The Horizon Academic Research Program is the oldest 1-on-1 research program in the world, founded in 2016 by Columbia University researchers. It is a selective online research program connecting gifted high school students with professors and PhD scholars from top universities including Harvard, MIT, Yale, Dartmouth, Cambridge, and Oxford. Over 70% of mentors come from the Ivy League, Stanford, Oxford, or Cambridge.
The program offers two tracks. Professor Seminars are small group classes of 3-6 students led by university professors, available in the summer over 10-12 weeks with 20 sessions. PhD Labs provide fully individualized 1-on-1 sessions with PhD or post-doc scholars, available year-round over 16 weeks with 15 sessions. Both tracks include sessions with a writing coach. Labs students additionally receive sessions with a publication specialist and support for up to three rounds of journal submissions.
Students choose from over 300 pre-approved research sub-topics across disciplines including AI and machine learning, behavioral economics, cybersecurity, neuroscience, international relations, gene editing, philosophy, political theory, and more. Upon completion, students produce a college-level research paper of approximately 5,000 words, receive a certificate of completion and a university-rubric grade report, and may request a letter of recommendation from their instructor. Since its founding, Horizon has served over 1,200 alumni, with an average admitted GPA of 3.93 and a median SAT score of 1500.