No! Project Polaris is an international non-profit organization very similar to a college club or a student organization with the great difference of an international and professional aspect.

The organization and application process of the program are completely free. Program participants are only expected to cover the individual expenses associated to those events in which they want to participate, e.g., the Action Stage in Costa Rica or Presentation Stage in France. The financial team will continue to raise funds to cover the costs of the technical project, some activities, and potentially create scholarships.

Project Polaris’ official language is English and so to join you need be proficient in both written and spoken English. If you have any standardized English test, we highly encourage you to upload it in your application. Your level of English will be however evaluated during an interview as well as in your written essays. In practice however, Polaris is home of many other languages!

Yes! The program is entirely online, but we would love to have you join the others in Costa Rica and Paris. None of the events are interdependent of each other. You can participate in the building and testing of the Advanced Program without problem even if you did not come to Costa Rica for the Basic Program.

Yes! College students and and young professionals are welcome. Participating in our exchange programs is optional and most of the work will be done online, so you can still enjoy the program while working.

The Advanced Program requires a high level of commitment. The workload is going depend on the subteam you are in and your role. Since the 2021-2022 cohort will be big, it will be easy to share the workload with your teammates.

The first edition of Project Polaris will last about 25 months once applicants are accepted. It is composed of two parts, the Basic Program and the Advanced Program, each of them lasting about a year each.