Frequently Asked Questions

Any incoming first-year Stanford student or incoming first-year transfer student is welcome to apply. The program is specifically designed to support students who have attended high schools with limited course offerings, students who are the first in their family to attend college, and/or students who simply feel that they would like further academic preparation before starting their first year at Stanford.

International students are eligible to participate in both our early summer and late summer online sessions. Due to visa constraints, international students are not eligible to participate in the five-week residential program. However, they are eligible to apply to join us for our sixth week of experiential learning on campus.

The program is free for students who participate in our online or residential program; students who participate on-campus receive complimentary room and board.

The application will open at the end of April; the deadline is the last Sunday in May. Return to our homepage for more details by mid-April.

The online program will take place entirely over Zoom, utilizing resources through Stanford online. The residential program takes place entirely on Stanford’s campus, where scholars will live together in a dorm (in a residence different from their academic year housing assignments).

In 2025, we will run two sessions of the Summer Bridge Program, along with a "Sixth Week" session. 

• Session I: classes take place online between Monday, June 23 and Friday, July 25. This session is exclusively only online.
• Session II online: classes take place between Monday, August 4 and Friday, September 5.  During Session II, we will offer not only online classes, but also a residential option for students who would like to attend in-person.  
• "Sixth Week" session: From September 6 through 13, we will offer a one-week co-curricular experience on campus, focusing on community-building and exploring university resources. 

Participants in the residential program will have access to computer clusters in their residence hall and will have access to laptops or tablets to borrow for the duration of the program.

We will be offering Chemistry, Math, and Writing classes, each of which is designed to introduce students to college-level work in that discipline. Students in the online sessions can choose to take one or two courses.