Middle & High School Program

The Cambridge Experience

DATES
Two-week sessions
Session one: July 12 - July 25
Session two: July 26 - August 8
Combined session | July 12 - August 8
Paris Connection | August 8 - August 12

GRADES
8-9

Peterhouse, University of Cambridge

Peterhouse, which welcomes the Cambridge Experience every summer, is the university's oldest college, founded in 1284. The Cambridge Experience offers students in grades 8 and 9 an opportunity to delve into subjects that fascinate them guided by university teachers and creative professionals.

Students may attend one or two sessions and choose one course per session from options that include Medical Science, Business, Psychology, Espionage, and Law. The classes are designed to use Cambridge as a teaching tool, so that the students discover the city and the university as they discover the topic.

Dates and Tuition

Two-week sessions

Session one: July 12 - July 25
Session two: July 26 - August 8

Before Jan. 1

$7,125

After Jan. 1

$7,395

Combined sessions

July 12 - August 8

$12,225

$12,595

Paris Connection

August 8 - August 12

$2,015

$2,075

At the end of the program, students can choose to add on the Paris Connection and spend 4 days exploring one of the world's great cities.

Tuition Information: Fees include accommodation, classroom instruction, workshops, field trips, two daily meals, and all program-organized activities. We also offer a select number of scholarships based on financial need. For full details, see our Tuition page.

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A Day in the Life

Breakfast in Hall
Major classes on topics ranging from Robotics to Espionage meet in classrooms, labs, studios, or out in Cambridge
Students can choose to have lunch at any of a plethora of local restaurants or sandwich shops in town
Three afternoons a week, students attend class. When there is no class, they are free to join in organized activities or trips and tours in and around Cambridge
Dinner in Hall
Evening activities, events, or shows

What’s Included

Transport to and from the airport

Accommodation

Breakfast and supper

All scheduled extra-curricular activities

All course supplies

Full Course List

Aerospace Engineering

Aerospace Engineering is quite literally "rocket science!" Participants examine the disciplines most important to the industry, including aerodynamics, electronics, mechanics, operations systems, statistics, and thermodynamics. The course culminates with the replication of real design offices of aircraft and spacecraft companies. Students go through every stage in the creation of a new vehicle, including aerodynamic profiling, engine sizing, and structural design.

Advertising

Students assess the power of suggestion, persuasion, and product placement. Using a range of case studies and creative examples across all media, they explore early salesmanship, modern advertising, branding, and the increasing use of new media. Balancing creative skills with business acumen, they engage in branding exercises, interactive sales games, and the design and development of their own advertising campaign.

Materials fee of $50 US per session.

Banking and Markets

Students cover the evolution of, and relationships between, banking and markets, from their ancient origins to present-day, including the development of the stock, commodity, and capital markets. They learn how money itself is evolving, with the emergence of cryptocurrencies, and how financial institutions and markets are responding to the challenges of the modern economy. Finally, they visit the London’s Square Mile to investigate how money moves and what makes a career in finance.

Creative Writing

Students compose fiction and poetry under the guidance of a published writer, with Cambridge's rich literary history as their inspiration. They explore their own potential by experimenting with new forms and styles of writing. Successful poets and writers give workshops in which students learn about the creative process and the practicalities of publication. Students develop a portfolio of their best writing and collaborate to design, edit, and publish a literary magazine.

Criminology

Through workshops, debates, and visits to police stations and criminal courts, students explore individual and social theories of crime, philosophies of punishment, criminal profiling, incident analysis, and basic forensic science. They consider the causes of crime, the influence of the media upon crime, and issues of race and gender within the context of the British and American criminal justice systems.

Engineering

English Literature

Loosely basing itself on the undergraduate syllabus, this course engages with some of the great works of English literature amidst Cambridge’s evocative surroundings. Working from a range of texts drawn from every age, students improve their skills in close reading, textual criticism, and clear, informed writing. Each student engages in a close study of a text by a Cambridge author or a Shakespeare play and presents a special project in the final week.

