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Mellon College of Science  ›  Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences  ›  Apply

Applying to PGSS

The 2026 PGSS program will run from June 21 through July 25.

Admission decisions for the 2026 program will be released in the afternoon of April 1.

Questions about the application can be sent to pgss-applications@andrew.cmu.edu 

Eligibility to Apply

  1. The applicant is a rising high school senior (having completed their junior year immediately prior to the start of the program)
  2. Be a resident of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Application Parts

The PGSS application consists of several parts including:
  • A personal information form
  • A summary of your science-related activities and awards
  • A summary of other activities and awards
  • A narrative essay introducing yourself and explaining why you want to participate in PGSS
  • A topical essay describing a significant influence on your interest in science or an achievement of which you are most proud
  • 2 letters of recommendation from teachers in the core subject areas of PGSS (biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, or physics). Each letter must be from teachers in different subject areas.
  • A letter of recommendation from your school counselor

 Application FAQs for Students

All parts of your application are due by January 31 11:59pm (EST). This includes teacher and counselor references.

References must come from two science teachers and your high school counselor. The science teachers can be from any of the core areas of PGSS (biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics), however only one teacher per subject area is allowed. 

The teacher references must be someone who taught you in a classroom setting.

Teachers of interdisciplinary coursework (e.g., physiology) may be a reference. However, you should not ask a teacher of a subject with significant overlap to be your second reference. For example, your two references should not be from a physiology teacher and from a biology teacher.

It is not uncommon for a school's email system and firewall to send automated emails (like those sent by our application portal) to SPAM or block them entirely. If you have entered your teacher's information and they have not received an email from us, please take the following steps:

  1. Confirm that you have entered their email address correctly in the application
  2. Ask your teacher to check their SPAM folder for the email
  3. Ask your teacher to email pgss-applications@andrew.cmu.edu to receive a direct email with instructions on how to submit a reference

You will not be able to submit your application until all parts of the application are complete. This includes the submission of references by your teachers and counselor. If your letter writers have yet to submit their references and the due date is approaching, you can politely remind them of the deadline. Note: You may switch each letter writer one time. If a teacher is no longer able to provide a reference, you can replace their information with a new teacher's information.

It also may be the case that you have accidentally left part of your application incomplete. Be sure that you have provided complete information for all sections of the application. Note: if you are not including information for activities or awards, you need to check the box indicating that and save the change.

Occasionally the host site for the application portal resets to UTC time after an update. If we are unable to manually change the system preferences before you submit, your timestamp will appear in UTC time (EST +5 hours). However, the correct information on the time of your submission is recorded.

Helpful Hints

In order to fully assess your scientific aptitude and potential, the PGSS application is fairly comprehensive and takes time to completely fill out. We recommend you start the process sooner rather than later!

Remember, when asking a teacher or counselor for a letter of recommendation, you should always give them 2-4 weeks notice before the application deadline. Polite reminders one week before the deadline are generally considered appropriate. 

Incomplete applications on February 1 - including those that are only missing a letter of recommendation - cannot be considered for review. It is a good idea to double check that your application has been fully submitted.

If you or your letter writers have any questions about the application process or your specific application, please reach out to pgss-applications@andrew.cmu.edu

Application FAQs for Teachers and Counselors

When your student adds your name and email address to their application, you will automatically and immediately receive an email from "applications@pgsscampaign.org" with instructions for submitting a reference. The subject line will read "[PGSS] <Student Name> has requested a recommendation from you". If you have not received such an email, please check your SPAM folder.

It is also not uncommon for schools' firewalls to block automatically generated emails completely. If this is the case, please reach out to pgss-applications@andrew.cmu.edu and we will be able to directly send you the necessary information.

No. Once you have submitted your recommendation, it cannot be changed.

If there is an egregious error in your recommendation, please contact pgss-applications@andrew.cmu.edu and explain the issue.

All parts of the application, including references are due by January 31 11:59pm (EST). This includes the student portion of the application and references. In order to allow for timely and equitable review of the applications, we cannot provide extensions to this deadline.