The Pioneer Research Program: Created to Guide You to Your Full Potential
Pioneer Academics’ virtual research program guides passionate learners to discover and achieve their true potential through the creation of original research that matters.
Widely respected for our academic standards, we are the first and only fully-accredited online research program for high school students.
We believe that transformational and inspired learning is sparked through tapping into a learner’s passions with rigor in academic approach, problem-solving, and knowledge creation.
Through our programs, Pioneer actively collaborates with both the learner and the ecosystem of educators and academic institutions to create truly life-changing experiences.
Pioneer is the only program that teaches and adheres to the highest possible global standards for creating original research.
We provide faculty oversight to ensure these standards are met consistently.
Pioneer is the only research program with third-party oversight, provided in collaboration with Oberlin College. This shared responsibility includes independent full-spectrum reviews, which consistently demonstrate that Pioneer is meeting and exceeding undergraduate academic standards.
Pioneer is the only fully-accredited online college research program for high school students — earning college credits with your research.
Academics only: No test prep, college consulting, or other “premium” packages – this is about academic rigor and research.
Commitment to Social Mission: We are committed to meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need for all admitted scholars where need can be assessed.
Independent Grading: Grading is done by faculty based on uniform guidelines set by Pioneer, calibrated to undergraduate-level standards.
23 Pioneer alumni, from 14 countries across six continents, came together on their own to create a film shares the Pioneer spirit with incoming Pioneer scholars.
Pioneer alumni Catherine Kwon, from the U.S., and Reymajan Jumaniyazova, from Turkmenistan, initiated the project. They wanted to capture the vibrant, global, passionate atmosphere of the Pioneer community and welcome the newest scholars to the program.
Pioneer collaborates with Oberlin’s Educational Plans and Policies Committee to conduct academic quality control. Pioneer upholds rigorous policies and procedures that include:
Year of 2021 as an example: 4256 Students applied; 1178 Students enrolled
Countries and regions represented in one year: 48
Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Canada, China, Columbia, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, China-Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Rwanda, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, China-Taiwan, Tanzania, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe
While our challenging program is never an easy “A”, our scholars typically thrive and excel.
Faculty grade according to uniform standards and are subject to our oversight system to guarantee fairness and parity.
Pioneer Research Program grade distribution for 2022 (program grade and number ofstudents who received it):
The Pioneer Research Program is the world’s only college-accredited online research program for high school students. It offers research opportunities in STEM, social sciences, and humanities disciplines with 30 research areas.
Pioneer Academics collaborates with Oberlin College to develop research standards and to administer oversight. Each student’s work and the mentoring faculty’s mentorship are subject to rigorous review.
This means your paper will meet the highest standard for high school students conducting research. As a result, you receive college credits with no extra steps required and Pioneer certifies the quality of your work.
The Pioneer alumni network is a powerful resource for intellectually curious high school students. Since 2012 Pioneer scholars have moved on to the best colleges and universities and then became engineers, computer scientists, business leaders, entrepreneurs and PHds.
Pioneer scholars benefit from the support of this network throughout their research journey with Pioneer, during college and after graduation while pursuing careers.
Since 2012, Pioneer scholars have moved on to pursue their studies at the best colleges and universities in the world. Many are now engineers, computer scientists, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and PhDs.
Pioneer scholars benefit from the support of this network throughout their research journey with Pioneer, during college, and beyond as they pursue careers.
Pioneer alumni support each other while they are in colleges and universities, Check Pioneer-on-campus program.
Pioneer grants scholars extensive access to undergraduate digital libraries, including academic journals, academic databases, digital music and art libraries, and over 100,000 e-books.
Pioneer enables our scholars who conduct human subject research to request an IRB waiver, allowing for its approval through Oberlin’s IRB.
Pioneer offers scholars interactive seminars on research methodologies to prepare them to conduct original research.
Pioneer scholars work with cohort advisors in addition to their professor mentors. Advisors provide a secondary level of mentorship, answer questions and support students to achieve their best.
The writing center helps students improve their writing and argumentation. Based on our alumni’s feedback, this is one of their favorite learning experiences at Pioneer. They learned a lot by revising their papers following the writing center’s comments for improvement.
The material I deliver to these high school students is exactly the same as in my college classes. For example, we use Arend Lijphart’s Patterns of Democracy, the same text I use in my comparable upper-division Rice seminar. I take a subset of the modules from my Rice course for juniors and seniors and use it with my high schoolers.
“When Pioneer actually provides a written evaluation inside of an application, they provide a lot of information so you understand the program, you understand what is behind it, you understand the accreditation that comes from behind it, the rigor, that there is an evaluation rubric.”
“Thank you for erasing the socioeconomic barrier and making us part of your educational community and the community of young, bold scientists. We thank you for giving our students tools, mentorship and rigor to explore various research interests, question existing scientific findings, and generate and work on their ideas.”
“As a counselor to students of varied backgrounds and heritages, I have no doubt that the quality of the individual mentorship that Pioneer Academics provides to all its students is one of the most unique, valuable and high-quality activities any high school student can enjoy.”
“Former Pioneer scholar Kennedy would never have considered her dream to earn a PhD in computer science had she not participated in Pioneer, which she learned about through A Better Chance. Kennedy is now working towards her undergraduate degree at Columbia.”
President & CEO, A Better Chance
Learn About Pioneer’s Unique Program And Tuition Details