12 Data Science Programs for High School Students in Pennsylvania
If you’re a high schooler interested in data science, it is important to gain exposure to the core fundamentals, as well as current tools and methodologies. Programs built around data science give you a chance to work with real datasets, write code for actual analytical problems, and understand how statistical reasoning connects to decisions made in healthcare, business, government, and scientific research. Beyond the technical skills, attending a structured program puts you in contact with university faculty, graduate students, and industry professionals who work in these areas full-time, which matters a lot when you are trying to figure out whether a field is actually right for you.
Why should you attend a data science program in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania has a high concentration of research universities offering programs for high school students, including the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon, Pitt, and Drexel. You can analyze clinical data with biomedical informatics researchers, learn R and statistics through a sports analytics lens, build machine learning models, or work on a NASA-funded satellite data project from home.
With that in mind, we narrowed down 12 data science programs for high school students in Pennsylvania.
If you’re looking for programs in Pennsylvania, check out our blog here.
Key takeaways
These 12 programs span biomedical informatics, computational biology, sports analytics, machine learning, AI in healthcare, and statistics, so students with a range of data science interests can find a relevant option in Pennsylvania or online.
Several programs are free or fully funded, including UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Academy, CMU AI Scholars, CMU Computer Science Scholars, and CMU Statistics and Data Science Camp, while programs, such as Wharton Data Science Academy and Penn SAS Pre-College, offer financial aid or scholarships for eligible students.
Many programs provide research outputs or college credit, including Wharton Moneyball Academy (publication eligibility in the Wharton Sports Analytics Journal), Penn SAS Pre-College (official Penn university credit and transcript), and CMU Computational Biology (genome assembly and machine learning projects using real biological data).
Carnegie Mellon offers three distinct entry points for high school students in Pittsburgh, including AI Scholars for AI and machine learning, Computer Science Scholars for foundational programming, and Statistics and Data Science Camp for applied statistics and R, making it a strong destination depending on your experience level.
Application deadlines for the most selective programs fall early, including CMU AI Scholars and Computer Science Scholars (February 1), UPMC Hillman (February 15), and Stanford AIMI (February 21), so students should begin preparing materials in the fall.
1. UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Academy (CoSBBI and CompBio Tracks)
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: June 15 – July 31
Application Deadline: February 15
Eligibility: High school students aged 15+
This program lets you spend seven weeks as a full-time researcher inside the University of Pittsburgh labs, paired with a faculty scientist and their team on an ongoing project. The two tracks most relevant to data science are CoSBBI, hosted by the Department of Biomedical Informatics, and CompBio, run by the Department of Computational and Systems Biology. CoSBBI work spans genomic data mining, NLP on clinical texts, machine learning for biosurveillance, pharmacogenomics, and pathology image analysis, depending on your assigned mentor's research. You start with a programming boot camp and a concentrated overview of biomedical informatics before you begin contributing. CompBio places you at the intersection of cancer biology and drug discovery through computational structural modeling, in silico simulations, and machine learning techniques. Both tracks are dry lab experiences, meaning everything happens at a computer, and CoSBBI offers full remote and hybrid options for students who cannot commute to Pittsburgh daily. At the end of the summer, you give both an oral presentation and a poster, and exceptional CoSBBI students can even submit their abstract to the American Medical Informatics Association annual conference.
2. Veritas AI’s AI Fellowship
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies depending on program type; full financial aid available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Dates: Vary by cohort: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
Application Deadline: Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September), and Winter (November). You can apply to the program here.
Eligibility: High school students who have completed the AI Scholars program or have some experience with AI or Python
Veritas AI focuses on providing high school students passionate about AI with a supportive environment to explore their interests. The programs include collaborative learning, project development, and 1-on-1 mentorship. Students are expected to have a basic understanding of Python or are recommended to complete the AI Scholars program before pursuing the fellowship. The AI Fellowship program will allow students to pursue independent AI research projects. Students work on their research projects over 15 weeks and can opt to combine AI with any other field of interest. You can find examples of previous projects here and read about a student’s experience in the program here.
3. CMU AI Scholars
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Fully funded
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: June 20 – July 18
Application Deadline: February 1
Eligibility: High school juniors aged 16+ who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
CMU AI Scholars is a four-week residential experience at Carnegie Mellon where you work through college-level artificial intelligence coursework taught directly by CMU faculty, applying what you learn in collaborative group projects aimed at real-world challenges in areas like healthcare, sustainability, or social impact. The program begins with a virtual Python course several weeks before arrival. Once on campus, instruction moves between lectures, lab sessions, and project development time, and you also attend sessions where CMU faculty and graduate students walk through their active research projects. Field trips take the cohort to leading technology companies, where you can see how AI is applied in professional settings. The program closes with a capstone symposium where teams present their work publicly.
4. Lumiere Research Scholar Program
Location: Remote! You can participate in the program from anywhere in the world.
Cost: Varies by program type; full financial aid is available.
