Explore@UNC

Registration for Explore@UNC has officially closed, but there’s still time to sign up for the Intensive programs. Please visit this page to register.

If you are UNC Staff or Faculty, you will need to provide your PID to receive the employee discount.

Following your track registration, you will be directed to the UNC payment portal where payment will be required to secure all seats in the program.

For Explore@UNC, students who will be entering 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade in the fall of 2026 at their high school or in a homeschool capacity are welcome to attend. We welcome students from all backgrounds and academic interests, as well as students from states outside North Carolina and international countries. Students who will be in 8th grade or lower, or those who will have already graduated from high school are not eligible.

For the Explore@UNC Intensives (Nutrition and BEAM Makerspace), students must be rising 10th, 11th, or 12th graders at their high school or in a homeschool capacity to attend. Students from outside North Carolina and international countries are welcome. Rising 9th grade students are not eligible.

For each week of Explore@UNC, the program runs Monday through Friday from 9:00am-4:30pm. Students are welcome to arrive to campus as early as 8:30am. Post-program supervision is available until 5pm each day.

All Explore@UNC programs are commuter (day-only). Since our programs do not yet have overnight residential components, students are not permitted to stay on-campus overnight for liability purposes and must arrange for their own accommodations. Last summer, families from further distances chose to stay with friends or family, rent an Airbnb or stay in a nearby hotel for the week. We will arrange for room block rates at nearby hotels in the coming months. Since these are commuter programs, all students will need to have a local trusted contact available in case of emergency.

For Explore@UNC, the cost of attendance is $575 per student per week. At registration, families will need to pay $325 for each week they plan to attend. This amount includes a $75 non-refundable deposit and your first $250 which is due on the day you register. The remaining balance for all weeks will be due by April 3rd.

The cost of attendance for dependents of UNC Staff and Faculty is $525. Discounts will be applied to your balance at registration.

Need-based financial aid is available while resources last.

For the Explore@UNC Nutrition Intensive, the cost of attendance is $850 for the week. At registration, families will need to pay $425. This amount includes a $100 non-refundable deposit and your first $325 which is due the day you register. The remaining balance is due by April 3rd.

For the Explore@UNC BEAM Makerspace Intensives, the cost of attendance is $1100 for the week. At registration, families will need to pay $550. This amount includes a $100 non-refundable deposit and your first $450 which is due the day you register. The remaining balance is due by April 3rd.

Discounts and Financial Aid are not available for Intensives.

Central to UNC’s Pre-College Programs mission is to be a service to the state. As such, we are excited to provide need-based support to qualifying families to attend our programs while resources are available.

Students who are permanent NC residents, rising seniors, and are in a family income bracket that qualifies for free/reduced lunch are eligible for a $500 scholarship to attend one week of Explore@UNC while resources last. Refer to the Financial Aid PDF that outlines the state thresholds for different sized households as it pertains to free/reduced lunch.

If you believe you qualify for aid, the only financial commitment needed from families at the time of registration would be a $75 non-refundable fee and then you can check a box that indicates you believe you would qualify for aid and that will bypass the need to pay the first 50% deposit so you can sign up for the tracks you are interested in. Shortly following the registration process, anybody who checked the box about requesting aid will be sent instructions for providing documentation, which should be submitted within two weeks from registering.

The documentation needed would be an official letter from your high school on their letterhead confirming your enrollment, status as a rising senior, and verification of your status in SNAP or NSLP. Once the documentation is received and verified, you are all set. The only other expenses families would be responsible for would be any individualized needs such as daily permits to park on campus if students drive themselves for example. Please email explore@unc.edu with additional questions.

Not at all! Explore@UNC is designed to help you explore academic interests and get a taste of college life, regardless of where you plan to apply. Many participants discover new fields they never knew existed.

Demand for programs can vary from year to year but it is advised that if you have a particular track in mind, you should not wait long after the registration window opens to secure your seats. Biology and Material Science and Engineering filled last spring within four hours of the registration window opening. Public Policy and Political Science filled by the end of day two. Sports Administration and Exercise and Sport Science approached capacity by the end of week two. Despite the addition of more weeks of programming as well as many new academic tracks to help meet demand, we have already received over 1200 inquiries since September from students and families with interest in attending in Summer 2026 so the demand for seats will be significant.

Our slate of programs is dependent on our partnerships with the academic departments and the availability and bandwidth of our faculty to offer programs during the summer. As college faculty, many use that time for personal or professional travel, conduct research, or to simply recharge. Each week of Explore@UNC was designed with departments whose faculty and facilities were available to offer the courses. For this reason, once a track fills for a specific week, additional sections or weeks cannot be added.

If a track does meet capacity, you will have the ability to place your name on a waitlist to possibly move into the track should space become available.

There are two waitlists.

The Primary Waitlist will be available at the time of registration. During registration, you will sign up for two tracks. Any tracks that meet capacity will disappear from the list of tracks available for the week. If your desired track is full, you will register for any two tracks still available and then you will manually type into a text box the tracks you’d like to be placed on the waitlist for. Once you complete the payment step, your name will be added to the primary waitlist. While on the primary waitlists, students will hold active seats in the other two tracks they registered for while they wait to see if they move off the waitlist. If movement does not occur off the waitlist, they will participate in the two tracks they actively hold. If space re-opens in a track, students will be moved into their desired track on a first-come first-serve basis and will be notified of the schedule change. Placement on the Primary Waitlist does require paying the registration fee since you will actively hold seats in two tracks while you wait to see if space opens.

The Secondary Waitlist Group is the option for families who would like to be added to the waitlist for a particular track but do not want to pay the registration fee while they wait to see if space re-opens. If your track is not available and you don’t wish to participate in other tracks as a back-up option, you can skip the step of registering and paying for two other tracks, and instead complete the Secondary Waitlist Form to have your name added to the list to receive notification if space re-opens. Since you are not paying the registration fee, you will not hold any active seats in the program. If, after the Primary Waitlist is exhausted, space in a track remains open, all individuals in the Secondary Waitlist Group will be notified at the same time advising them of the open seat(s) which will be filled on a first-come first-serve basis. Note: the Secondary Waitlist Group will only be notified once all individuals on the Primary Waitlist have been exhausted, regardless of when they were added. Movement from the Secondary Waitlist onto the Primary Waitlist will require completion of the registration process and receipt of the payment.

For Explore@UNC, if families need to cancel their participation, they may do so up through April 3rd, 2026 and receive a refund of all monies paid except the $75 per week non-refundable fee. After April 3rd, you are not eligible for any refunds.

For either the Nutrition or BEAM Makerspace Intensives, families may cancel their participation up through April 3rd, and receive a refund of all monies paid except the $100 non-refundable fee. After April 3rd, you are not eligible for any refunds.

If a student wishes to switch weeks of attendance after registration, they may be allowed to do so provided space is available and will need to select from the remaining tracks that have seats. Any changes to a week of attendance will involve a $50 Program Change Fee.