FAQ: 2026 Summer at the Royal Institution, Mayfair 
 

Who organises the programme?
- Echelonian is run by current students at the London School of Economics with professors and tutors from other top universities.

How does the application process work?
- Students should make an application (which can be found at the bottom of this page). Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview within two weeks of making an application, and successful candidates will attend our in-person seminars.

How are you different from Oxford Royale or CCIR programmes?
- Most other research programmes put a PhD student on a Zoom call.

We fly professors across the pond when needed. We work exclusively with professors from top US and UK universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, Yale, UCLA, Caltech, UPenn and Stanford. The people teaching you are the same people whose papers you'll be reading at university. Oxford Royale and CCIR are built for Oxbridge applications. We're built specifically for ivy applications. Top US universities (on their website) explicitly say original research is one of the strongest things you can bring to an application. You get 30 contact hours of working with a top professor on a real problem in their field, in person, in London and produce your own research paper. Students who perform well in our programs are also eligible to receive a letter of recommendation directly from the professor who taught them. For most A-level students applying to US universities, that's completely out of reach. We make it all possible.

 

What's the timeline for the London Summer Programme?
- The in-person component of the program runs from July 1 to July 10, 2026. 
 

How do classes work?
- Our courses are designed to a very high standard. We've given our  professors complete freedom to design their courses exactly as they would for their own university students. You'll attend daily classes with your professor and have an academic tutor available throughout to answer questions. All required readings are provided when you enroll.​ After the first few classes, students form research groups to work on a paper together.
 

You may conduct independent research if you prefer, but we generally do not recommend it. Research is time-intensive, and working in a group tends to be more effective. You are not expected to complete your paper by the end of the program, but you are expected to present your findings (even if rudimentary) in the form of a short presentation to your peers and your professor at the Royal Institution on the last day of the programme. The research draft is due two weeks later, on July 24, 2026 (BST). Your professor will then host a class to discuss each paper and identify areas for improvement. The final paper is due one week later, on August 1, 2026 (BST). Upon final submission—whether as a group or individually—you will receive a report from the professor that includes your grade.
 

Does every student get a letter of recommendation?
- Only top performing students (Grade A or above in their research) are able to request a letter of recommendation from the professor who supervised their research. In practice, most of our students meet this requirement.

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