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective
Dates: Varies by cohort: summer, winter, fall, or spring; options ranging from 12 weeks to 1 year available
Application deadline: Varying deadlines based on cohort
Eligibility: Students currently enrolled in high school who demonstrate a high level of academic achievement
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous research program tailored for high school students. The program offers extensive 1-on-1 research opportunities across a wide range of subject areas for high schoolers to explore. The program pairs you with Ph.D. mentors to work 1-on-1 on an independent research project. At the end of the program, you will have developed an independent research paper! You can choose research topics from subjects such as data science, engineering, chemistry, psychology, physics, computer science, international relations, and more. You can find more details about the program application here, and check out students’ reviews of the program here and here.
5. CMU Computer Science Scholars
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Fully funded
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: June 20 – July 18
Application Deadline: February 1
Eligibility: High school sophomores aged 16+ who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
Similar to CMU’s AI Scholars, CSS serves as a rigorous entry point into computer science that can lead directly to more advanced AI and data analytics work. The technical curriculum covers Python from the ground up, including variables, functions, conditionals, loops, and fundamental data structures like lists and dictionaries, with a focus on algorithmic thinking, top-down design, and systematic debugging. A parallel math track runs throughout to build the quantitative fluency required by serious computing work. Group projects apply what you have learned to practical problems and culminate in a public symposium presentation, and field trips give you exposure to how computer science is practiced at technology companies.
6. CMU Statistics and Data Science Camp
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Open enrollment but limited cohort size
Dates: June 22 – 26
Application Deadline: March 15
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors from the Pittsburgh area
This free one-week camp at Carnegie Mellon introduces what statistics and data science look like in practice as academic and professional fields. Each day pairs faculty presentations on core data science concepts with R computer labs, where you work through hands-on problems using real datasets and learn the basics of working with data computationally. The program includes a field trip to a Pittsburgh company that uses data science operationally, connecting the academic material to how these skills are deployed outside of a university setting. By the end of the week, you might have a concrete sense of what a career in statistics or data science might involve, what technical preparation would serve you well, and whether these fields are something you want to pursue seriously.
7. CMU Pre-College Program in Computational Biology
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: $10,750 for residential | $8,041 for commuter
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: June 20 – July 18
Application Deadline: Early deadline February 1, final deadline March 1
Eligibility: Current high school sophomores or juniors aged 16+ with at least a 3.0 GPA
This four-week program at Carnegie Mellon balances hands-on wet lab work and computer-based tasks. During the lab sessions, you'll gather water samples from Pittsburgh's three rivers, extract bacterial DNA, break it into millions of short sequences, and create datasets for computational analysis. In the coding portion, small teams will develop Python scripts to assemble genomes from these sequences, evaluate microbial diversity across different sites, construct evolutionary trees to trace COVID-19 variants, and explore how machine learning can optimize experimental design using robotic lab equipment such as the Opentrons OT-2 liquid handler. The program's design lets you work with data from collection through analysis, providing you with exposure to research at the intersection of data analysis and biology.
8. Wharton Moneyball Academy
Location: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $10,599; several scholarship opportunities are available.
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: July 5 – 25
Application Deadline: March 18
Eligibility: High school students currently enrolled in grades 10–11
The Moneyball Academy is a three-week sports analytics program at Wharton that teaches you statistical reasoning using the same methods that professional analysts at places like FiveThirtyEight and FanGraphs use, working entirely in R on real sports data. The curriculum is a leap above AP Statistics, covering introductory probability, data visualization, regression analysis, and hypothesis testing, all grounded in sports applications and drawing on multiple Wharton statistics courses. Guest speakers from professional sports organizations, including data scientists and executives from teams across major American leagues, talk about how their organizations make decisions using these tools. Your team works toward a capstone research project in sports analytics, and the best projects are eligible for publication in the Wharton Sports Analytics Journal. The combination of rigorous statistical training, R programming, professional industry access, and publication opportunity makes this one of the more practically distinctive data science programs for high school students.
9. Drexel CCI VirtuaQuest Digital Development Camp
Location: Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $950
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Open enrollment
Dates: July 6 – 30
Application Deadline: Rolling admission until the program fills, starting early February
Eligibility: Rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors
VirtuaQuest is a four-week program at Drexel's College of Computing and Informatics that covers a wide range of computing topics, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, cybersecurity, virtual reality, and game development. Each day runs a live lecture from a CCI faculty member on that day's topic, followed by team-based project time where you apply the material by coding something with your group. At the end of the four weeks, you present your team's work at a virtual showcase open to parents and guests. It is a more accessible option for students new to data science and AI, while still providing real instruction from university faculty.
10. Wharton Data Science Academy
Location: The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Cost: $10,599; financial aid is available
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: June 21 – July 11 | July 12 – August 1
Application Deadline: Priority deadline January 28 | Final deadline March 18
Eligibility: High school students currently enrolled in grades 10–11 with a strong background in math and coding and an interest in data analytics. Must have a 3.3 unweighted GPA.
