About

The Young Scholars Summer Program in Biostatistics and Clinical Research, run by the Yale Center for Analytical Sciences (YCAS) at the Yale School of Public Health, is a 12-day, non-residential day program for rising 11th and 12th graders (preference given to rising seniors) with strong math skills. The 2026 program ran weekdays, 8:30 a.m.–3 p.m., from July 16–31 at YSPH's New Haven campus, bookended by a mandatory online information session and an in-person icebreaker session before the program starts, and closing with student presentations and certificates that parents and friends are invited to attend. YCAS opened the 2026 application in February with an application and teacher-recommendation deadline of March 31; families planning for summer 2027 should expect a similar February-opening, late-March-deadline pattern. This is a commuter program only — Yale provides no housing, so families outside Connecticut must arrange and confirm their own local housing and parental supervision for the duration.

Students learn basic statistical methods and study design used in medical research, along with instruction in R, the statistical programming language, then work in teams on real health science data to answer a research question and build a final presentation of their findings. Guest lectures from YSPH faculty punctuate the program; past sessions have included a data science talk from biostatistician Dr. Forrest Crawford on his HIV research and a lecture from Dr. Tony Tong on gun violence research. YCAS is explicit that the programming component is demanding, and recommends students arrive with some prior coding experience (Java, C++, R, or Python) and their own laptop.

Tuition is $3,000 for the 12-day program, with a $500 nonrefundable deposit due by mid-May. Applicants should have a strong academic record, genuine interest in statistics and medical research, and reliable transportation to and from campus each day, since there's no residential option to fall back on.

For a math-strong student who wants a genuine, faculty-led introduction to how statisticians actually work with real medical data — not a coding bootcamp, and not a passive lecture series — this is a well-built, appropriately rigorous option, and its per-day cost is actually competitive with residential programs once you account for the fact that it includes no room and board. It's a poor fit for a student without some baseline comfort in either math or basic programming, since YCAS itself flags the coding component as genuinely challenging; a student earlier in their quantitative development would likely have a better experience in a broader, less code-heavy STEM survey program.