YSPA is a 2-week online + 4-week residential research and enrichment program for 36 rising high school seniors who are interested in astronomy, physics, math, computer programming, and other science and tech fields.

Non-credit

Hybrid

Accepts International Students

Financial Aid

Final project

The Yale Summer Program in Astrophysics (YSPA) is a research and enrichment program hosted at the Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium (LFOP) at Yale for 36 rising high school seniors (high school students who are juniors when they apply) who have shown an aptitude for science and math, an interest in astrophysics, and who are considering going into careers in scientific research. Students at YSPA live together in a dormitory, take classes at the Leitner Planetarium, learn to program and analyze data in the computer lab at the Leitner Observatory, and use the telescopes at the Leitner Observatory (as well as remote observatories) to collect data for their research project. At the end of the program, students write up their results in the form of a scientific paper and then present those results at our YSPA mini-conference.

The main goal of YSPA is to provide our students with the opportunity to be academically and personally challenged in a professional scientific research environment. With the experience of meeting these challenges, they can go to college with the confidence that scientific research is something that they are ready to pursue. YSPA has the secondary goal of accelerating the personal growth of our students by giving them the opportunity to live and work in a university environment with their true peers– other high school seniors from around the world who have similar interests in math and science. Finally, YSPA also has a goal of teaching our students practical skills in computer programming, data analysis, statistics, writing, and other research methods— skills which are essential in all science, engineering, and tech fields.

Students admitted to YSPA will begin their studies for the program two weeks before the residential program, when they will receive our project guide as well as several self-study exercises in programming and observational astronomy. YSPA faculty will be available to help students with their online studies, and several online discussion sections will be held during the period to help students learn what they need to know before coming to campus. Topics covered in the session include basics concepts in observational astronomy as well as learning the syntax of the python programming language. Participation in the online self-study program is required for program participants. Students do not need to be at home for this self-study period, but they will need internet access and several hours per day for studying and working on assignments.

Classes on campus start on Monday, July 10, 2023, the day after students arrive. YSPA classes meet in the mornings in the Leitner Digital Planetarium Theater for about two and a half hours for four or five days per week. These math, physics, and astronomy topics will be covered in the classroom:
Observational Astronomy
Telescope Optics
CCD Imaging and Calibration
Photometry
Spectroscopy
Stellar Astrophysics
Stellar Evolution
Differential Calculus
Numerical Simulations
Radiative Transfer Modeling
Model Optimization
Genetic Algorithms
Machine Learning for Data Mining
Statistics and Uncertainty in Measurements
Scientific Writing

In the afternoons, students will work in group tutorials with our faculty in the observatory computer lab to learn computer programming and data analysis techniques using software and python packages such as:
SAO DS9
AstroimageJ
numpy
astropy
matplotlib
MESA
Each student will have her or his own workstation in a “pod” of computers with her or his research team collaborators. Students do not need any experience in computer programming before coming to YSPA (although it helps a lot, and python basics is one of topics we will cover in the pre-arrival, self-study curriculum).

A goal of this curriculum is to quickly give the students the skills needed to complete their research project, but also to encourage students to move away from thinking about the research project as a classroom exercise that they need to “get the right answer to,” but rather to approach their project in new and creative ways, just like professional scientists do.

The Yale Summer Program in Astrophysics

Jun 26 - Aug 06

6 weeks

Hybrid

6900 USD

Full tuition for the 2023 program is $6,900 (this includes academic tuition, room and board, field trips, project costs, instructional materials, computer fees, etc., but does not include travel to and from the program, health insurance, or incidental expenses).
If you are admitted, a deposit of $1500 is required by April 28, 2023 to secure your spot. The balance of the tuition is due by June 16, 2023. Your offer of admission may be withdrawn and you may forfeit your deposit or your full tuition if it is found that you falsified any aspect of your application. If we must shift the program to fully onine, you will received a tution refund for the difference between the cost of the in-person program and the online program. If we must completely cancel the program after you have submitted your tuition payment, you will receive a full tuition refund.

Financial Aid

Students who have been admitted can apply for limited, need-based financial aid within two weeks of the admissions decision notification. A typical financial aid award is a 50% tuition remission, although discounts of up to 80% may be awarded, depending on the availability of funds and financial need of the student. Past participants have also had success in securing funding to attend YSPA through foundations and crowd-funding.