Each summer, thousands of high school students arrive on Penn’s campus to take part in a wide array of academic programs, hoping to bolster their college applications and resumes.
Schools across Penn — including the School of Arts and Sciences, the Wharton School, and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School — offer courses taught by a mix of Penn faculty and visiting scholars, several of which offer college credit. The cost of attendance for these programs ranges from less than $400 to upwards of $23,000, though some grant scholarships.
Estimated revenue this past summer from the three programs offered by the School of Arts and Sciences — SAS High School Programs, SAS Pre-College Residential, and SAS Pre-College Online — was at least $8 million, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian’s analysis of the number of participants, attendance costs, and scholarship offerings.
Penn Carey Law’s three-week program — featuring an introduction to the American legal system and principles of law — contributed nearly an additional $1 million.
The SAS High School Programs are split into two pathways: the non-credit Summer Academies and the Pre-College Programs, which offer credit. The programs had a combined 1,050 participants this summer.
The Summer Academies cover a range of topics — spanning biology and mathematics to social change and social justice — and last either two or three weeks. The Pre-College Programs, on the other hand, run for five weeks and allow students to enroll in college courses during Penn’s summer term.
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Penn’s most popular offering, the Wharton Global Youth Program, oversaw 2,827 total participants interested in business education this summer. Program costs range from $8,299 to $11,899 for residential students and from $329 to $4,799 for online students.
Excluding possible scholarships, Wharton’s on-campus and online summer programs would have raked in a minimum of roughly $14 million last summer.
In a statement, Wharton’s Global Youth team wrote that expanding access was an “important priority” for the program.
The team added that it was “proud to award the highest number of scholarships” in its program’s history this summer, which it explained was “made possible in large part through the generosity of Wharton alumni and donors.”
According to Tiffany Clayton — who serves as the director for high school programs at SAS — the school is currently “only able to offer scholarships and not financial aid.”
“We have a scholarship program where 10% of our seats for non-credit programs are saved for the School District of Philadelphia students,” Clayton explained.
She added that other organizations and sponsors could also help students pay for the programs.
The Penn Carey Law Pre-College Academy also offers four full scholarships for students.
Since 2022, pricing for summer programs has gradually increased year-over-year. The University’s program offerings have expanded as well — including a new five-day middle school program for local students that Penn began running this past summer at the cost of $2,400 per participant.
According to the program directors, the high school summer experiences also provide an opportunity to organize involvement for Penn students.
“Penn undergraduate and graduate students play an important role in our on-campus programs, primarily as teaching assistants,” the Wharton Global Youth team wrote. “TAs also offer high school students a valuable connection to the Penn and Wharton student experience.”
For the SAS High School Programs, Penn students are often hired as “residence counselors” who oversee small cohorts of students living in residence halls and organize extracurricular activities.
“I think more than 90% of them are really happy with the experience, and they really love being able to connect with other high-achieving students,” Clayton said. “People don’t realize how much you can gain from a short experience.”
Staff reporter Kathryn Ye covers central administration and can be reached at ye@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies biochemistry and philosophy.
