15 University History Programs for High School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 3 minutes ago
- 13 min read
If you plan to study history, politics, or international relations in college, exploring history outside your classroom early can be very useful. A university history program is one of the strongest options you can consider while you are still in high school.
University history programs allow you to see how the subject is studied at a higher level and help you understand how historians approach major events and historical debates. You may examine primary sources, analyze historical documents, read different interpretations of important events, and learn how historians build arguments based on evidence. Spending time in a university program also helps you develop research and writing skills that become important if you continue studying history or social sciences later.
Why should I participate in a university history program in high school?
Participating in a university history program allows you to experience how history is taught in college. You may attend lectures, participate in discussions, and work on research tasks under the guidance of university instructors. This exposure helps you understand how historical questions are studied through evidence, analysis, and debate. These programs can also strengthen your college applications because they show that you explored your academic interests in a serious academic setting. They give you solid experiences you can mention in application essays or interviews.
With that in mind, here are 15 university history programs for high school students!
If you’re looking for online summer research programs, check out our blog here.
Key takeaways
Several programs are free or fully funded, including NYU Democracy Scholars, University of Montana Summer History Institute, and Immerse Education (financial aid available), while most university pre-college courses at Harvard, Brown, William & Mary, and Georgetown are tuition-based with financial assistance available.
Programs span a wide range of historical sub-fields, including American Revolution and Civil War history (William & Mary, Harvard), African American studies and race (UCLA AF AMER), ancient history and archaeology (Brown), Middle Eastern history (Harvard), legal and political history (Brown Great Trials), and foreign policy (Georgetown).
Several programs place students directly on major university campuses, including Harvard, Brown, NYU, UCLA, Georgetown, and William & Mary, giving students an early, firsthand preview of college-level academic expectations and campus life.
Students interested in interdisciplinary approaches to history can apply to Brown's Power and the Production of History, Harvard's Literature as History course, and UCLA's African American Studies offerings, all of which connect historical analysis to literature, race studies, and cultural theory.
Deadlines vary widely across programs, with some, like NYU Democracy Scholars, opening applications early in the year, and others, like Brown Summer@Brown and Harvard Pre-College, running on rolling admissions, so students should begin researching in the fall and apply as early as possible.
Location: New York University (NYU), New York, NY (On Campus)
Cost: Free (Full Scholarship)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective; cohort-based program for NYC students
Program Dates: Three weeks in July (followed by academic-year meetings)
Application Deadline: Early (application typically opens early in the year)
Eligibility: New York City high school students currently in 11th grade; preference for first-generation college-bound students
Democracy Scholars is a tuition-free NYU pre-college program designed for New York City students entering their senior year of high school. Over three weeks in July, you participate in discussion-based seminars led by NYU faculty, focusing on humanities, political philosophy, and social sciences. The curriculum emphasizes college-level reading, writing, and critical thinking skills in a seminar-style academic environment. Beyond daily classroom discussions, the program introduces you to university life through field trips, community engagement experiences, and leadership development activities. You explore themes of citizenship, democracy, and social responsibility while building connections with intellectually motivated peers across the city.
Location: Oxford, Cambridge, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, and Boston
Cost: Varies by location; financial aid available
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective; small seminar groups of 7–10 students
Program Dates: Two-week sessions during the summer (multiple cohorts)
Application Deadline: Rolling admissions for summer cohorts
Eligibility: Students aged 13–18 currently enrolled in middle or high school
Immerse Education’s History Track is part of the Academic Insights Program, a two-week residential experience hosted in university settings across multiple global cities. You live on campus and participate in small-group seminars designed to replicate the discussion-based structure of undergraduate tutorials at institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge. The history curriculum emphasizes critical analysis, historiography, and interpretation of primary sources. You engage with complex historical themes while developing skills in structured argumentation, evidence-based writing, and seminar discussion. Classes are experiential and academically rigorous, encouraging independent thinking and close textual analysis rather than passive lecture attendance.
Location: University of Montana, Missoula, MT (In-person, non-residential)
Cost: Free (meals and materials included)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Limited spots; selection based on application (space-constrained)
Program Dates: Typically one week in July
Application Deadline: Early June
Eligibility: High school students (freshmen–seniors), open to Montana students; non-residential
The University of Montana Summer History Institute is a fully funded, week-long academic program that introduces high school students to college-level historical study. Hosted by the UM History Department and taught by faculty and a graduate teaching assistant, the institute offers an immersive classroom experience on the university campus. The last theme, U.S. Constitutional History: From the Founders to Today, explored both the U.S. Constitution of 1787 and the Montana State Constitution of 1972. You would analyze founding debates, examine primary sources such as convention reports and newspaper articles, and interpret how constitutional frameworks shape civic life today.
