Summer Bridge

Overview

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students are eligible to apply for UChicago's Summer Session with support from College Bridge; all 2021 Summer Session courses will be remote.  Through this program, you will be among our global community of thinkers who ask tough questions and embrace new ideas. Within a supportive online community, students from all over the globe are exposed to diverse ideas in classes taught by world-class faculty and instructors. In their classes, students are given the chance to take intellectual risks, dive more deeply into subject matter, and discuss questions that go beyond the realm of their high school curriculum.

College Bridge students accepted to Summer Session are assessed greatly reduced tuition rates and those eligible can receive scholarships, with the maximum award covering the costs of all tuition, fees, and course books. This program is made possible by a collaboration between the University of Chicago's Summer Session and Office of Community Engagement.

Important Dates

• March 1, 2021: Deadline to submit all applications.  Students should start an application and input their recommender’s information as soon as possible and the recommender will receive a request right away, even before the application is submitted.  Students should submit their application before their recommendation is received, if necessary. 
• Mid-April 2021: Admissions decisions will be released, including the course placement.

Program Costs

Costs for this program include a greatly reduced tuition, the Lifetime Transcript Fee, and textbooks, as noted in Tier 3 in the chart, below. Students can be considered for additional funding, which will be based on household income, and assigned to a different funding tier, if admitted. The chart below shows the three tiers of support available. No program deposit is required for students accepted through College Bridge.

Students who wish to be considered for the additional funding will need to upload additional financial documentation on the Financial Aid and Scholarship page of their application. US citizens and permanent residents should supply their parents' most recent 1040s and W2s. If you have any questions about what to provide, please contact us at summersession@uchicago.edu. 

Please note that funding for the College Bridge program does not cover any costs associated with the technology necessary to participate in remote learning, such as laptops or tablets, and home internet access. 

Courses

For Summer 2021, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students can apply to courses in the following UChicago Summer Session programs:

• Summer College: open to current CPS juniors, these courses are from the regular undergraduate curriculum and are the equivalent of 10 weeks condensed down to 3-5 weeks
• Summer Language Institute: open to current CPS juniors, these courses condense language learning from an entire 30-week academic year into 8 weeks
• Immersion Program: open to current CPS freshmen, sophomores, or juniors, these courses are only open to pre-college students and dive deep into a specific subject; they are the equivalent of one undergraduate-level course in 3 weeks

All Summer Session 2021 courses are being offered remotely; you can view the courses at the pages linked above for details about the various programs, including links to the individual course listings. On your application, you will be asked to provide up to 6 course choices from any of the programs listed above and final decisions on course placement will be made by the Summer Session and College Admissions team.

Please review the Instructions on the How to Apply page to begin your application.

Orientation

Summer Session Orientation provides information for students (and parents/family members, should they wish to attend) to become acquainted with class expectations, online community standards, and what typical day will be.

All students must attend Summer Session Orientation for their session. We will send emails with the dates and times of Online Orientation closer to the start of Session I, which begins June 21.

If you have additional questions, please message us at summersession@uchicago.edu.