Level 2
Applied CS × Research is intended for Grade 10–11 students who already have Python experience or who have completed a foundations-style program and are ready for more serious academic work. The cohort is kept small (a maximum of 3 to 4 students) so mentorship stays close and pacing stays honest.
Students work through two structured, competition-style machine learning problems over 12 to 16 weeks. The domain is not fixed: health data, environmental science, sports analytics, or any area that connects to the student's university goals. Every project involves real data, real iteration, and a defensible result.
A structured entry-level machine learning competition problem from a public platform such as Kaggle or DrivenData. Focus is on the full pipeline: data exploration, feature engineering, model selection, evaluation, and iteration.
A more complex problem in the student's chosen domain. Students take greater ownership of methodology decisions and document their reasoning throughout, preparing them to explain every choice they made.
Report writing and poster preparation. Students who finish Problem 2 early use this time for additional iteration and polishing rather than moving on prematurely.
12-week cohorts move faster with stronger prior backgrounds. 16-week cohorts allow more domain exploration and iteration time. Your mentor will confirm the track at the initial assessment call.
Students leave Level 2 with two fully documented project notebooks, an Academic Research Report structured like a real research paper (introduction, methods, results, discussion), and a professional-style Poster Presentation suitable for school showcases or regional science fairs.
Because students document their own reasoning throughout both problems, they finish the program able to explain every decision they made: what they tried, what failed, and why they changed direction. That is the kind of depth that holds up in a university interview or essay.
Note: mentorship builds the technical understanding and self-awareness that makes strong application writing possible. Students write their own materials; we do not draft or edit application essays.
Students who complete Level 2 are eligible to receive a formal reference letter from their faculty mentor, a tenure-track professor at a GTA university. The letter describes the student's project, performance, and demonstrated capabilities observed over the program.
Reach out to receive a free fit checklist and book a 15-minute background assessment call. We will confirm the right cohort track and domain direction for the student.
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