FAQ’s and Contact Information

Students interested in attending ROAR Academy must submit an application here with an unofficial transcript. 

The 2026 ROAR Academy program will only feature one session from July 6 – July 17, 2026.

• Week 1: July 6 – 10, 2026
• Week 2: July 13 – 17, 2026

Our rolling admissions process means the sooner you apply, the sooner you’ll hear back! We evaluate applications as they arrive, so submitting early is a great way to secure your spot as it offers students better flexibility.

Students can only participate in ROAR Academy once, so if the student has already participated they cannot participate again.

High school students who live in California and will be entering 10th, 11th, or 12th grade in the fall of the year and they would like to attend summer camp.

The academy is great for students who are considering a STEM career path and would like to apply to AI, Robotics, and Data Science as their college majors. Students are expected to have sufficient background on basic computer programming in the Python language. The curriculum builds in a quick refresher of Python programming at the beginning with additional exercises and debugging practice, but the course is NOT suitable for students who have not previously learned Python.

ROAR Academy costs $2,200 for a two week program (10 days) that runs from 9AM to 3PM, from Monday through Friday. The tuition will include daily lunch and snacks. These classes will be in person on campus. 

ROAR Academy is not an overnight program; accepted students are expected to be responsible for their own accommodations and will be released at 3:00 pm each day.

The enrollment and fee are only for California residents. For prospective students from other regions, please contact us and we will offer available spaces after the admission of California residents.

ROAR Academy awards full and partial scholarships based on financial need. However, financial aid is awarded based on need and available funds. Financial need is demonstrated by qualifying for one of the following programs:

• Free or reduced price lunch at school
• CalFresh
• Medi-Cal

If your family demonstrates financial need, you do not need to submit an additional scholarship application. You only need to indicate your financial need when responding to the camp fee question in the application. However, ROAR Academy reserves the right to request financial need documentation during the application review process.

Requesting a fellowship review:  If your family cannot afford camp, but does not qualify for one of the programs listed above, you may e‑mail hc_kuan@berkeley.edu to request that we review your specific situation. You can contact us at any time—your child does not need to submit an application first. Do not submit financial statements (tax returns, etc.) unless requested to do so. Sensitive information should never be e-mailed to us, due to UC Berkeley’s data security policy.

In the curriculum of the Academy, we assume that this is NOT the student’s first computer class nor their computer programming class.

Students attending the Academy would have the best experience if they have good understanding about the following knowledge:

1. Fluently set up online user accounts at Kaggle.com and Github.com
2. Fluently manage a computer’s file system, preferably know about the Terminal environment
3. Have entry to intermediate computer programming experience, such as on BASIC, Scratch, C/C++, and Java
4. Familiar with the coding concepts of variables, loops, conditions, and functions

ROAR Academy will supervise minors until they are picked up by an adult with advanced written authorization to take custody of the minor.

Only with the advance written consent of parents/guardians, may campus units release minors into the custody of others or may release minors 12 years or older to their own custody.