UC San Diego Academic Connections

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UC San Diego Academic Connections provides a pre-college summer experience that is academically enriching to a diverse population of high-achieving, college-bound high school students motivated to explore the offerings of UC San Diego – a top five, internationally ranked public institution.

Academic Connections encourages young people to engage with the future by exposing them to some of the most exciting fields of research and study. Participants will work with committed and enthusiastic graduate students to examine the world around them as inquisitive academic scholars. 

Courses are selected to represent some of the most exciting fields of research and study UC San Diego has to offer in the physical and social sciences, engineering, and arts and humanities. All courses are challenging and place emphasis on active learning and putting knowledge to use in independent and creative ways. Each student that completes the program can earn six units of UC San Diego Division of Extended Studiues Pre-College credit. 

2025 Summer Residential Program: July 6–26

• 101 College Writing for Success
• Animating Narratives: Disney, Cultural Production & Critical Literacy
• A History of Electronic Instruments & the Music they Inspired
• Analyzing Adaptations: Books and Beyond
• Digital Media Literacy
• Introduction to Creative Writing: Short Fiction
• Introduction to Human Emotion: An Emotional Approach to Critical Thinking and Critical Writing
• Rfugee Migration from Central America: Perspectives from Anthropology
• The Arab-Isreali Conflict
• The Role of Art in Technological Innovation

*Classes subject to change.

Scholarships are available for select courses through a partnership with the Inamori Foundation.

Summer 2025 Schedule

Residential Program (In-Person & On Campus): July 6 - July 26, 2025

• $5,950 - Residential course tuition + residential housing
• $6,150 - Residential course tuition + residential housing + online SAT prep course*