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Where the Free Things Are by Richard O. '28

A List of Free Opportunities and Tools for Students

Being able to experience new things is such a fundamental part of growing up and with the increasing interconnectedness of our world, it’s now easier than ever to share new information with others. But despite this, there are so many barriers that make finding learning opportunities difficult for those who may not even realize the immense potential of resources out there. Whether it be costs, school funding, or even awareness of these opportunities, there are so many things that can limit the use of tools that people can use to explore new things or study different subjects. 

So for a while now, many discussions have been going on within a number of communities for minorities here on campus about ways that we as a school can support those who may not have easy access to the numerous educational opportunities out there. So with the help of many other students from those communities, I’ve put together this blog that details a non-exhaustive list of 100% free opportunities that students can take advantage of as we start the new year. 

But I also want to note that while it might be tempting, trying to overload yourself by doing ALL of these things may not be the best course of action, especially if your goal in doing so is to apply to a school like MIT. As Petey wonderfully notes in his infamous “Applying Sideways” blog, it’s more important that you do things you love when it comes to college applications than trying to do too much of stuff you don’t. And one of my favorite quotes from the blog that resonated with me so much during high school was:

You should study hard, be nice, and pursue your passion, because then you will have spent high school doing all the right things, and, as a complete side effect, you’ll be cast in the best light possible for competitive college admissions.

So as you glance through this list, feel free to make a note of tools and opportunities that you feel you might actually enjoy taking advantage of or even opportunities you don’t know anything about but seem exciting to you. Definitely don’t, however, use this as a checklist of things you have to do to get into a college because then you’ve got the wrong idea.

 

Table of Contents:

  • Free Online Educational Tools
  • Free Standardized Testing Tools
  • Free Summer and Exploratory Programs
  • Scholarship Opportunities
  • Free Online Tools
  • Additional Opportunities that Offer Financial Aid

[♥ – Hearts denote resources that I personally love]

Free Online Educational Tools:

This section features a list of websites and YouTube channels you can use to either self-study or supplement your learning in a class. All links are 100% free.

 

Name: MIT OpenCourseWare

  • Link: ocw.mit.edu
  • Description: A public library of courses offered by MIT with publicly available lecture videos, assignments, and notes from past years. Great for learning college-level topics you might enjoy or are interested in.

 

Name: Paul’s Online Math Notes

  • Link: tutorial.math.lamar.edu
  • Description: Online website full of notes, cheat sheets, and practice problems for topics related to Algebra, Calc I through III, and Differential Equations. Great for reviews on math topics and solidifying your understanding of different concepts.

 

Name: Chem Libre Texts

  • Link: chem.libretexts.org
  • Description: An open source library of detailed explanations for chemistry topics. Sort of like Wikipedia, but for Chemistry. Great for getting an overview on almost any chemistry topic especially before a test. Some pages also feature practice questions with solutions at the bottom. 

 

Name: Khan Academy ♥

  • Link: khanacademy.org
  • Description: One of the best online tools to thoroughly learn about almost any high school subject for free, ranging from Calculus and Computer Science to Economics and Life Skills. The website provides a series of videos, quizzes, and tests that are organized by units and can help you self-learn almost any high school subject on your own. Great all around tool to learn an entire course or review for a course you’re concurrently taking.

 

Name: Code.org 

  • Link: code.org
  • Description: A free website that offers a number of different coding projects for students to get exposure to the general idea of coding. Perfect for developing a basic understanding of what coding looks and feels like. 

 

Name: Codecademy ♥

  • Link: codecademy.com/
  • Description: Website that offers free lessons to help you learn different coding languages or computer science topics. Pretty much like a Duolingo or Khan Academy but for coding languages. Provides structured lessons, practice questions/projects, work spaces, and articles to actually learn the fundamentals for a language. Extremely helpful as a place to start a coding journey. (Note – there are paid courses and projects for premium subscribers but you can honestly just skip through them when those ads pop up and still learn the same amount of information.)

