| Application deadline | Unconfirmed — check official site | Unconfirmed — check official site | Unconfirmed — check official site |
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| Cost | Unconfirmed — check official site | Last year's cycle (2026): $5,518; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site | Catalog terms: $7,465; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site |
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| Financial aid | Unconfirmed — check official site | Last year's cycle (2026): 2026 need-based application and program assistance: Up to $5,564. Could assist with the $46 application fee and $5,518 program cost based on family income, family size and available funds; actual award not guaranteed.; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site | Catalog terms: Verified-need scholarship: Amount: Unconfirmed — check official site. Scholarships are restricted to applicants whose need can be reliably verified. Award size, documents, budget, and timing vary and are not guaranteed.; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site |
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| Expenses and aid conditions | Last year's cycle (2026): 2026 campus housing for out-of-state students: $0. The program paid housing for out-of-state students; the application required participants to live on campus. Terms for Utah residents were not published.; 2026 meal plan for out-of-state students: $0. The program paid the meal plan for out-of-state students; terms for Utah residents were not published.; Travel support for participants outside Salt Lake City: Amount: Unconfirmed — check official site. Support availability is official, but award amount, eligible expenses and reimbursement rules were not published.; Approved national-conference participation: $0. All conference expenses could be covered for participants approved for the optional opportunity.; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site | Last year's cycle (2026): 2026 COSMOS application fee: $46. Nonrefundable; pending fee-waiver review could change when or whether payment was required.; Credit-card transaction fee on program payments: Amount: Unconfirmed — check official site. Approximately 2.5% when paying program costs by credit card; application fee exempt.; 2026 need-based application and program assistance: Up to $5,564. Could assist with the $46 application fee and $5,518 program cost based on family income, family size and available funds; actual award not guaranteed.; Full-financial-aid attendance deposit: $200. Required only for admitted students offered full aid and refunded to the legal guardian after successful completion.; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site | Catalog terms: Possible laboratory-material fee: $0–$149.3. Only disciplines needing laboratory materials may charge this fee; Pioneer caps it at 2% of $7,465 tuition, or $149.30. Actual applicability and amount depend on placement.; Verified-need scholarship: Amount: Unconfirmed — check official site. Scholarships are restricted to applicants whose need can be reliably verified. Award size, documents, budget, and timing vary and are not guaranteed.; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site |
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| Stipend or pay | Last year's cycle (2026): 2026 participant compensation: Unconfirmed — check official site; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site | Unconfirmed — check official site | Unconfirmed — check official site |
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| Eligibility | Grades 11–12 when applying; check the provider's rules for graduating seniors | Grades 9–12 (provider uses rising grades) | Grades 9–12 when applying; check the provider's rules for graduating seniors |
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| Additional eligibility | Requirement: High-school applicants must complete junior year before the program begins, or college applicants must be current freshmen or sophomores; Requirement: Be in good academic standing; Requirement: Demonstrate interest in health sciences and biomedical cancer research; Requirement: Commit to the full ten-week program for approximately 40 hours every week; Requirement: Live on the University of Utah campus and follow residential and laboratory policies; Requirement: Complete required laboratory and online training, weekly meetings and events, surveys, and the closing symposium; Exclusion: High-school students who have not completed junior year before the program starts; Exclusion: College students beyond the first or second undergraduate year under the published 2026 rules; Exclusion: Applicants unable to attend the entire program or meet the full-time commitment; Exclusion: Assuming citizenship or permanent residence is mandatory merely because the application collects that information | Residency: Attend high school in person in California; Requirement: Be rising into grade 9, 10, 11 or 12 for the program fall year; Requirement: Attend high school in person in California; Requirement: Demonstrate academic excellence and preparation for the selected STEM cluster; Requirement: Complete cluster-specific course prerequisites; Requirement: Live on the host UC campus for the full program; Requirement: Be a first-time COSMOS participant; Exclusion: Students not attending a California high school in person; Exclusion: Students who previously attended any COSMOS program; Exclusion: Applicants outside the rising-grade 9-12 range; Exclusion: Applicants unable to live on campus for the full program; Exclusion: Late application, supporting, payment or admission materials; Exclusion: Assuming a 3.5 GPA is an absolute statewide minimum rather than the published typical profile | Requirement: Be a high-school student in grade 9-12 under the current admission description; Requirement: Demonstrate academic readiness, intellectual curiosity, independence, integrity, and sustained interest in one or more proposed research areas; Requirement: Be able to read scholarly material, write in academic English, attend live online seminars and professor meetings, and complete intensive independent work; Requirement: Secure counselor support before submission and arrange the official transcript plus counselor or teacher assessment after submission within the published window; Requirement: Complete the video interview and proctored timed writing if the initial application passes screening; Requirement: Commit to the complete seminar, literature-review, topic-development, individual-mentoring, and original-paper process for the assigned term; Exclusion: Applicants are not guaranteed admission, a specific discipline, a particular professor, a scholarship, publication, college admission, or transfer-credit acceptance; Exclusion: Professors do not choose students and are not identified to applicants before admission and matching; Exclusion: Test scores are optional, not a stated admission requirement; Exclusion: A discipline can fill before the final deadline, and an application may receive conditional or waitlist status; Exclusion: The current program costs $7,465 and spans multiple academic divisions |
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| Session dates or duration | Catalog terms: 10 weeks; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site | Catalog terms: 4 weeks; 2027: Unconfirmed — check official site | Unconfirmed — check official site |
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| Format | In person | In person | Online |
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| Housing and supervision | Residential. Supervision and housing details: Unconfirmed — check official site | Residential. Supervision and housing details: Unconfirmed — check official site | Non-residential. Supervision and housing details: Unconfirmed — check official site |
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| Location | Salt Lake City, Utah, University of Utah campus, Huntsman Cancer Institute | Davis, California, Irvine, California, Los Angeles, California, Merced, California, San Diego, California, Santa Cruz, California, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Merced, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz | Online and available to high-school students worldwide |
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| Selection and application | Selection: Huntsman uses an application, transcript, personal statement and reference and may place applicants on a waitlist. Current cohort size, applicant count, acceptance rate and selection rubric are not published. Application materials: One-page single-spaced personal statement addressing career goals, personal background, relevant skills and interest in STEM | Selection: Each of six campuses accommodates roughly 160-200 students, and clusters typically enroll 20-25 with a commonly reported 5:1 student-to-faculty ratio. Admissions are competitive and based on academic merit relative to the selected topic, but applicant count and statewide acceptance rate were not published. Application materials: One personal statement; One required teacher recommendation, with two recommended | Selection: Pioneer uses holistic review of academic history, essays, interests, school materials, a video interview, and proctored timed writing. Decisions generally take six to eight weeks and may be admit, conditional, waitlist, or deny. The official pages publish no acceptance rate or automatic GPA/test threshold, and placement capacity varies by discipline. Application materials: Required short-answer responses and longer essay; Video interview after initial screening |
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| Official sources | Source 1 · checked 2026-08-22Source 2 · checked 2026-08-22 | Source 1 · checked 2026-08-22Source 2 · checked 2026-08-22Source 3 · checked 2026-08-22Source 4 · checked 2026-08-22Source 5 · checked 2026-08-22Source 6 · checked 2026-08-22Source 7 · checked 2026-08-20 | Source 1 · checked 2026-08-20Source 2 · checked 2026-08-20Source 3 · checked 2026-08-20Source 4 · checked 2026-08-20 |
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