Summer College for High School Students Office of Summer and Winter Sessions

Frequently Asked Questions

You will need to complete the Summer College for High School Students (labeled as Summer College for H.S.) application located on this page. Be sure to fill out the entire application!

Within the application, you will be asked to submit your preferences for short-term courses, traditional courses (offered in distance learning and commuter options), or 4-week residential courses. You will also be given the following essay prompt: "How would you benefit from completing summer courses at Purdue University?"

After you submit the application, you must upload an unofficial or official high school transcript. It is encouraged to ask your school guidance counselor or registrar for an unofficial or official transcript that includes all grades since the first semester of 9th grade. A report card will not meet this requirement. 

Additionally, after submitting the application, you must also pay the $60 application non-refundable fee. 

If a student gets locked out of their Purdue Career Account, please contact Purdue IT to regain access. The student will need to be present during the phone call and will need to provide their PUID number.

Yes, students who accept their admission for Summer College for High School Students will be provided with an @purdue.edu email address. Many Purdue offices, such as the Office of the Registrar and the Office of the Bursar, send email notifications exclusively to students' official Purdue email accounts. If the student has not yet set up their @purdue.edu email address, please find the instructions on how to do so on this page under "Getting started with your @purdue.edu email account."

Please do not forward your Purdue email to a non @purdue.edu email address. Doing so may prevent you from receiving important emails, and we may not always receive your replies; therefore, please make sure to log in and check your Purdue email account. Purdue's email service is through Microsoft Outlook. 

Whether you are participating in a short-term, "fun-sized" course or a 4-week residential program, you will be enrolled in a credit-bearing course at Purdue University. All Purdue credits, including those taken as a high school student, will count towards your Purdue grade point average (GPA) and academic progress. The credit and grade you receive during Summer College for High School Students will become part of your permanent Purdue record.

Absolutely! The only catch is you cannot participate in more than one short-term course simultaneously; however, due to the popularity of our short-term courses, students will only be initially admitted into one course. 

Our team does not recommend taking any other coursework during the week you are attending your short-term course. 

If you are attending two short-term courses that occur immediately one after the other and wish to stay on campus over the weekend occurring between the two experiences, you must contact our Pre-College Pathways team at least two weeks in advance to request this accommodation. There will be an additional charge for the extra two nights of housing, and students will be responsible for obtaining their own meals for Friday evening, all day Saturday, and before dinner on Sunday.
You will follow a similar application process to those who are wishing to participate in a residential program, such as the "fun-sized" courses and the 4-week Residential Program. See the application process for traditional college coursework here. 
In most cases, we can make this accommodation. However, you must contact our Pre-College Pathways team as soon as you have travel arrangements made (at least two weeks in advance) to request this accommodation. There will be an additional charge for any extra night of housing, and students will be responsible for obtaining their own meals before their program meals begin with dinner on Sunday evening and/or after their program meals end with lunch on Fridays.

Students can add a parent/guardian as a proxy to view their billing statement, make a payment on the student's behalf, and more. The student will need to provide proxy access by following the instructions linked here.  

Scholarship opportunities are tied to individual short-term programs. Below is a list of programs with scholarship opportunities. Please refer to their course description on the fun-sized courses page for more information about scholarship amounts.

  • Building the Next Generation of Engineering Leaders in Construction Engineering
  • CyberSafe Heroes
  • Code Explorers
  • Developing Tomorrow's Infrastructure: An Introduction to Civil Engineering
  • PREFACE
  • Cargill-Purdue Agribusiness Science Academy
  • Empowering Women in Business
  • Fleischer Scholars
Academic sessions are facilitated or supervised by current Purdue faculty, staff, and teaching assistants (TAs).
Faculty and staff in academic units will lead the academic sessions for each program. The Office of Summer and Winter Sessions also employs current Purdue undergraduate students to be chaperones for the high school students while they are checked in with us for the duration of their program. Full-time, professional staff members in the Office of Summer and Winter Sessions will also interact with students throughout the week. Policies and guidelines for Summer College for High School Students are developed in accordance with guidance provided by Ethics and Compliance.

All staff members in the Office of Summer and Winter Sessions, peer mentors, faculty members/instructors, and program leads are mandated to complete the following trainings:

All peer mentors and professional staff members in the Office of Summer and Winter Sessions also receive the following mandated training, at minimum:

  • Question-Persuade-Refer (QPR) Suicide Prevention
  • Violent Behavior Policy Awareness
  • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
  • Data Classification and Handling Educational Resources
  • Gramm Leach Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999

State and national registry checks are completed for every faculty member, staff member, peer mentor, and any other individual working with minors within Summer College for High School Students. 

All questions should be addressed to the Pre-College Pathways team at thinksummer@purdue.edu. Our team is happy to work with you and improve your experience on campus.