[Youtube Channels] 

 

Channel Name: Organic Chemistry Tutor (Chemistry, Calc, Bio, Statistics, Physics, Algebra, and so Much More.) ♥

  • Link: Organic Chemistry Tutor
  • Description: So the name of this channel is misleading, because it teaches so much more than just organic chemistry. This one account has taught me so much about almost every STEM subject I needed in high school and even carried me in some classes during my first semester here. Each video provides a thorough explanation of different STEM topics that can be super helpful to review concepts for classes or even help you get a foundational understanding of them (especially the night week before an exam you need to cram study for).

 

Channel Name: Professor Dave Explains (Chemistry, Calc, Bio, Statistics, Physics, Algebra, and so Much More)

  • Link: Professor Dave Explains
  • Description: More general review channel that provides great overviews for a number of topics ranging from basic math concepts and physics to chemistry and philosophy. Great resource for getting a quick overview of specific topics. 

 

Channel Name: 3Blue1Brown (Math and Computer Science) ♥

  • Link: 3Blue1Brown
  • Description: If you are a visual learner (like me), this channel is absolutely perfect for developing a mental understanding of how different mathematical and computer science concepts can be represented. Especially helpful for learning the graphical and 3D applications of topics like linear algebra and calculus because of the beautiful visuals shown in each video.

 

Channel Name: Professor Leonard (Math)

  • Link: Professor Leonard
  • Description: Math account with both short and lecture-length videos that provide quick and detailed whiteboard lessons on math topics ranging from Pre-algebra all the way up to Calculus III, with organized playlists for each subject.

 

Channel Name: Brian McLogan (Math)

  • Link: Brian McLogan
  • Description: Math account that thoroughly explains math concepts and walks through practice problems for topics ranging from Algebra and Trigonometry to Calc I and II.

 

Channel Name: Dr. Trefor Bazett (Math)

  • Link: Dr. Trefor Bazett
  • Description: More advanced math channel that covers topics in Calc I-III, Discrete Math, Linear Algebra and Differential Equations. Uses a lot of beautifully crafted visuals in each video to make it easier to understand topics. 

 

Channel Name: Leah4sci (Orgo and Chem)

  • Link: Leah4Sci
  • Description: Organic chemistry YouTube channel that provides detailed tutorials for various topics. Offers free cheat sheets and study guides that get sent to your email when you sign up at leah4sci.com.

 

Channel Name: Amoeba Sisters (Bio) ♥

  • Link: Amoeba Sisters
  • Description: Amazing visual channel for learning topics in biology. Provides videos with illustrative cartoons that make it enjoyable to understand different biology concepts. Great for supplementing your learning in a biology class for units that may be difficult to grasp. (This channel was one of the reasons I loved biology back in high school)

 

Channel Name: Ben Eater (Electronics and Computer Science)

  • Link: Ben Eater
  • Description: YouTube channel that offers a wide variety of tutorials and explanations for networks, electronic systems/processes, and computer concepts. Offers lessons on different types of circuit and computer components as well as live demonstrations of projects and their applications. 

 

Channel Name: Sebastian Lague (Game Development and Computer Science)

 

Channel Name: Heimler’s History (History/Social Studies)

  • Link: Heimler’s History
  • Description: Thee, and I mean thee, YouTube channel to help you in your AP social studies classes. Whether it be AP US History, AP Human Geography, AP World, or AP European History, this channel is perfect for supplementing your understanding of not just the subject matter in these courses, but also how to approach the structure of the AP tests themselves. 

 

Channel Names: TedED, TedTalks, & Kurzgesagt (General Education and Topic Exploration) ♥

  • Link: TedEd, TedTalks, and Kurzgesagt
  • Description: Three great channels for exploring new concepts and finding things you may be interested in researching or learning about. No real structure for learning things in a specific course, but amazing tools to expand your knowledge of the world, society, and science. Truly suggest checking these channels out in your free time to learn something new that you may have never heard of before.

Free Standardized Testing Tools:

When it comes to standardized tests, one of the best ways to prepare yourself is to practice. So with that, this section features free tools that can be used to practice for the SAT and ACT.

 

Name: Khan Academy SAT Prep

  • Link: khanacademy.org/digital-sat 
  • Description: For students who plan on taking the SAT, Khan Academy provides an entirely free course designed to help you learn everything you need to know for it – topic by topic. Perfect for finding out what you already know for the test and learning topics you don’t. 

