In the aftermath of World War II, philanthropic bodies, transnational organizations, and the US government embarked on numerous modernization and development projects around the globe. This period also witnessed the restructuring of the scientific institutions of many countries under the influence of not only the US, but organizations such as UNESCO and OECD. Many scholars argue that while the US was not their sole initiator, such projects produced “Americanized” institutions of science, especially in Europe. In this paper I explore how these currents impacted Turkey, analyze the extent to which American models influenced institutional change in this country, and argue that the “Americanization” narrative is too simplistic for understanding this multivalent process. Between 1950 and 1970 countless American experts visited Turkey, and science was one of the key areas on which they focused. Funded in particular by US philanthropic organizations, these experts helped found a high school of science, a new research university, and a national science agency. Based on archival documents, I show that these experts did indeed consider that Turkish scientific institutions should no longer be organized around European models, and resemble American institutions instead. According to these experts, science could improve in Turkey only if new scientists with new attitudes could be produced, which, in turn, implied that educational institutions were of fundamental importance. I focus particularly on the “science high school” project, and using archival documents as a guide, trace the history of the establishment of this institution which was officially opened in 1964. I discuss the goals and experiences of the representatives of the Ford Foundation who helped initiate this process, the role of the experts from US universities who took part in the project, as well as the way the project was perceived and represented in Turkey. In the end, the American experts would characterize the outcome of the “science high school” project as unsatisfactory at best while the Turkish side saw it as highly successful. American experts saw their mission as above politics, yet their experiences in Turkey showed them how thoroughly political it actually was.