You will work through the full arc of modern data science over three weeks at the Wharton School, moving from foundational probability and statistics to regression, classification, cross-validation, and model assessment, before the curriculum opens up to neural networks, large language models, and responsible AI. R is the primary language for the bulk of the work, handling everything from data wrangling and visualization with packages like dplyr and ggplot to fitting LASSO models and building ensemble classifiers, while Python (Colab) handles deep learning and LLM modules. The pedagogy mirrors the pace of an intermediate Wharton undergraduate course, with short, focused lectures paired with guided labs using live notebooks, daily hands-on project work with real datasets, and TA-led recitations with office hours. Penn undergraduate and graduate TAs embedded throughout the program provide close mentorship and project coaching. The program concludes with a capstone project in which your team identifies a high-impact real-world problem, builds a data-driven solution, and presents the results publicly at the Data Science Live showcase.
11. Stanford AIMI Summer Research Internship
Location: Virtual
Cost: $2,400
Acceptance Rate/cohort size: ~25 students
Dates: June 15 – 26 | July 6 – 17
Application Deadline: February 21
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9–12, aged 14+, who are U.S. residents attending a U.S. high school
In this two-week virtual program run by Stanford's Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging, you join a small cohort of around 25 students to tackle group research projects using real medical datasets. You’ll analyze clinical data, annotate medical images, evaluate machine learning models, and contribute to research that mirrors what Stanford researchers are actually doing at the intersection of AI and healthcare. Lectures cover ML fundamentals in a clinical context, including medical imaging, model evaluation methods, and the challenges of deploying AI responsibly in health settings. Stanford faculty, graduate researchers, and student leads provide close mentorship throughout, and a series of guest talks brings in professionals from academia, industry, nonprofits, and government to talk about how AI is reshaping medicine in practice.
12. Penn SAS Pre-College Online Program
Location: Virtual
Cost: $8,692 for 1 credit or $14,300 for 2 credits. Philadelphia residents attending a School District of Philadelphia public or charter high school may be eligible for full scholarships
Acceptance Rate/Cohort Size: Not specified
Dates: May 26 – August 1 | July 2 – August 7
Application Deadline: May 1 | June 1
Eligibility: Current 10th–11th grade students
Through this program, you enroll in University of Pennsylvania undergraduate courses that run alongside Penn students on the standard Penn academic calendar, earning Penn university credit and receiving an official transcript upon completion. The two courses most relevant to data science are Introductory Statistics, which covers probability, estimation, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing with applications in science and medicine using the JMP statistical package, and Introduction to Data Science, which teaches data acquisition, management, and visualization in R through a social and political science lens. Both courses are taught by Penn faculty to the same academic standards used in the regular semester, and will have you attend lectures, complete homework and research papers, and take midterms and finals.
Frequently asked questions
1. What data science programs are available for high school students in Pennsylvania?
Options include research programs, such as UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Academy and Lumiere Research Scholar Program, university-based AI and computing programs, such as CMU AI Scholars and Drexel VirtuaQuest, sports analytics programs, such as Wharton Moneyball Academy, statistics and data science intensives, such as CMU Statistics and Data Science Camp and Wharton Data Science Academy, and virtual options, such as Veritas AI, Stanford AIMI, and Penn SAS Pre-College.
2. Are there free data science programs for high school students in Pennsylvania?
Yes, several programs are free, including UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Academy, CMU AI Scholars, CMU Computer Science Scholars, and CMU Statistics and Data Science Camp. Programs, such as Wharton Data Science Academy and Penn SAS Pre-College, offer financial aid or full scholarships for eligible Philadelphia students.
3. Which Pennsylvania data science programs are best for students with no prior experience?
CMU Statistics and Data Science Camp and Drexel VirtuaQuest are both accessible entry points for students new to data science. CMU Computer Science Scholars also builds Python programming from the ground up, making it a strong option for students looking to develop foundational skills before moving into more advanced AI or data science work.
4. Do any data science programs in Pennsylvania offer college credit or publication opportunities?
Yes, Penn SAS Pre-College awards official University of Pennsylvania credit and a transcript upon completion. Wharton Moneyball Academy offers the top teams the chance to publish their capstone research in the Wharton Sports Analytics Journal, and exceptional UPMC Hillman CoSBBI students can submit their abstracts to the American Medical Informatics Association annual conference.
5. Which programs are open to students outside Pennsylvania?
Several programs are fully virtual and open to students regardless of location, including Veritas AI, Lumiere Research Scholar Program, Stanford AIMI, Penn SAS Pre-College, and UPMC Hillman's CoSBBI track, which offers remote and hybrid options for students who cannot commute to Pittsburgh.
6. When should I apply to data science programs for high school students in Pennsylvania?
The earliest deadlines include CMU AI Scholars and Computer Science Scholars (February 1), UPMC Hillman (February 15), and Stanford AIMI (February 21). Wharton Data Science Academy has a priority deadline of January 28, with a final deadline of March 18. Programs, such as Drexel VirtuaQuest (rolling from February) and Penn SAS Pre-College (May 1 and June 1), allow more time, but students should begin researching options in the fall to stay on track.