 

Name: Schoolhouse SAT Tutoring ♥ 

  • Link: schoolhouse.world/sat-bootcamp 
  • Description: For students who prefer a more interactive approach to learning, schoolhouse.world provides free 4-week tutoring sessions to prepare students for the SAT (and other math/science classes they may need help with). The website offers live tutoring sessions taught by other students throughout the week for various topics. You can participate in these by signing up in a study group. This website is an amazing way to get free, on-demand tutoring services from like-minded peers for those who can’t afford private tutoring.

 

Name: ACT Kaplan w/ Waiver

  • Link: Waiver Information
  • Description: For students who qualify for an ACT fee waiver (scroll to the bottom of this link to check and reach out to your school counselor, local school district if homeschooled, or ACT customer service directly if you feel you may qualify) – ACT offers a free digital course to help you prepare for the ACT on their website called ACT Kaplan that’s pretty much the Khan Academy version of ACT prep.

 

Name: 5Academy YouTube Channel ♥

  • Link: 5Academy
  • Description: Technically this channel should’ve been included with the other YouTube accounts, but I wanted to single it out here because of its focus on ACT prep. This channel pretty much provides reviews for each of the ACT sections, but what I found to be uniquely helpful were the full practice test walk-throughs that, unlike other methods of test practice, can help you develop a sense of how to actually think about and mentally approach a problem on these tests rather than just trying to memorize all the content.

 

Name: CrackSAT, CrackACT, and CrackAP

  • Links: SAT Link, ACT Link, AP Link
  • Description: Library of live practice tests (and sometimes available PDFs) for the big 3 of testing in the US. A little cluttered with ads but offers helpful questions for each test section that tell you when you get an answer right or wrong with explanations. 

Free Summer and Exploratory Programs:

The summer is a great time to try new things and explore your interests so this section features a few summer programs that some people here on campus have participated in for free. This list, however, is not exhaustive because there are hundreds of summer programs out there that would not fit in this blog so at the bottom of this section is a link to a website with a larger list of more summer programs you can check out.

 

(Note: all the dates given for these programs are general estimates to help you get an idea of when you can expect to apply since dates can vary by year. For more specific details pertaining to the dates of the program check with the program website directly)

 

Name: MIT Weekend Immersion in Science & Engineering (WISE)

  • Link: mitadmissions.org/pages/wise/ 
  • Usually Takes Place: Early October
  • Application Usually Spans: Late June to Early August
  • Description: 3-Day all expenses paid opportunity by the MIT Admissions office to connect high school seniors from underrepresented backgrounds with MIT. Learn more about WISE here, here, and here.

 

Name: MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science (MITES)

  • Link: mites.mit.edu/
  • Usually Takes Place: From (mid-June to early-December for MITES Semester online) or (mid-June to late-July for MITES Summer on MIT campus) or (weekly on Saturdays during the school year for MITES Saturdays students)
  • Application Usually Spans: November to early February
  • Description: STEM programs offered by MIT to expose and empower students from grades 7-12 in the world of science and technology. Grants students an opportunity to connect with MIT faculty and work on projects that they can share with the larger MIT community. Attendance is cost-free and the programs provide financial support for travel to campus.

 

Name: Carnegie Mellon Summer Academy for Math and Science (SAMS)

  • Link: Info Link & Application Link 
  • Usually Takes Place: In Two Parts: A virtual Component in mid-June and 6 week in person part from June to early August
  • Application Usually Spans: Sometime in fall/winter to early March
  • Description: Fully funded program for students with demonstrated financial need that provides students with a chance to develop their skills in STEM. Provides classroom instruction, hands-on projects, and networking opportunities with program mentors. 

 

Check out more pre-college programs offered by Carnegie Mellon Here

 

Name: Kode With Klossy Summer Camps

  • Link: kodewithklossy.com/camp 
  • Usually Takes Place: For Two Weeks or Two Days depending on program chosen that take place between the months of June and August 
  • Application Usually Spans: Sometime in fall or winter up to late March for the latest application deadline. 
  • Description: Program designed for teens who identify as female or non-binary to build coding skills in web development, machine learning, mobile app development, and data science regardless of their coding experience. The program is entirely free for students who apply. 
  • Use their interest form here to get more detailed information!

 

Name: Harvey Mudd Future Achievers in Science and Technology (FAST)

  • Link: hmc.edu/admission/fast/how-to-apply/ 
  • Usually Takes Place: (2 Sessions) Two days in late September or two days in late October
  • Application Usually Due: Early August Before the Program Takes Place  
  • Description: All-expenses-paid opportunity to explore the future of STEM at Harvey-Mudd College with students and professors from the University. Intended for, “high-achieving, college-bound high school seniors who demonstrate strong potential to leave a meaningful impact within the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Strong emphasis on the experiences of communities that are historically excluded from STEM, including but not limited to women, Black, Indigenous, or Latinx, students from low-income backgrounds, rural backgrounds, students with disabilities, and students who are first-generation to college.”

 

Name: Dartmouth Bound

  • Link: admissions.dartmouth.edu/visit/visitation-programs/dartmouth-bound-summer-program 
  • Usually Takes Place: Mid-July
  • Application Usually Spans: Sometime in Spring to Late May – (Can join mailing list at link for more specific deadlines) 
  • Description: All expenses paid fly-in program for high school students to experience college life at Dartmouth and network with Dartmouth faculty. Offers students workshops and tours through the Dartmouth Admissions office with emphasis on helping students from underrepresented backgrounds prepare for college. 

 

Name: Girls Who Code; Summer Immersion Program (SIP) and Pathways 

  • Link: GWC Summer Programs Page
  • Usually Takes Place: June through August (Sessions Vary between the two Programs – Click here for a chart that compares the two programs in more detail)
  • Application Usually Spans: Early January to Late February for Early Appliations, and Early January to Mid April for General Applications 
  • Description: Virtual Summer Coding Programs for those who identify as female or non-binary to get exposure with coding projects that cover different concepts from game development and cybersecurity to web development and data science. Allows participants to receive grants as well as certifications before attending college. 

 

Name: Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS) – (Virginia Residents*)

  • Link: vsgc.odu.edu/vasts/ 
  • Usually Takes Place: December into the following summer with 3 Week-Long In-person sessions either in Late June, Mid-July, or Late July.
  • Application Usually Spans: Mid-August to Late October
  • Description: Program for high school juniors and seniors in Virginia to explore STEM with NASA. Students first apply to the program in the fall, take a free online course from December into May, and then depending on their performance in the course, are invited to one of three week-long sessions at the Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia.

 

Name: Welch Summer Scholar Program – (Texas Residents*)

  • Link: wssptx.org/ 
  • Usually Takes Place: 5-Weeks from Early June to Mid-July
  • Application Usually Spans: January to Mid-March
  • Description: Program for sophomores and juniors in Texas to get exposure to chemistry based research. Allows students to spend 5 weeks at 1 of 5 participating Texas universities while conducting their own independent projects with guidance from the faculty. School’s the students can stay at include: The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas at Arlington, The University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Houston, and Texas Tech University.

 

Name:  Research Science Institute (RSI):

  • Link: cee.org/programs/apply-rsi
  • Usually Takes Place: 6 weeks from late June to early August in the summer before your senior year
  • Application Usually Spans: Late October to mid-December the year prior to the program
  • Description: Program for high school juniors to conduct research with mentors at MIT for five weeks during the summer. The program guides students in reading current literature, developing a research plan, and delivering oral reports on their findings during their stay at the institute. Entirely cost-free to students who attend. 

 

Name: University of Wisconsin-Madison Engineering Summer Program (ESP)

  • Link: engineering.wisc.edu/engineering-summer-program/
  • Usually Takes Place: Three Weeks from mid-July to early August
  • Application Usually Spans: Sometime in winter to early March
  • Description: Free 3-week educational program held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Students in the program get to stay on campus and learn topics in Pre-Calculus/Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering Design. Students also participate in a number of workshops with faculty to learn about professional development, college admissions, and campus life. Industrial site visits are also offered at companies like GE Healthcare and Rockwell Automation.

