12 Economics Programs for High School Students in Michigan
If you're a high school student interested in economics, participating in a structured program can help you deepen your understanding of how markets, businesses, and financial systems operate. These programs allow you to explore topics such as entrepreneurship, investing, public policy, data analysis, and economic decision-making while developing analytical, quantitative, and communication skills. You can learn from university faculty, industry professionals, and researchers, work on projects and case studies, and connect with peers who share similar academic interests.
Why should you attend a program in Michigan?
Michigan is home to institutions such as the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Western Michigan University, which offer opportunities in economics, business, entrepreneurship, and finance. Through these programs, you can analyze market trends, evaluate business strategies, explore financial systems, and build skills in data-driven decision-making while learning from faculty, researchers, and industry professionals. Whether you're a Michigan resident or visiting the region, these programs offer valuable exposure to economics and related fields.
To help you get started, here are 12 economics programs for high school students in Michigan.
If you’re looking for free summer programs in Michigan, check out our blog here.
1. 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 offers high school students passionate about AI a suitable environment to explore their interests. The programs combine collaborative learning, project development, and 1-on-1 mentorship. In the AI Fellowship program, you will learn about core AI concepts and pursue independent AI research projects focused on the use of AI. You will work on research projects over 15 weeks under the guidance of a mentor. A highlight of this program is the support of its in-house publication team to help you publish your work in high school research journals. You can find a few examples of previous projects here and read about a student’s experience in the program here.
2. MREACH
Location: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Highly selective
Dates: One to two Saturdays per month, August through April
Application deadline: June 30
Eligibility: 10th and 11th-grade students residing in Southeast Michigan
Michigan Ross Enriching Academics in Collaboration with High Schools, or MREACH, is a year-round program that brings high school students to the Ross campus for a series of action-based learning experiences spread across the academic year. Sessions run on Saturday mornings and cover hands-on business content, including how to pitch a stock, read and interpret accounting documents, and analyze financial news. While the curriculum is focused on the foundations of business, there is significant overlap with basic economic principles, such as supply and demand, GDP trends, and market analysis. You also get guidance on the college application process, financial aid, standardized test preparation, and resume and business communication skills. Guest presentations come from Ross faculty, MBA Consortium members, and current U of M students, and each participant is connected with a Ross BBA mentor.
3. Lumiere Research Scholar Program - Economics Track
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: 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.
4. Michigan Ross Summer Business Academy: Data-Driven Decision Lab
Location: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Cost: $3,000
Acceptance rate: Highly selective, only 50 students admitted
Dates: June 7 – 12
Application deadline: April 5
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors with a minimum 3.0 GPA
This is a focused, intensive experience for students who want to understand how data shapes business decisions at the company level. Working in a real data lab environment on the Ross campus, you dig into how organizations collect, interpret, and act on quantitative information to navigate supply chain challenges, pricing decisions, resource allocation, and competitive threats. The curriculum is guided by Ross faculty, and no prior analytics experience is required, though the program is designed for students who are comfortable thinking quantitatively. Unlike the more generalist Summer Business Academy, this lab is tightly concentrated on the intersection of data and decision-making, which is increasingly where the most consequential business work happens.
5. MSU Entrepreneur Leadership Camp
Location: Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Cost: Keep an eye on the program website for details
Acceptance rate: Selective
Dates: June 22–25
Application deadline: Keep an eye on the program website for details
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors from across Michigan
Hosted by the Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Multicultural Business Programs at Michigan State University's Eli Broad College of Business, this four-day camp puts you inside the entrepreneurship lab on campus alongside students from across Michigan. Entrepreneurship is a practical way to understand the basic principles of microeconomics, such as price elasticity, how monopolies work, market equilibrium, and especially the notion of opportunity costs. Workshops and team-based problem-solving sessions run throughout the program, with a focus on what it actually takes to build and grow a new venture, covering the mindset, collaboration patterns, and decision-making frameworks that entrepreneurs use in practice. You’ll get to work with experienced Michigan entrepreneurs and business leaders who share practical, first-hand experience from their own entrepreneurial journeys. The program's alumni network within Michigan's entrepreneurial ecosystem also adds value to the overall exposure you can gain.
6. WMU Dollars and Sense Camp
Location: Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
Cost: $299
Acceptance rate: Open enrollment
Dates: Keep an eye on the program website for details; last year, the dates were August 17–21
Application deadline: Keep an eye on the program website for details
Eligibility: Students in grades 8–12
This five-day commuter camp at Western Michigan University's Haworth College of Business is focused on teaching the kind of financial knowledge you will actually use in the years immediately ahead. Sessions cover budgeting, paying for education, saving and investing, insurance and risk management, real estate basics, and cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, all taught by WMU finance faculty and private-sector professionals rather than generalist instructors. Many of these topics have a one-to-one relation with core economics concepts, and the impact of real estate, insurance, investments, and crypto on real-world economies is a major aspect of the field. You get to compete in virtual investing and budgeting games, and the week ends with student presentations to a panel of financial professionals demonstrating what you have learned.
