About

The Santa Clara University Young Scholars Program is a pre-college course enrollment program that places rising juniors and seniors directly into SCU's regular undergraduate summer classes, seated alongside college students. There is no separate high school curriculum, no themed cohort experience, and no residential component — Young Scholars take genuine lower-division SCU courses, earn transferable college credit upon successful completion, and navigate the full expectations of university-level coursework on their own. That is both the program's defining feature and its honest limitation: students experience exactly what college academic work feels like, without any of the scaffolding a pre-college program typically provides.

The 2026 course catalog spans a wide range of disciplines — from biological anthropology and ceramic sculpture to engineering, mathematics, economics, and computer science — offered at SCU's reduced tuition rate of $654 per unit. Students enroll in one or two courses in consultation with the program director, who also provides advising support and connects Young Scholars with university resources during the five-week session. The School of Engineering operates a parallel Young Scholars track specifically for students interested in engineering coursework — a natural draw given SCU's location in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Because no housing is available, the program is functionally limited to Bay Area students who can commute to campus in Santa Clara. For that audience, it offers something genuinely useful: direct enrollment in SCU undergraduate courses at a per-unit cost well below SCU's standard rate, with transferable credit and a concrete taste of what college academic life actually demands. The program is lean by design — small cohort, minimal programming outside of classes, no residential experience — which makes it a poor match for students seeking a structured pre-college community but a strong match for students who want academic coursework at a reduced tuition.