Location: Brown University, Providence, RI (On-campus option) and Online
Cost: Varies by format (e.g., Online 4 weeks: $5,554; Online 6 weeks: $6,520)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective Summer@Brown program; seminar-style classes
Program Dates: On-campus (1 week): June 22 – June 26, Online (2 weeks): June 22 – July 2, Additional online formats: 4- and 6-week options available
Application Deadline: Varies by Summer@Brown admissions cycle
Eligibility: High school students admitted to Summer@Brown; prior knowledge of U.S. history helpful but not required
Power and the Production of History is a seminar-based course offered through Brown University’s Summer@Brown program that examines how power shapes historical narratives. Rather than focusing solely on events, the course interrogates how history is produced, who controls archives, what is remembered, and what is erased. You explore themes of colonialism, slavery, genocide, and resistance while analyzing how structures of race, gender, class, and sexuality influence historical storytelling. The curriculum draws from history, cultural studies, ethnic studies, memory studies, and museum studies, incorporating podcasts, documentaries, and practitioner discussions alongside academic readings.
Location: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (On Campus)
Cost: $6,100 (Noncredit)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective Pre-College course; cohort size not specified
Program Dates: July 20 – July 31 (Pre-College Session III)
Application Deadline: Varies by Harvard Summer School Pre-College admissions cycle
Eligibility: High school students admitted to Harvard Summer School Pre-College Program
The American Revolution: A View from Boston is an on-campus Harvard Summer School Pre-College course that examines the American Revolution through a place-based lens. Taught by a doctoral candidate in History at Harvard, the course revisits the events surrounding the Declaration of Independence exactly 250 years after its signing, grounding historical analysis in the city of Boston and its surrounding communities. You explore core questions about the Revolution’s identity and transformation: when did a British civil war become a revolution, and how did people living in colonial Massachusetts understand their participation in a nation that did not yet exist? Through close engagement with primary sources, seminar discussions, and visits to Harvard’s archives and local historic sites, you analyze how revolutionary narratives were constructed and how they remain contested today.
Location: Brown University, Providence, RI (On Campus)
Cost: Tuition-based (varies by Summer@Brown program session)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective Summer@Brown program; seminar-style class
Program Dates: July 13 – July 17 (1 week)
Application Deadline: Varies by Summer@Brown admissions cycle
Eligibility: High school students admitted to Summer@Brown; no prerequisites required
Archaeology of Ancient Greece is a one-week, intensive course offered through Brown University’s Summer@Brown program. The course explores Greek material culture from the Bronze Age (Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations) through the Hellenistic period, emphasizing architecture, sculpture, and vase painting as primary lenses for understanding ancient society. You study key artistic and architectural developments chronologically, analyzing how material culture reflects political systems, religious practices, and social transformations. The course also situates ancient Greece within the broader eastern Mediterranean world, examining cultural exchange across the Aegean, Asia Minor, and Egypt.
Location: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA (On Campus)
Cost: Tuition-based (varies by units and residency; Summer Sessions tuition applies)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Open enrollment for qualified students; capacity varies by course
Program Dates: Multiple sessions across the summer
Application Deadline: Varies by session; early registration recommended
Eligibility: Visiting and matriculated students; qualified high school students may apply through UCLA Summer Sessions or Pre-college pathways
UCLA’s African American Studies (AF AMER) courses offer university-level exploration of race, power, culture, and resistance within historical and contemporary contexts. Courses such as Introduction to Black Studies provide a foundational survey of African American history and intellectual traditions, while Race, Science, and Society examines how scientific discourse has intersected with racial ideologies. Other offerings, including Politics of Struggle: Race, Solidarity, and Resistance, analyze social movements and coalition-building, and rotating Special Topics (188A) courses explore themes such as Black aesthetics, carcerality, music icons of the “Long 1980s,” and Black fashion history.
Location: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (On Campus)
Cost: $6,100 (Noncredit)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective Pre-College course; cohort size not specified
Program Dates: June 22 – July 2 (Pre-College Session I)
Application Deadline: Varies by Harvard Summer School Pre-College admissions cycle
Eligibility: High school students admitted to Harvard Summer School Pre-College Program
Literature as History: Toni Morrison and Chinua Achebe is an on-campus Harvard Summer School Pre-College course that examines how fiction can function as a form of historical interpretation. Taught by a doctoral candidate in History at Harvard, the course centers on two major twentieth-century novels: Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Through close reading and seminar discussion, you explore themes of colonization in West Africa and internal migration in the United States, analyzing how literary narratives illuminate historical change. The course encourages you to consider what fiction offers that traditional historical writing may not, particularly in portraying lived experience, memory, and identity.
