University of Chicago Summer Session Stones and Bones

Classes run from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, and UChicago describes its four-week courses as a full day of course work Monday through Friday with homework every day. In Chicago most of that time is spent at the Field Museum, in the labs and galleries where its scientists work, and evenings back on campus go to homework and the activities the residential staff organize. There are no classes on 19 June or 4 July.

The two weeks in Wyoming follow a different rhythm. You dig for fossils in the mornings and again in the late afternoon, while the early afternoons and evenings go to trips into town for supplies, cooking for the group and sitting around the campfire with the museum's researchers and their families. You then return to Chicago for the final stretch in the museum's preparation labs.

The listed instructor is Fabiany Herrera, who runs the Herrera PaleoLab, a paleobotany lab at the Field Museum. In Chicago, University of Chicago and Field Museum scientists teach you in the labs and galleries where they work, and in Wyoming you dig and camp with the museum's researchers on their own expedition. The class is capped at 16 students, so you'll be working in a small group the whole time.

Stones and Bones is open to 10th and 11th graders who are at least 15, and UChicago wants students who excel in their high school science classes. Coursework in geology or biology is recommended but not required, and you don't need to have camped before, although you must be able to adapt and work well with others.

You apply through UChicago Summer Session's standard application, with one extra essay for this course. You can list up to four course choices in ranked order but will be admitted to only one, and test scores are optional.

• Transcript

  An unofficial transcript covering every high school year so far, plus a grade report for your 2026-27 courses if they aren't on it yet.

• Two essays

  Why you chose this course and how it fits your plans (up to 500 words), and your most rewarding academic project or experience (up to 250 words).

• Stones and Bones essay

  Up to 250 words on a time you showed resilience and adaptability in a group, which ties directly to the camp work in Wyoming.

• Writing sample

  A typed English essay or research paper carrying your teacher's grade and comments. Lab notes and math sets aren't accepted.

• Recommendation and sign-off

  A letter from a teacher in a related subject, a parent or guardian confirmation and the $75 application fee, which is waived if you apply for financial aid with the required documents.

The 2026 program fee was $15,200, which covered tuition, housing and dining, and UChicago hasn't yet published the fee for 2027. On top of it come the $75 application fee, travel to and from Chicago, course materials and personal spending money, plus an optional O'Hare airport shuttle on arrival day that carries its own fee. International students should also budget for visa costs.

Aid has to be requested in the application itself, with your family's financial documents, because UChicago can't award it after a decision. Its 2026 aid table showed a 4-week Practicum student paying $7,600 with a household income under $125,000 and $3,800 under $80,000, depending on eligibility and available funds.

Payment moves quickly. You have a week after admission to pay a $1,000 deposit to hold your place, and the balance is due within four weeks. The deposit and application fee are only refunded if UChicago cancels the course and you don't choose a replacement. In 2026, the rest of the fee could be refunded on a written request until 4 May, and nothing was refunded after that.

Stones and Bones is a graded (A to F) UChicago course, BIOS 10011, worth 200 UChicago units, which UChicago equates to two undergraduate courses, or 10 quarter hours and 6.6 semester hours. The course and your grade are recorded on a UChicago transcript, and UChicago notes that college applications, including the Common App, will ask you to submit that transcript, so the grade goes with you.

Whether the credit counts anywhere else is up to each college, since transfer is at the receiving school's discretion. These courses don't count toward graduation requirements if you later enroll at UChicago. Finishing a Summer Session program does make you eligible, in your final year of high school, to apply to UChicago through its binding Summer Session Early Notification option under Early Decision I.

In Chicago, under-18s live in their own residence hall (Woodlawn Residential Commons in 2026), where resident assistants live on the students' floors and the residential director's team is reachable 24 hours a day. Curfew runs from 10:00 pm to 6:00 am with a nightly sign-in with an RA, and the front desks are staffed around the clock.

For medical care there's UChicago Student Wellness, an on-call physician after hours and the University of Chicago Medical Center on campus. The fee also includes accident and sickness insurance that covers emergency evacuation.

UChicago gives far less detail about the Wyoming weeks, beyond saying that students camp and work alongside Field Museum scientists, so if supervision at the dig matters to you, ask Summer Session how the field camp is staffed. One rule does apply there: if a student has to leave for physical or mental health reasons, a parent or guardian must collect them within 48 hours of being notified, and the family pays any costs.