Environmental Science

As the world teeters on the brink of ecological disaster, students are introduced to the complex sciences behind the headlines. They learn about the different disciplines that combine to make Environmental science possible, notably Atmospheric Science, Chemistry, and Ecology. Working from a range of case studies, they discover how environmental scientists assess and respond to different challenges, and learn about the benefits and disbenefits of the statutory proposals and technological solutions being touted in the public sphere, from carbon offset to electric cars, via lab-grown meat and the prospect of radical lifestyle change for everyone.

Espionage

At the university in which the world's most famous fictional spy, James Bond, studied, this course examines the methods and techniques of the most infamous intelligence services - Mossad, the KGB, the CIA, and MI5. Students address the future of intelligence operations, the challenges of field work, and the ethics of espionage when it comes to international cooperation, competition, and conflict.

Fine Art

Students on this course spend much of their time outside the studio. They sketch medieval towers, capture pastoral landscapes, practice their portrait skills, and discover masterpieces in locations like the Fitzwilliam Museum. Meanwhile they receive formal, professional instruction in sketching and painting in a variety of media. Their best work is exhibited at the end of the program.

Materials fee of $200 US per session.

Global Business

Law

Students discover how the British and American legal systems reflect the values and institutions of their respective societies. They consider precedent-setting cases and delve into various branches of legal practice. Through meetings with lawyers, legal scholars, and human rights advocates, and through visits to working courtrooms, they discover how lawyers turn theory into practice. This course culminates in a formal moot court competition.

Medical Science

This hands-on course introduces students to key aspects of medical science and modern medical practice. Combining specialist lectures with experiments and class discussions, students learn the principles of human anatomy and physiology, the pathology and significance of certain diseases, the main challenges that medical science faces today, and are introduced to the wide and growing range of possible careers in medicine.

Myths and Mythology

In a course that mixes history, literature, and anthropology, students delve into the accounts through which different civilizations and societies have explained their origins. They perform comparative studies of these creationary tales, noting their similarities and seeking to understand their differences. Students then explore cultural resilience - the study of how myths and folklore have survived for millennia by blending with new creationary myths, by evolving, and by finding new forms of expression in art, music, literature, film, and even video games.

Politics

What, in the 2020s, do we understand by politics? On what bases have we, as citizens, agreed to hand much of our power over our lives to governments? How have, and do, different political systems exercise that power? What theories and what thinkers – from Plato to Habermas – underpin them? How effectively do different systems react to national and global challenges such as external threats, terrorism, an outsize private sector, injustice, poverty, and inequality? These are some of the many questions this course addresses through a combination of classwork, individual research, and teamwork, culminating in a final project which might include a constitutional convention or the group creating parties and hosting their own, program-wide parliamentary elections.

Psychology

This course focuses on human behavior and individual development within a social context. Students are introduced to major themes, including stereotyping and prejudice, cross-cultural differences, the dynamics of cooperation and conflict, conformity and persuasion, attraction, and the role of the individual within the crowd. Through case studies and interactive experiments, participants gain an introduction to psychology and learn to analyze their own peer-group dynamics.

Public Speaking

In this course, students hone their verbal, nonverbal, and written communication skills in the service of becoming effective public speakers. Students learn how to prepare and deliver compelling speeches to a large and critical audience. The syllabus covers the core principles of communication, the history of rhetoric, and techniques for overcoming speech anxiety. Students gain a sense of how to structure and organize information, skills of decision-making and leadership, and knowledge of how to present their ideas effectively.

Robotics and Electronics

Students delve into the dynamic realm of robotics and electronics, discovering the pivotal roles electronics play in the automation and functionality of robots across sectors like business, defense, entertainment, and healthcare. By blending theory with hands-on practice, they grasp the intricacies of both analogue and digital electronics while gaining proficiency in orchestrating the hardware and software that breathe life into robots. The course culminates with students building their own electronic robotic project.

