The College Bridge Program provides academically advanced high school students from the Chicago Public School system a way to go beyond their high school curriculum and study at the undergraduate level in the College at the University of Chicago.

Credit

Commuter

Accepts International Students

Financial Aid

Final project

Application fee waiver

During Summer Bridge, students may also participate in intensive academic programs designed specifically for academically ambitious high school students from around the world who are ready to study at the undergraduate level, or in our special intensive language courses that cover a full year of language learning in just nine weeks.

Courses open to Bridge students range across disciplines such as history, foreign languages, biological sciences, and physical sciences. The College Bridge Advisor will help students choose from among the available offerings, in accordance with their individual backgrounds and goals and provide students with support throughout their time in the program.

Participants in the Summer Bridge program will enroll alongside high school and/or undergraduate students from across the globe in one course during the University of Chicago's Summer Session. They will work with world-class faculty and instructors to take intellectual risks, dive deeply into subjects, and discuss questions that go beyond the realm of high school curricula. Participants will select a course designed specifically for high school students in our Immersion or Summer Online program, or courses that are drawn from the UChicago curriculum in Summer College or the Summer Language Institute. College Bridge is a commuter-based program and any student who wants to live in the dorms should apply as a Summer Session student.

For Summer 2023, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students can apply to take remote classes or participate in in-person classes as commuters to courses in the following UChicago Summer Session programs:

- 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; these courses are only offered in person.

- Summer Online: 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 5 weeks; these courses are only offered remotely.

- 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; these courses are only offered remotely.

- Summer Language Institute: open to current CPS juniors, these courses condense language learning from an entire 30-week academic year into 8 weeks; these courses are only offered remotely and are 300 units per course.

On the application, students will be asked to provide up to 4 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.

Academic Credit

All courses are graded (A-F), carry at least 100 units of credit, and are part of the University of Chicago’s undergraduate curriculum. It’s important to note that, as opposed to many universities that structure their calendars by semesters, the University of Chicago operates on a quarter system. Each University of Chicago 100-unit course is the equivalent of 3.3 semester credit hours.

Students interested in transferring UChicago credit earned during College Bridge should contact the university where you would want the credit to be applied about their requirements for doing so. Transfer of credit is at the discretion of the recipient university. You will be able to request your transcript via your MyUChicago account after your courses end. Students who go on to attend the University of Chicago will not be able to use these courses towards their graduation requirements.

Session 1

Jun 12 - Jun 29

2 weeks

Commuter

700 USD

Session 2

Jul 05 - Jul 21

2 weeks

Commuter

700 USD

Costs for this program include a greatly reduced tuition, the Lifetime Transcript Fee, and textbooks, as noted in Tier 2 in the chart, below. Students can be considered for additional funding, which will be based on household income, and assigned to Tier 1, if admitted.

Students who wish to be considered for the Tier 1 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.

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

Tier 1 Student Pay $0

Tier 2 Student Pays:

Tuition (per 100 units)* $600

Books (per quarter; estimate) $50-100

Lifetime Transcript Fee (one-time) $75

Application Fee $0

* Summer Language Institute intensive summer courses are 300 units, which means tuition and aid will be based on a cost of $1,800 per course.

Summer Bridge Extracurricular Costs

During Summer Session, many Bridge students will enroll in our programs for pre-college students, which are in-person, on campus, and all day long. In consideration of the additional extracurricular costs during Summer Session, each Summer Bridge student enrolled in an in-peron, on campus course will receive Maroon Dollars (money on their UChicago ID card) so that they can eat lunch in the dining hall with their peers. Summer Session will also set aside funding for Bridge students to participate in excursions with the residential students that have a fee associated and will pay the excursion fee directly.