7. UM-Flint Summer Entrepreneurship Institute
Location: School of Management, University of Michigan-Flint, Flint, MI
Cost: $50
Acceptance rate: Open to all qualifying students
Dates: June 16–18
Application deadline: April 30
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors
Held at the Hagerman Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, this three-day commuter camp takes you through sessions led by School of Management faculty and practitioners who cover the basics of starting and growing a new venture, from idea generation to understanding what the process of launching a business actually looks like in practice. The focus is on helping you figure out whether entrepreneurship or business is a direction you want to take in college, while also explaining the basics of entrepreneurship, including its economic aspects. There are field trips to local businesses, lectures with School of Management Faculty, and interactions with entrepreneurial guest speakers to provide both theoretical and practical context. Importantly, you’ll be taught how to evaluate the feasibility of business ideas, a relevant and critical skill with several cross-sector applications.
8. Michigan Ross Summer Business Academy
Location: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Cost: $5,500
Acceptance rate: Highly selective, around 140 students selected in total across both cohorts
Dates: June 7 – 17 or June 21 – July 1
Application deadline: January 8
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors with a minimum 3.0 GPA
At this two-week residential program, you get to work with Ross faculty across business disciplines, moving through classes, team workshops, and off-site visits to real companies. The curriculum is designed around understanding what makes high-performing organizations tick, from how leaders solve problems to how companies structure decisions under competitive pressure. Most of your time goes toward collaborative group projects that simulate the kind of case-based learning Ross BBA students do, and the program culminates in a solution pitch to address a real business challenge. Industry experts and executive leaders also join for sessions, providing exposure to how people at the top of their fields actually think. The small cohort size allows for deeper mentorship and an authentic sense of what studying it at a top-ranked school actually demands.
9. Wharton Global Youth Program: Financial Decision Making
Location: Online
Cost: $4,099
Acceptance rate: Selective
Dates: June 15 – 26 or July 6 – 17
Application deadline: January 28
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9–12 with a demonstrated interest in economics and finance
This two-week online program puts you inside a curriculum built by Wharton faculty with expertise in capital markets and consumer finance. It covers the economic and financial concepts that shape the decisions you are already making and the ones you will face in the years ahead. You work through personal finance fundamentals like budgeting, credit, and saving, then move into more complex territory, such as how financial markets function, how banks and central banks influence economic conditions, and how to evaluate investments using real-world datasets. Excel runs through the whole course as a practical tool, and recitations led by Penn graduate students give you space to apply concepts before moving forward. The program closes with a collaborative capstone project.
10. National Economics Challenge — Michigan
Location: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Detroit Branch, Detroit, MI, for the State Finals, online for the preliminary rounds
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Open to all Michigan high school students, but the State Finals are highly competitive
Dates: State Finals on April 20, National Semi-Finals from April 20–24, National Finals from May 28–29
Application deadline: March 26
Eligibility: All high school students
This is a team competition that tests your command of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and international economics across three sequential rounds, with the best teams advancing to a quiz bowl at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Detroit Branch. Teams of up to five students from the same school compete in one of two divisions: the Adam Smith Division for AP, IB, or honors students, and the David Ricardo Division for those in general economics courses. The state finals format is fast and demanding, with each round building in difficulty, and the quiz bowl round requires teams to answer rapidly under pressure. Michigan's state champion in each division advances to a virtual national semi-finals and then, if successful, to the in-person National Finals with a $1,000 cash prize for the winning team. While not a conventional program, the prep involved in seriously competing for the National Economics Challenge makes this a strong pursuit if you want to improve your economic knowledge.
11. High School Fed Challenge
Location: Online
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate: Open participation, though publication in the Journal of Future Economists is highly competitive
Dates: Theme announcement on September 9, and the submission period extends till March 16
Application deadline: March 16
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9–12
Rather than a quiz or buzzer-round competition, this one asks you to think and write like an economist. Working as a team, you research and author an economics paper formatted as a podcast script, exploring the year's theme through a rigorous academic lens. Topics can range from how streaming transformed music industry revenue models to how behavioral economics shapes choices, varying by the annual theme. The best submissions are selected for publication in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Journal of Future Economists, which is a meaningful research credential for a high school student. Skills you build include data literacy, analytical writing, source evaluation, and sustained argument construction, none of which require prior economics coursework to get started. Michigan students register through the Michigan Council on Economic Education.
12. Wharton Global Youth Program: Understanding Your Money
Location: Online
Cost: $329
Acceptance rate: Open enrollment
Dates: Self-paced
Application deadline: None
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9–12
This is a self-paced online course taught by Wharton faculty, covering four modules on the economic and financial concepts that shape everyday decisions. The first module introduces the core economics of supply and demand, utility and cost, compound interest, and opportunity cost. The second covers how currency works across international markets, how banks function, and how money moves through an economy. The third focuses on earning and budgeting, including how financial problems affect personal well-being, and the fourth moves into investing, covering retirement planning, risk and return trade-offs, and asset allocation. The full course runs 13 to 15 hours across 55 lecture videos and 16 topic units, with quizzes at the end of each unit. There are no live sessions or cohort requirements, allowing you to learn the fundamentals of economics at your own pace, and at a deeper level than what you’d cover in high school. Students who complete all modules earn a Wharton Global Youth Program certificate.