Materials Fee of $150 per session

Science and the Future

This course addresses cutting-edge issues at the fringes of current scientific knowledge and endeavor. Participants study advances in diverse areas, including atomic and molecular physics, artificial intelligence, astrophysics, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, particle physics, space travel, and stem-cell research. They identify the possible futures that science and technology are creating for humankind, and debate how these will affect our daily lives, our society, and our planet.

WWII

Students will explore the most recent body of work on the origins, course, and consequences of WWII. Students will go on short field-trips and complete individual research projects to complement their classroom instruction. This course will concentrate on the different theatres of the war, including the home front; the ways in which different people and groups experienced the conflict; how governments sought to maintain morale; and about the work of allied military intelligence at Bletchley Park.

Cultural Enrichment

Every class is designed to use Cambridge as a teaching tool. When not in class, students have access to a full range of activities designed to help them discover local and national culture. They have the option to take tours of sights like King's and Trinity, take part in a variety of sports (including Quidditch!), attend local Shakespeare productions, participate in talent shows, or take field trips to the Duxford Air Show and London.

Residence Info

Accommodations and Rooms

In Cambridge, students live in rooms that are occupied by undergraduates during the year. Students are housed in singles or doubles. Students can request a private bathroom (for a fee), on a first-come, first-served basis.

Facilities

Students have access to common areas within the residences as well as a variety of sporting and educational facilities (gyms, basketball courts, tennis courts, pitches). Oxbridge provides every program with computers, so students have daily access to email and social media. The program staff maintains message boards and distributes mail every day.

Meals

Students enjoy breakfast and dinner in their residence's dining hall. Breakfast is primarily continental style with choices such as cereal, yogurt, fruit, toast, coffee, and tea. Several options are available at dinner, including a vegetarian dish and a salad bar. Special dinners are regularly held, and each program ends with a formal banquet. Students are responsible for their own lunch, which can be purchased from a college snack bar or one of the many sandwich shops, small restaurants, patisseries, or bodegas near each residence.

After the Program

Shortly after the program, all students and their parents receive a comprehensive set of grade reports, presenting their course syllabus and highlighting their specific contributions and achievements within their course(s). Most of our alumni later ask for additional copies to include in their college applications.

What People Are Saying About Oxbridge Academic Programs

It was a big decision and undertaking to send our 16-year-old daughter from New Zealand to Oxford, she could not have travelled further! However, the experience that she had far exceeded all of our expectations, both in terms of the exposure she had to learning and the academic staff as well as the experiences and friendships made.

Oxford Tradition Parent

Thanks to the Cambridge Tradition experience, my daughter is much more mature, has a better knowledge of how to live abroad without her family, and she's better prepared for university! Her time at Oxbridge reaffirmed that she wants to study architecture and now she has all the skills to reach her goals.

Ana Maria

Cambridge Tradition Parent

Our daughter had a wonderful experience, and she found the Psychology and Genetics courses engaging and useful. She learned new things, made friends, and had 4 amazing weeks! Many thanks to your entire team for making this possible!

Oxbridge Parent

Our daughter loved the Oxford Experience program. She enjoyed her Major, made nice friends, and really began to feel more independent and confident while exploring beautiful Oxford. A great experience through and through and just what we all were hoping for! In fact, she is already talking about participating in the Cambridge program next year.

Daniel

Oxford Experience Parent

Just wanted to reach out to thank you for helping to make my daughter's summer spectacular! She returned on Saturday and has clearly grown from the summer experience.

Sanjeev

Oxbridge in Paris Parent

Thank you for making my son's experience at Cambridge so memorable! Usually reserved, he talked the whole way home from the airport about what he learned in class, the friends he made, and the museums he visited. My son was initially a bit reluctant to attend a two-week course, but at the end of the second week - he was sad it was ending so quickly!

Cambridge Experience Parent