UMass Amherst Summer Pre-College Programs 2026

UMass Amherst’s Summer Pre-College opportunities provide residential (in-person) and online pre-college programs to introduce driven students to the university experience, including college-level academics, faculty-led courses, state-of-the-art facilities, and campus life and dining, for in-person experiences. These programs span diverse disciplines, from STEM to the liberal arts, cultural arts, entertainment, and even broaching contemporary topics and areas of study including social media, digital media, and modern content creation, the business of media, and advertising. Below is a breakdown of some of the residential (in-person) versus online offerings:

Residential Pre-College Programs at UMass include:

3D Animation: Giving Life and Movement to Your 3D World: Two-week intro to 3D animation, using Autodesk Maya (industry standard software)
3D Design: Also using Autodesk Maya, students will tackle modeling for games, animation & illustration to conjure 3D objects and environments
Entrepreneurship: Two-week course to help students recognize where entrepreneurship is in the world around them
Equine Science: Two-week program in which students explore the horse industry and probe potential interests in becoming horsemen and leaders in the equine profession
Health Without Borders: With a combination of engineering economics and decision analysis, students are exposed to topics including health, energy, climate change, and the environment
Isenberg Business Ethics Academy: Fundamentals of law and ethics in business, culminating in a hands-on case competition
Kinesiology: Students learn the basics of medical professions, including areas of kinesiology, physiology, biomechanics, and neuroscience
Making a TV Program: One-week program that covers the skills foundational to TV production, from content development to operating standards, studio and control room equipment, on-air hosting, audio mixing, and more
Music & Technology: Covers the fundamentals of digital audio, digital effects, and students create one original song
Pre-Veterinary Medicine: One-week intro to the field of veterinary medicine
Programming for Aspiring Scientists: Two-week program makes students proficient in the programming language Python, as they apply it to solving problems in physics
Question Everything: Headed by the UMass Philosophy Department, students explore philosophical issues
Race and American Politics: This political science course covers race and its role shaping American politics in history and today
Research Intensives: Competitive 6-Week summer research intensives put high-achieving teens in professional working labs alongside esteemed faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students in the departments of Biology, Biochemistry, Environmental Conservation, Psychology, and Food Science.
The Sociology of TikTok: A modern-day favorite, this two-week course leverages TikTok to connect sociology with the social media world
Sports Broadcasting: Two-week course covering sports broadcasting alongside UMass Journalism faculty
Sport Management & Leadership Academy: Students learn about the sports management industry and profession
Summer Design Academy: Three-week program in which students experience an introductory architecture studio course
Summer Engineering Institute: Two-week program in which students explore how engineers create practical solutions

UMass Online Pre-College Programs Include:

Digital Cartography: Two-week program covers the science, technology, and art of modern-day cartography, exploring data for disease mapping and historic events to create digital maps
Digital Drawing & Watercolor in Architecture & Landscape Architecture: Students will use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Sketch, and Procreate
Entrepreneurship: Students will learn how to identify entrepreneurship all around them
Foundations of Data Science: Students work with real-world data sets to build core skills for data science, including statistical methods and computer programming
How Business Works: Students learn about the dynamic world of business in the 21st century, from globalization to start-ups
Intro to Research in Psychology: Students learn the fundamentals of psychology with hands-on lab research and data analysis
Isenberg Business Ethics Academy: Students learn about law and ethics in business decision-making, culminating in a hands-on case competition
Modern Astronomy: Three-week course covering observational astronomy and astrophysics through real-world data
Pandemics and Society: Students explore the impact of COVID-19 regarding race, class, and gender
Programming for Aspiring Scientists: Students become proficient in programming in Python as it applies to physics problem-solving
Research Intensives: Competitive 5-week online research intensive places high-achieving students working labs (virtually) alongside esteemed faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students
Sport Management & Leadership Academy: Students learn about sports managements as a profession and industry
Summer Design Academy: Students are enrolled in a three-week introductory architecture studio course
Summer Leadership Development Academy: Students develop core leadership skills
Vampires and Revenants: Students explore archaeology across time and space, connecting anthropologies of life, death, grief, and the supernatural phenomena

Programs at the Mt. Ida Campus

Building & Construction Technology: Three-week immersion in which students explore building construction, sustainability, engineering, architecture, and tech-related career paths
Combatting the Climate Crisis with Neighborhood Trees: One-week environmental conservation course, during which students work with UMass faculty and arboriculture professionals to explore how trees mitigate climate crises
Veterinary Technology: Two-week program in which students learn about the profession of veterinary technician