Summer Springboard Ophthalmology High School Course

Class fills the mornings from 9am to noon, with nine three-hour sessions in all. In Seattle that means five in the first week and four in the second. The Berkeley session starts on Monday 5 July because of the holiday, so its classes run Tuesday to Friday in the first week and Monday to Friday in the second.

On a typical campus day you have breakfast at 8am, class at 9am and lunch at noon. At 1:30pm there's an academic excursion or a recreational outing, and Summer Springboard says the Ophthalmology excursions connect students with eye care professionals around Seattle and Berkeley. At 3pm you go to a College Readiness Workshop or a True You personal development session. You pick two 90-minute workshops from speaking with confidence, managing money, developing leadership, and preparing for college and careers. Commuters leave around 5pm, while residential students have dinner at 6pm, clubs or evening activities from 7pm and dorm checks at 10:30pm.

Outside class, Seattle's trips include Pike Place Market, the Museum of Pop Culture and a ferry tour, and Berkeley's include a San Francisco scavenger hunt and the California's Great America amusement park in Santa Clara.

The course is open to students in grades 9 to 12, including students starting high school in the fall and seniors who graduated in the spring, as long as you've finished 8th grade by the start date and have a 3.0 GPA or the local equivalent. International students prove their English in a telephone interview or with a minimum score: 490 on the paper TOEFL or 60 on the iBT, a Cambridge PET with Distinction or FCE at grade C, or 450 in SAT Reading and Writing.

The application asks for short-answer essays and signed agreement forms. Summer Springboard admits on a rolling basis and fills courses first come, first served, so a place mostly depends on meeting the requirements and applying while seats remain. It also screens against its Essential Eligibility Criteria, which expect students to manage their own care and medication, walk more than a mile between buildings and follow staff instructions in English. A student with a health condition may be asked for medical documentation and at least 12 months of stability. Summer Springboard says most students in its high school program are 15 to 17.

With the mandatory $250 Ophthalmology supplement and the application fee, which starts at $99, a residential place comes to at least $6,647 at Berkeley and $6,147 in Seattle. Commuting costs at least $3,647 at Berkeley and $3,347 in Seattle. These figures hold only for applications made by 30 November 2026, because tuition goes up on 1 December by an amount Summer Springboard hasn't published.

Residential tuition covers your room, all meals, the course, excursions and weekend trips. Commuter tuition covers the course, lunch, excursions and programming from 9am to 5pm on weekdays, and weekend excursions cost $125 a day on top. Flights and health insurance are extra, and so are airport transfers ($95 each way in the group window, $195 outside it) and unaccompanied minor transportation at $145 each way. The application fee rises to $149 after 21 February 2027 and $199 after 18 April 2027.

You pay the $600 deposit with the application. If you apply before 10 March, the balance is split into installments due on 10 March, 10 April and 10 May 2027, and payments made after 10 May carry a $150 late fee. Cancel before 1 March and you get all your tuition back except the application fee. Between 2 March and 1 April you get your tuition back minus the deposit as well. From 2 April to 1 May the refund drops to 75% of tuition, and after 1 May to 25%, with the deposit and application fee kept in both cases. After 1 June you get nothing back.

Need-based scholarships cover up to 30% of residential tuition or 60% of commuter tuition, but not the deposit or the application fee.

You leave with a completion certificate and a letter of recommendation from your instructor, which Summer Springboard gives to students in every program. There's no college credit, because Summer Springboard offers credit only at its Cal Poly and New York School of Interior Design programs, and the certificate isn't a qualification in ophthalmology or optometry. The main thing you take away is a clearer sense of whether eye care suits you, after trying vision testing and basic clinical skills and hearing about the careers in the field.

Summer Springboard staff, called mentors, live on each dorm floor, and other staff live on campus and handle emergencies 24 hours a day. The dorms have 24-hour security and electronic keys, two to four students share each room, and floors or wings are separated by gender.

Students have to stay in their rooms once staff say it's time for the night, with dorm checks at 10:30pm, and sneaking out is grounds for dismissal. At Berkeley, Summer Springboard says staff supervise every excursion. Phones are allowed but must be off during activities, and students keep and take their own medication. A student sent home for breaking the Code of Conduct travels at the family's expense and gets no refund.

Applications go through Summer Springboard's enrollment page, which links to its application portal.

1. 1

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

2. 2

   Start a new application and choose the campus, the session, the Ophthalmology course and residential or commuter tuition.

3. 3

   Complete the rest of the application, which takes about 30 minutes, includes short-answer essay questions and needs the student present.

4. 4

   Pay the $600 deposit and the application fee to hold your place, and expect a decision within 5 to 7 business days.

5. 5

   Once you're accepted, more forms open up for you to complete. If Summer Springboard asks for extra paperwork, you have 48 hours to send it or it can't accept you.

6. 6

   Apply by 21 February 2027 to avoid the higher fee and the first round of closures, and no later than 16 May 2027, when enrollment closes.

7. 7

   If you enroll before 25 April 2027, turn in your pre-departure documents by 1 May 2027 to avoid a $50 late fee. Later applicants have 7 days from acceptance.