety Department manages building security.

The middle school program runs separately from the high school one, with its own staff, housing and schedule, and at Berkeley Summer Springboard says every excursion is supervised by its middle school staff. With the optional airport transfer, staff meet students at the airport and take them to their residence hall. Summer Springboard doesn't give a staff-to-student ratio, so ask if that matters to you.

You'll have built a set of projects over the week, and you also get a completion certificate and a letter of recommendation from your instructor, which Summer Springboard gives every student who finishes a program. There's no college credit, since Summer Springboard offers credit only through its Cal Poly and NYSID programs, and neither runs this course.