Location: College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA (On Campus)
Cost: $6,950 (Pre-College Program; financial assistance available)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective pre-college program; cohort-based residential model
Program Dates: Summer (3-week residential session)
Application Deadline: Varies by admissions cycle; no application fee
Eligibility: High school students admitted to William & Mary’s Pre-College Program in American History
The Road to the American Revolution is a residential pre-college course offered through William & Mary’s Pre-College Program in American History. The course begins in colonial Virginia, examining how Virginia Indians, English colonists, and enslaved Africans competed for land, power, and economic control in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. From the Chesapeake Bay to Williamsburg and the Piedmont region, you analyze how plantation economies, material culture, and imperial regulations shaped daily life and political resistance. The course emphasizes historical thinking and evidence-based reasoning. You work with diverse primary and secondary sources, including written records, material objects, archaeological artifacts, buildings, and landscapes, to construct arguments and present them in both written and discussion formats.
Location: Boston University, Boston, MA (On Campus)
Cost: Tuition-based (varies by session; BU Summer Term rates apply)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Open enrollment for qualified high school students; space-limited
Program Dates: Summer sessions (typically 6-week or shorter terms between May and August)
Application Deadline: Rolling until capacity is reached
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors (and qualified high school students)
Boston University’s Art History summer course for high school students offers the opportunity to earn college credit while studying on BU’s campus. As part of the BU Summer Term, you enroll in a university-level art history class alongside other motivated students, gaining exposure to formal analysis, visual interpretation, and historical context. The course typically surveys major movements, artists, and cultural developments in Western and/or global art history. You learn to analyze artworks using art-historical methodologies, understand stylistic evolution, and situate visual culture within broader political, religious, and social frameworks.
Location: Georgetown University, Washington, DC (On Campus; Residential or Commuter)
Cost: $3,725 (Residential, includes tuition and meals); $3,095 (Commuter)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective; enrollment capped per section
Program Dates: July 26 – August 1
Application Deadline: Rolling until full
Eligibility: High school students admitted to Georgetown’s Summer Programs for High School Students
Washington & the World Academy is a one-week intensive program hosted by Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. The course examines the evolution of American global leadership from the post–World War II era to the present, analyzing how shifting domestic and international dynamics have shaped U.S. foreign policy. Throughout the week, you engage in lectures, simulations, discussions, and off-site visits focused on topics such as Congress and the presidency in foreign policy, the future of the Atlantic Alliance, U.S.–China relations, and U.S.–Russia relations, American constitutional principles in global affairs, and the role of the press in shaping public understanding of international politics.
Location: College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA (On Campus)
Cost: $6,950 (Residential Pre-College Program; financial assistance available)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective; cohort-based residential model
Program Dates: 3-week residential program in the Summer
Application Deadline: Varies by admissions cycle; no application fee
Eligibility: High school students admitted to William & Mary’s Pre-College Program in American History
William & Mary’s History 218 examines how political decisions made in Virginia after the American Revolution shaped the conditions that eventually led to the Civil War. The course begins with events in Williamsburg and Yorktown during the Revolutionary period and then follows debates that took place in Richmond after independence as leaders worked to build new systems of government. Through readings, discussions, and written work, you study how questions about slavery, citizenship, Native American relations, and the role of women influenced the political and social structure of the early United States. You also examine how Virginia’s economy, including plantation agriculture and industrial activity in Richmond, remained tied to enslaved labor while northern states developed different economic systems.
Location: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA (On Campus; some sections may offer online options depending on listing)
Cost: Tuition-based (varies by unit count and residency status; Summer Sessions tuition applies)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Open enrollment for qualified students; seat availability varies by section
Program Dates: Multiple sessions across June–September
Application Deadline: Rolling enrollment until sections fill
Eligibility: Visiting and matriculated students; qualified high school students may apply through UCLA Summer Sessions, Pre-college pathways
UCLA’s Summer Sessions offer a wide range of History (HIST) courses that allow high school students (if admitted through appropriate channels) to take university-level classes alongside undergraduates. Courses span global, regional, and thematic topics, often including U.S. history, European history, world history, Asian history, Latin American history, African history, and specialized thematic studies such as war, revolution, migration, race, gender, or economic development. Classes are taught by UCLA faculty and typically combine lectures, primary source analysis, historiography, and analytical writing. You are expected to engage in sustained reading, participate in discussions (depending on format), and complete college-level written assignments or exams.
