NOTE: This article was first published in 2018; some links are out of date, but most programs are still running. If links no longer work, type the program name into a Google to find the latest links to these impressive programs.

Summer is a good time for high school students to explore their interests. A little research and planning can uncover ways to investigate an idea, acquire a new skill, or demonstrate a specialty with independent research or projects. In the fields of STEM, especially, there are many options available, including residential summer camps.

The problem for current high school freshmen (rising sophomores), however, is that many of these camps restrict attendance to their older classmates: rising juniors and seniors.

The reason, says Jill Tipograph, founder and director of the independent summer educational consultancy Everything Summer & Beyond, is many of these programs are offering college-level coursework that requires students to have foundational academic experience to be successful. “With higher level quantitative and science exposure as prerequisites, (younger) high school students will not have had the opportunity to complete them…”

This does not mean high school freshman should wait to begin finding ways to learn more about the fields that interest them.

“There is great value,” says Ms. Tipograph, “to younger students taking these summer opportunities… to identify and pursue passions. They can gain exposure and then build on their interest in a deeper capacity the following summer.”

You’ll have to be a little more flexible and dig a little deeper to find available summer STEM camps if you are currently a freshman. But if you are fortunate enough to have the available time and financial resources (camps can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars), here are 30 options nationwide during the summer of 2018 for high school freshmen interested in STEM camps.

Boston Leadership Institute Longwood Medical Center, Boston, MA

Canada/USA MathCamp Colorado School of the Mines, Golden, CO

Careers in Engineering University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

COSMOS University of California, San Diego, CA

Discovering Biology: The Building Blocks of Life Boston University, Boston, MA

Engineering Camp Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA

Engineering High School Camp University of Kansas , Lawrence, KS

Engineering Innovation Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (more locations)

Engineering Summer Academy University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Explore Engineering for HS Girls Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA

High School Engineering Institute Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

Intensive STEM Academy Duke University, Durham, NC

Mathematics Academy University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

MathILy Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA

Mathworks Texas State University, San Marcos, TX

Michigan Math and Science Scholars  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Pre-Engineering Institute Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO

Prove It! Math Academy Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO

Ross Mathematics Program Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

STEM II  Brown University, Providence, RI

Summer Accelerator North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC

Summer Bridge STEM Program for Girls Radford University, Radford, VA

Summer Engineering Exploration   University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

Summer Immersion George Washington University, DC

Summer Scholars Clemson University, Clemson, SC

Summer Science and Engineering Program Smith College, Amherst, MA

Summer Session for High School Students University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Summer STEM US Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD

Summer Studies in Math Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

UMassAmherst Precollege Programs University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA