Parents looking to keep their kids busy during summer — and keep them learning or physically active — have plenty of options at Minnesota’s private colleges. From sports to music to culture camps, there’s something to appeal to almost any young person. Many are offered every year. And for colleges, it’s a chance to share what makes them unique and serve the community.

Note: Applications for some camps are due as early as February or March.

Augsburg University
Summer camp offerings include athletic programs in distance running, football, volleyball, wrestling and lacrosse as well as the Minnesota Debate and Advocacy Workshop, Augsburg University Youth Theology Institute, Metro/Augsburg High School Scrubs Day Camp and Minnesota High School Mathematics League

Bethany Lutheran College
A wide variety of camps are offered at Bethany including athletics, archaeology, law, music, eSports and more.

Bethel University
Summer camp offerings include athletic and academic camps with daytime and overnight options.

Carleton College
The Carleton Summer Liberal Arts Institute is a summer learning community for high school sophomores and juniors dedicated to bridging the gap between K-12 and a liberal arts undergraduate education. Offering programs in applied sustainability, art, computer science, humanities, and quantitative reasoning..

College of Saint Benedict
Athletic camps, Upper Midwest String Camp and Athena Music and Leadership Camp

The College of St. Scholastica
Prairie Fire Theatre Camp, various athletic camps and a Youth Theology Institute

Concordia College, Moorhead
Concordia Language Villages offer cultural immersion programs in 15 languages. Concordia College hosts the Minnesota All-State Lutheran Choir camps and Minnesota All-State Bands camps.

Concordia University, St. Paul
Building Cultural Bridges Camp for 20 different languages and cultures of youth and music theatre camp.

Gustavus Adolphus College
Athletic camps include show basketball and leadership, tennis, golf, baseball, women's hockey, swimming and more.

Hamline University
Hamline University offers five annual summer camps for high school students: Mock Trial Camp, Numbers Rule Boot Camp, Young Writers Workshop, and two physics camps—Innovation Camp and Renewable Energy Camp. Students gain experience in the camp topic, meet peers with similar interests, and sample college life! Registration is limited. Scholarships are available.

Macalester College
Academic programs are offered by the Minnesota Institute for Talented Youth (MITY). Also offered is [email protected] (Pre-College Residential Experience at Macalester), a free four-day immersion into the college experience designed specifically for Minnesota high school students graduating in 2022. Macalester is looking for bright, motivated students from backgrounds that have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education (e.g., students of color and/or first generation to college).

Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Innovative, hands-on art and design camps and classes for kids and teens as well as a two-week residential Pre-College Art and Design program in July for 10th-12th graders.

Saint John’s University
Athletic camps

Saint Mary’s University
Summer camp offerings include a dance intensive program, FCA youth sports camp, men's soccer camp, hockey camp, cross country camp, track and field camp, a strings festival and a ceramics class.

St. Catherine University
Wildcat Athletics sports camps, Get After It (an overnight training camp for 7th–12th graders hosted by Olympic runner Carrie Tollefson) and First Step Summer Institute (a college immersion experience for young women of color in 10th and 11th grade)

St. Olaf College
Summer camp offerings chess, music, dance, swimming, diving, theater, volleyball and soccer camps.

University of St. Thomas
Summer camp offerings include athletic camps, journalism camp and Science, Technology, & Engineering Preview Summer (STEPS) Camp for Girls. High school juniors and seniors can earn college credits while taking advantage of 50% off summer undergrad classes.