Academy for Women

The Academy for Women and Academy for All are hosted by the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin in the Gates-Dell Complex.

United States-based students entering grades 11-12 in Fall 2025 are eligible to apply.

Students are encouraged to apply to both Academy for Women and Academy for All sessions, if applicable. Please note that students will only be admitted to one session. If you apply to multiple sessions, you may list your preferences in the application.

No programming experience? No problem! Our labs are designed to teach you to program or expand your programming skills to accomplish the project.

Students must provide their contact information, academic records, a brief essay, their most recent progress report, and an unofficial transcript.

Join us as we use the Arduino microcontroller to program LED light displays - you will work with a small group of peers to make your lights put on a show or dance to music. Students in the Academy for All Machine Learning Edition will learn how to understand and implement machine learning concepts.

Outside of lab time, students will attend guest speaker presentations, tour UT facilities, and join various social activities. A field trip to a local tech company to meet corporate representatives and learn about their experience in CS may also be included in the weekly schedule.

All UT Computer Science Summer Academies are led by UT Austin Computer Science faculty members. More information on each faculty member can be found in the Academy Staff section.

There is no cost to participate in Academy for Women or Academy for All. Housing and meals for the week-long program are also included. Students may apply for travel scholarships for up to $500 to help pay for transportation to and from Austin if needed.

Students will stay in one of the residence halls on the UT Austin campus. To learn more about the UT Austin residence halls, visit: housing.utexas.edu/housing/residence-halls. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided for the academy participants. Students will eat at one of the main dining halls on campus. Top 9 allergen-free meals are available. For more information on dining, visit: housing.utexas.edu/dining/dining-locations/dining-halls.

Each student will be assigned to a residence hall room with a roommate. Rooms are shared with another student of the same gender and all residence hall floors are split by gender. Each floor has counselors of the same gender as students on that floor. Please contact us with any specific questions.

Please email our team at academies@cs.utexas.edu and we will direct you to our Academy Accommodations Coordinator. Please be as specific as possible in your message so we can best assist you.

Academy participants are supervised at all times. Each participant will be placed into a group of around 10 students and will be supervised by a counselor 24 hours a day. Our daytime counselors, Program Assistants, provide supervision and help students in the computer lab and during programming activities. Our evening counselors, Resident Assistants, provide supervision and engage students in social activities and stay in the dorms overnight.

Typically, students have breakfast around 7:30 in the morning and begin their first activity at 8:30 am. From 8:30 am - 5:00 pm, students are either in the computer lab working on their group projects, taking a break for lunch, attending a guest lecture, or touring different departments on campus. After dinner, students will participate in various social activities including bowling, movie night, basketball, volleyball and more. All academy participants return back to their residence hall each night by 9:30 pm.