Find the programs, competitions and research worth your time. Track every deadline. Write the applications in one place.
Summer programs, competitions and research matched to what you're into and how you like to work — then a place to track the deadlines and write the applications. Not another list to scroll.
No signup. About two minutes. Free while it’s in beta — and your workspace is never metered.
Paid programs with real financial aid still show up under "free."
Pick at least one interest first.
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We store your email and the programs you picked. Nothing else — no essays, no account, no password.
All 214, if you'd rather look around yourself.
Groundwork is not charging anyone right now. Everything on this site works, costs nothing, and needs no account. There is no payment form because there is nothing to pay for yet.
Every part of the product, open to anyone, with no signup.
The strongest applicants aren't always the strongest students. They're the ones whose families knew which programs existed, which deadlines mattered, and what each summer was for. That knowledge is expensive. It shouldn't be.
Grade, interests, budget, location, goals. That's the whole setup, and it stays on your own device.
Summer programs, research, competitions, and internships matched to the profile — each one stamped likely, match, or reach. No fantasy lists.
Deadline reminders and one concrete action at a time for the student, so nothing quietly slips past.
| Groundwork | Private consultant | School counselor | Free lists online | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personalized program matches | ● Always current | ● Manual | — Rarely | ◐ Generic |
| Deadline tracking + reminders | ● Automatic | ◐ If you call | — | — |
| Weekly action plan | ● | ● | — | — |
| Honest odds per program | ● Scored | ◐ Varies | — | — |
| Cost | Free | $300/hr · $20K–80K packages | Free · ~400:1 ratio | Free · you do everything |
Groundwork launches to a small first cohort this fall. Parents get priority.
One email when your cohort opens. No spam, ever.
Drag a program between columns, or drag a folder up here from your roadmap below. On a phone, tap a card and it moves to the next column.
The programs you picked, each with its deadline and its essays. Saved in this browser only — never on our servers. Switching devices? Download a backup first.
Paste an application essay and get the kind of read a counselor gives — what's working, what isn't, and the questions to answer in your next draft.
Pick one and the feedback is judged against that program, not essays in general.
Editing — your highlights stay put. Rewrite a highlighted bit and its note will mark itself as changed.
Most students send twenty near-identical emails and hear nothing. The ones who get a reply usually sent three, and spent an hour on each. Here's the method, and the emails.
Read the faculty page and find someone whose actual current work interests you — not whose title sounds impressive. Five is right. Twenty means you aren't reading anything.
Everyone skips this and it's the step that decides whether you get a reply. Google Scholar, their name, something from the last two years. You don't need the statistics — you need the question they asked, what they found, and one thing that surprised you. That note is the foundation of the whole email.
This is where most templates fail.
If your subject line would work for any professor in the department, rewrite it.
One: the connection — name the paper and the one thing that caught you. Two: who you are — name, grade, school, and only the background relevant to their work. Not your GPA. Three: a specific small ask, with the hours you can actually commit.
Mid-semester, not the first or last two weeks. Tuesday to Thursday morning. Three to four months before you want to start — so January to March for a summer spot.
Ten to fourteen days later, as a reply to your own email so the original is attached. Two sentences. If they don't reply to that, they aren't going to — and silence usually means no funding or no bench space, not a judgement about you.
Most emails get no reply. That's the normal outcome, not a failure. Five careful emails beat fifty copied ones and take about the same total time. And a "no" often comes with something useful — another name, a program you hadn't heard of, an offer to talk in the autumn. Reply and thank them either way.
LAST UPDATED 10 AUGUST 2026
Groundwork is built and run by one high-school student in San Francisco. It is not a company. If you want anything explained or removed, email help.trygroundwork.app@gmail.com.
These are stored in your browser using localStorage. They are not sent anywhere, and no one else can read them — not even me:
Clearing your browser data deletes all of it permanently. There is no backup, because there is no server copy.
Three features need an AI model to read your text. Each one sends only what that feature needs, only at the moment you press the button, and keeps nothing afterwards.
| When you do this | What is sent |
|---|---|
| Ask for essay feedback, a grammar check, a re-read, or a rewrite of one passage | The draft you pasted, your note about it, and the name of the program you picked |
| Answer the interview questions | Your answers so far — grade, interests, budget, location, what you’re looking for |
| Ask a follow-up question about your results | Your question and your match profile |
That text is held in memory for the length of a single request and is then gone. It is not written to any database, log or file. It is not attached to your name, because your name is never asked for.
No analytics, advertising or tracking cookies are running on this site.
Groundwork is built for high-school students and is not intended for children under 13. Please don’t use it. If you believe a child under 13 has entered information here, email the address above and it will be deleted.
If the way Groundwork handles information changes — for instance if accounts are ever added — this page will be updated before that change goes live, and the date at the top will change with it.
Every date on this site is either marked as confirmed or clearly labelled as a typical past pattern. Only a small number of programs have published their next cycle, and Groundwork says which ones on the card. Always check the program’s official page before you rely on any date here. Programs change their rules, dates and eligibility without telling anyone, and Groundwork is not responsible for a missed deadline.
Groundwork is a research and organisation tool. It is not a counsellor, not an admissions consultant, and not a guarantee of anything. Being matched to a program is not a prediction that you will get in.
It gives feedback on writing you already did. It will not write an essay for you, and it will rewrite only a passage you point it at, using only facts you supplied. Anything you submit to a program must be your own work, and every program’s own rules about outside help apply to you.
Groundwork is free right now and nothing on it can be bought. If a paid tier is ever added, it will be announced clearly and the student tier will remain free.
This is an early product run by one person. It can break, change or go offline. Keep your own copy of anything you would be upset to lose.