 

 

Check out more extracurricular programs here (these programs are not guaranteed to be free, though you can adjust the search filter to only display programs that are.)

 

 

Scholarship Opportunities:

Being able to afford college is something everyone considers when application season comes around. But money should never be something that prevents you from going to a school you love, so this section features a number of programs, resources, and lists to scholarship applications that can help you pay for college. And to make it easy to find more scholarships I’ve also included links to two large directories for scholarship programs right here since finding scholarships is usually the hardest part in applying for them:

Large Directory of Scholarship Opportunities from College Board:

Large Directory of Scholarship Opportunities from Scholarship America:

 

Name: Questbridge ♥

  • Link: questbridge.org/
  • Application Usually Spans: July before your senior year to mid-September
  • Description: QuestBridge is an amazing program (I’m very biased because QuestBridge is how I applied to MIT) that helps low-income and minority students get matched to over 50 top universities with full four-year scholarships. The program essentially offers high school seniors an application to discuss their historical background and any hardships they may have faced in the past and then discuss how they feel college will help them achieve their goals in the future despite those hardships. Students who apply then get told whether they are selected as a finalist later in the fall and from there get to rank up to 15 of the 52 universities that Questbridge partners with to get their application forwarded to. The program is a great way for students from underrepresented groups to get into some top universities in the US. Learn more about how Questbridge works in general here or specifically with MIT admissions here.

 

Name: Gates Foundation Scholarship

  • Link: thegatesscholarship.org/scholarship 
  • Application Usually Spans: Mid-July before your senior year to mid-September.
  • Description: Full-ride scholarship opportunity for students from minority ethnic groups and low-income backgrounds. Also provides students with professional support throughout their college career. 

 

Name: LinkedIn Possibilities in Tech Scholarship

  • Link: careers.linkedin.com/pathways-programs/possibilities-scholarship
  • Application Usually Spans: December of your senior year through the following February
  • Description: Scholarship program that offers recipients $40,000 ($10,000 per academic year) to pay towards educational expenses in college. Geared towards students who plan on pursuing a Computer Science or Programming Related Major and either come from an underrepresented background or have shown demonstrated commitment towards supporting those from said backgrounds. Offers monthly mentoring resources and year-round programming during recipients’ college careers.

 

Name: Amazon Future Engineers

  • Link: scholarshipamerica.org/amazonfutureengineer/  
  • Application Usually Spans: Early November to mid-December
  • Description: Scholarship opportunity that grants students both a $40,000 scholarship ($10,000 per academic year) and a chance to intern at Amazon during the summer. Geared towards computer science and engineering majors. 

 

Name: Jackie Robinson Scholarship

  • Link: jackierobinson.org/apply/
  • Application Usually Spans: September of your senior year into early January
  • Description: $35,000 Scholarship for minority students that also offers college mentorship, conferences, and internship opportunities to selected recipients. 

 

Name: Ron Brown Scholarship

  • Link: ronbrown.org/ron-brown-scholarship/
  • Application Usually Spans: September of your senior year into early December
  • Description: Scholarship program that offers recipients $40,000 ($10,000 per academic year) to pay towards educational expenses in college. Geared towards African American students with additional guidance and mentorship provided throughout college.

 

Name: Generation Google Scholarship

 

Name: Taco Bell Scholarship

  • Link: tacobellfoundation.org/live-mas-scholarship/
  • Application Usually Spans: Early November to early January
  • Description: Scholarship that only requires students to make a 2-minute video talking about their passions and goals that can make an impact in the world. Requires no test scores or grades and offers students scholarship amounts from $5,000 to $25,000.

 

Name: Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship

  • Link: jkcf.org/our-scholarships/ 
  • Application Usually Spans: Late August your senior year to mid-November.
  • Description: Scholarship that offers up to $55,000 per year for recipients based on their academic progress. Also provides recipients with access to a network of other scholarship recipients with advising provided throughout their college career.

 

Name: Thrive Scholars

  • Link: thrivescholars.org/
  • Application Usually Spans: September to December of your junior year
  • Description: Highly personalized six-year college and career success program designed to support students on their journey from high school into high-trajectory careers. Also provides students with a laptop, annual $1000 stipend, and 2 six-week summer prep programs.