Location: Brown University, Providence, RI (On Campus)
Cost: Tuition-based (Summer@Brown program rates apply)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective Summer@Brown course; seminar-style enrollment
Program Dates: June 22 – July 10 (3 weeks)
Application Deadline: Varies by Summer@Brown admissions cycle
Eligibility: High school students admitted to Summer@Brown, particularly suited for students interested in political science or pre-law
Great Trials That Changed History: A Judge’s Perspective is an on-campus Summer@Brown course taught by a former trial lawyer and retired Massachusetts Superior Court Justice. The course examines seventeen landmark trials, from Socrates in ancient Athens to contemporary cases such as Derek Chauvin and Ghislaine Maxwell, analyzing how courtroom proceedings have shaped social, political, and legal history. Through short lectures and structured discussions, you explore trials from multiple perspectives: judges, attorneys, witnesses, defendants, and the broader public. The course evaluates whether justice was achieved in each case and examines the broader societal tensions: race, power, governance, public morality, and political conflict that influenced legal outcomes.
Location: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (On Campus)
Cost: $6,100 (Noncredit)
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Selective Pre-College course; cohort size not specified
Program Dates: July 20 – July 31 (Pre-College Session III)
Application Deadline: Varies by Harvard Summer School Pre-College admissions cycle
Eligibility: High school students admitted to Harvard Summer School Pre-College Program
State and Economy in the Modern Middle East is an intensive Harvard Summer School Pre-College course that examines the relationship between political power and economic systems in the Middle East and North Africa from the sixteenth century to the present. Taught by a doctoral candidate in History at Harvard, the course challenges you to rethink common narratives that position the region as peripheral to modern state formation and instead situates it at the center of global political and economic transformations. You explore major themes such as state debt and colonial rule in Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, postcolonial economic nationalism, and the political impact of oil economies in the Arabian Peninsula. Through close readings of scholarly texts, primary sources, film, and literature, you develop foundational historical research skills and strengthen your analytical writing.
Frequently asked questions
What types of university history programs are available for high school students?
Options include fully funded pre-college seminars (NYU Democracy Scholars, University of Montana), residential university courses (William & Mary, Harvard Pre-College, Georgetown), open-enrollment summer sessions (UCLA Summer Sessions), interdisciplinary humanities programs (Brown Summer@Brown, Immerse Education), and independent research programs (Lumiere Research Scholar Program).
Are there free university history programs for high school students?
Yes, NYU Democracy Scholars is fully funded and free for New York City students entering their senior year. The University of Montana Summer History Institute is also free and includes meals and materials. Programs like Immerse Education, William & Mary, and Harvard Pre-College charge tuition but offer financial aid or assistance for eligible students.
Which programs are best for students interested specifically in American history?
William & Mary offers two dedicated residential courses on the American Revolution and the Road to the Civil War, both grounded in primary source analysis and place-based learning in Williamsburg. Harvard Pre-College offers a course on the American Revolution viewed through the lens of Boston, and Georgetown's Washington and the World Academy examines U.S. foreign policy history from World War II to the present.
Which programs are best for students interested in global or non-Western history?
UCLA Summer Sessions offers courses in African American studies, Asian history, Latin American history, and African history. Harvard Pre-College's State and Economy in the Modern Middle East examines the political and economic history of the MENA region from the sixteenth century to today. Brown's Archaeology of Ancient Greece covers Greek material culture from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period.
Do any university history programs offer college credit?
Yes, UCLA Summer Sessions awards university credit to qualifying students. Boston University's Art History course offers college credit through BU Summer Term. SCAD Rising Star (listed separately) also awards credit. Students should verify each program's current credit policies directly, as offerings can vary by year and enrollment pathway.
When should I apply to university history programs for high school students?
Timelines vary considerably. NYU Democracy Scholars typically opens applications early in the calendar year with a selective process. Harvard Pre-College and Brown Summer@Brown run on rolling admissions with session-specific deadlines. William & Mary has no application fee and accepts applications on a rolling basis. UCLA Summer Sessions open enrollment varies by course. Students should begin researching in the fall and aim to apply by January or February for the most competitive and capacity-limited programs.
One other option—the Lumiere Research Scholar Program
If you’re interested in pursuing independent research, consider applying to one of the Lumiere Research Scholar Programs, selective online high school programs for students founded with researchers at Harvard and Oxford. Last year, we had over 4,000 students apply for 500 spots in the program! You can find the application form here.
Also check out the Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation, a non-profit research program for talented, low-income students. Last year, we had 150 students on full need-based financial aid!
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.