Summer Springboard Middle School Marine Biology

Class runs from 9am to noon, Monday to Friday, which makes five three-hour sessions, and Wednesday afternoon adds extra academic time that may include an excursion or guest speaker. Residential students start the day with breakfast at 8am in the campus dining hall. After lunch at noon, everyone heads out at 1:30pm on a course excursion or a recreational outing such as the beach, before an Academic Skills Lab at 3:30pm.

Free time runs from 5pm until dinner at 6pm, and evening activities such as trivia nights and karaoke start at 7pm. Residential students are back in the dorm by 8:30pm for a mentor check-in at 9:30pm. Commuters are on campus from 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and until 2:30pm on Friday, when the week ends for everyone.

Mohammad Sedarat, a marine scientist and Ph.D. candidate in the Jennifer Smith Lab at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, teaches the course. His doctoral research looks at how climate change is reshaping kelp forests in San Diego and across southern California, and he has taught undergraduates, high schoolers and middle schoolers at UC San Diego for more than ten years. Students also hear from marine biology professionals about career paths and research. Summer Springboard doesn't publish a class size for this course.

Summer Springboard staff live on every dorm floor, and the Campus Director, Assistant Campus Director and other staff also live in the dorms and are available 24 hours a day. Getting into the residence hall and suite takes an individual access card, and each room has its own key. UCSD Police patrol the campus and residence halls around the clock, and residential students must be in their rooms after 9:30pm.

Students share a room with one other student in a gender-separated suite. Staff supervise classes and trips directly, while in free time students can move within set campus boundaries in groups of three or more. All staff go through background checks and training. If a student is sick or hurt, staff take them to the nearest medical facility and contact the parents, and the family pays any costs, which is why Summer Springboard asks for proof of medical insurance.

Summer Springboard takes students aged 12 to 14 who have finished 6th grade by the program start date and have a 3.0 GPA or the local equivalent. International students show their English in a telephone interview or with a minimum test score. The application itself includes short-answer essay questions and signed agreement forms.

Applications are also checked against Summer Springboard's Essential Eligibility Criteria, which ask students to handle daily life independently, walk more than a mile between buildings and follow staff instructions in English. Students with some medical or mental health conditions may be asked for extra documentation or a doctor's sign-off.

With the mandatory fees, a residential place comes to at least $3,347 and a commuter place to at least $1,947. That's tuition of $2,998 or $1,598, plus the $250 Marine Biology course supplement and the application fee, which starts at $99. Residential tuition covers all meals, a dorm room, the course, excursions and evening activities. Commuter tuition covers lunch, the course and excursions, and weekend excursions cost $125 a day extra.

Those tuition figures are for applications made by 30 November 2026. Summer Springboard raises tuition on 1 December 2026 and hasn't said by how much. The application fee also rises, to $149 after 21 February 2027 and $199 after 18 April 2027. You pay a $600 deposit when you apply, and the balance follows on a payment plan, with a $150 late fee on payments made after 10 May 2027. If it isn't paid in full by 1 June 2027, Summer Springboard can cancel the place without a refund.

Flights, health insurance and spending money are extra, and Summer Springboard suggests about $100 a week for spending money. Its airport transfer costs $95 each way. Need-based scholarships cover up to 30% of residential tuition or 60% of commuter tuition, but not the deposit or application fee. Cancel before 1 March 2027 and you get everything back except the application fee. After that you lose the deposit, and refunds drop to 75% of tuition from 2 April, 25% after 1 May and nothing after 1 June.

Applications go through Summer Springboard's online enrollment form.

1. 1

   Enter basic contact information, confirm the verification email and click Create New Application on the dashboard.

2. 2

   Choose the UC San Diego middle school campus, your session, this course and residential or commuter tuition, then complete the application, which takes about 30 minutes with the student present.

3. 3

   Pay the deposit and application fee to hold the place.

4. 4

   Expect a decision within 5 to 7 business days, after which more forms open, and return any extra paperwork Summer Springboard asks for within 48 hours or the place can't be offered.

5. 5

   Apply by 16 May 2027 at the latest, when enrollment closes, and check Summer Springboard's availability list first, because some courses close after the 21 February and 18 April 2027 application rounds.