Free Digital Tools:

 

Name: Notion (Productivity)

  • Link: notion.com/ 
  • Description: Great tool for organizing your life, classes, or projects with different modular pages. Features a ton of templates to help you get started and you can usually find a lot of YouTube tutorials to help you get over the learning curve.

 

Name: Toggl Track (Productivity) 

  • Link: toggl.com/ 
  • Description: Great tool for tracking time spent on something you need to log hours for or for helping you with time management.

 

Name: Tiny Wow Tools (Dealing with Files)

  • Link: tinywow.com/tools
  • Description: Ever had an issue with a website saying your file was too large? Or it needed something in a specific file format? This website provides a wide variety of conversions to help you compress, convert, or merge your files for whatever reason you need. 

 

Name: Canva (Graphics)

  • Link: canva.com/ 
  • Description: An amazing free resource for creating graphics, illustrations, posters, flyers, and slideshows.

 

Name: Figma (Graphics and Design) ♥

  • Link: figma.com/ 
  • Description: Free online resource that does almost everything for 2D design (Like Canva but better). Website prototyping, slideshows, notes, fliers, posters, mental maps, whiteboards, you name it, Figma can help you with it. The most versatile graphic tool that I use almost every day – available online, as a desktop app, and as a mobile app.

 

Name: Blender (3D Modeling) 

  • Link: blender.org/ 
  • Description: Free 3D design tool for learning 3D design and animation. Great for learning how to make models of products, create characters for games, or just help visualize different objects in 3D. The many buttons and features can be scary at first but there’s an ocean of YouTube tutorials for doing almost anything in Blender. 

 

Name: Spline 3D (3D Modeling) 

  • Link: spline.design/ 
  • Description: Free online-based 3D design tool that makes it easier to design more free-form objects. A little easier to use than Blender and great for artistic and creative work

 

Name: VSCode (Coding Editor)

  • Link: code.visualstudio.com/download 
  • Description: Pretty much the default place for editing code in any language on your machine. Free to download, and billions of videos online to help you learn. 

 

Name: Trinket (Coding Editor)

  • Link: trinket.io/ 
  • Description: Online code editor for people who want a place to start exploring code. Offers free coding environments for Python, Java, R, and HTML that helps you see what gets outputted when you write code. Another great place to start your coding journey. 

 

Name: Unsplash (Open Source Image Library)

  • Link: unsplash.com/ 
  • Description: Perfect website to get free, high-quality photos that you can use for any project or slideshow under the Unsplash license (In other words you can use the photos on their website for public, educational, or commercial projects without having to pay someone or ask permission – though credit is usually nice)

 

Name: Pixabay (Open Source Asset Library)

  • Link: pixabay.com/ 
  • Description: Great website for getting access to free Photos, Videos, Music, Sound Effects, GIFs, and Vectors that are provided under the Pixabay License (Similar to Unsplash, just with more types of content)

 

Name: Krita (Photo editing)

  • Link: krita.org/en/
  • Description: Free photo-editing alternative to Photoshop that offers almost the same plethora of features that Photoshop does. Great place to develop photo editing skills, create digital art, or simply remove the background for a photo (though remove.bg is also a pretty good website if you want a quick background removal). 

 

Name: Desmos and Desmos 3D (Online Graphing)

  • Link: (2D) desmos.com/calculator and (3D) desmos.com/3d 
  • Description: Two great websites to help you graph equations in 2D or 3D to get a better understanding of how different math functions work or just picture things on math homework if you can’t afford a personal graphing calculator. 

 

Additional Opportunities

Now the goal of this blog was to list things that were entirely free to partake in/apply to, though when I reached out to students, there were a number of programs mentioned that were not necessarily free but offered substantial financial aid for students with demonstrated need. So this is a list of those programs:

List of some summer programs offered by Boston University in addition to PROMYS

List of Fly-In Programs that focus on underrepresented groups

 

 

And of course, there are many things out there that I can’t fit in a single blog post, so while I plan an update to this post sometime in the future, I highly encourage you to keep exploring the internet for opportunities and websites that excite you. Because the internet is huge and there’s always something new (and hopefully free) to be found out there.