About

The Marine Science Pre-College Program at Eckerd College is a one-week residential program on Eckerd's 188-acre waterfront campus on Boca Ciega Bay in St. Petersburg, Florida. Two identical sessions run in 2026 — Session I, June 14–19, and Session II, June 21–26 — open to students entering 11th or 12th grade in fall 2026. As of this writing, both 2026 sessions are already full, with new applicants accepted to the waitlist only; families interested in a future summer should plan to register well before the window most families would expect.

The curriculum is modeled directly on Eckerd's undergraduate marine science courses and is led by the department's own faculty, including program director Dr. Laura R. Wetzel and seven other named marine science and biology professors. Activities mix fieldwork and lab time: students catch and release fish and invertebrates in local seagrass beds, observe wild dolphins to study their ecology and behavior, identify shorebirds and seashells on local beaches, encounter alligators, tortoises, snakes, and birds of prey at a nature preserve, and conduct a plankton tow aboard an Eckerd research vessel before examining live plankton under a microscope back in the lab.

The program costs $2,250, covering transportation to all activities, labs, supplies, field trips, entrance fees, recreational-facility access, meals, and lodging in single-sex residence halls (double-occupancy, reserved exclusively for the program, with a residential counselor on every floor). Check-in is Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and check-out is Friday at 2:30 p.m. Students must have active health insurance, and must either pass a pool swim test (three 150-yard laps, any stroke, no time limit, without touching bottom) to go on the water without a life vest, or wear a life jacket at all times aboard any vessel if they don't. Refunds scale down from 100% at 60+ days before the start date to nothing inside 20 days, plus a non-refundable $25 processing fee. A separate, optional "Staycation Weekend" (June 12–14, 2026) bookends the program with off-campus St. Petersburg excursions for any 2026 pre-college attendee.

For a student who wants a genuine preview of undergraduate marine science coursework — not just a nature camp, but the actual professors and facilities of a nationally known marine science department — this is a strong, well-staffed one-week option on one of the more distinctive coastal campuses available to a pre-college program. It sits at a similar price point to comparable one-week residential science camps, so it isn't a budget option, and its single-session-per-week structure (like RWU's) means a student wanting sustained, multi-week research exposure should look elsewhere. Families set on Eckerd specifically should also know the college runs a small suite of sibling one-week programs — Animal Studies, Coastal & Wildlife Ecology, and Sharks and Rays — for students whose interests sit closer to one of those tracks.