14 Best Summer Research Programs for High School Students
If you’re a high school student and are interested in going beyond classroom learning, you should definitely consider applying to a summer research program. Having research experience can prove to be a significant point of differentiation in your college applications, and participating in one at your dream college can improve your chances even more.
Summer research programs will give you the hands-on experience you need while allowing you to take your learning to the next level with research projects and networking opportunities. These opportunities are highly selective and geared towards attracting talented high schoolers like you!
To help you get started, we have compiled a list of the 14 best summer research programs for high schoolers interested in various fields!
Application Deadline: Varying deadlines based on cohort. Main summer deadlines are March 15, April 15, and May 15
Duration: Options range from 12 weeks to 1 year.
Location: Remote — you can participate in this program from anywhere in the world!
Eligibility:
You must be currently enrolled in high school
Students must demonstrate a high level of academic achievement. (Note. students have an unweighted GPA of 3.3 out of 4)
No previous knowledge of your field of interest is required!
Program Dates: The summer cohort runs from June to August, the Fall cohort from September to December, the Winter cohort from December to February, Spring from March to June
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous research program tailored for high school students. The program offers extensive 1-on-1 research opportunities for high school students, across a broad range of subject areas that you can explore as a high schooler.
The program pairs high-school students with Ph.D. mentors to work 1-on-1 on an independent research project. At the end of the 12-week program, you’ll have developed an independent research paper! You can choose research topics from subjects such as psychology, physics, economics, data science, computer science, engineering, chemistry, international relations, and more. You can find more details about the application here.
2. Veritas AI - AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase
Veritas AI focuses on providing high school students who are passionate about the field of AI a suitable environment to explore their interests. The programs include collaborative learning, project development, and 1-on-1 mentorship. These programs are designed and run by Harvard graduate students and alumni and you can expect a great, fulfilling educational experience. Students are expected to have a basic understanding of Python or are recommended to complete the AI scholars program before pursuing the fellowship.
The AI Fellowship program will have students pursue their independent AI research projects. Students work on their research projects over 15 weeks and can opt to combine AI with any other field of interest. In the past, students have worked on research papers in the fields of AI & medicine, AI & finance, AI & environmental science, AI & education, and more! You can find examples of previous projects here.
Location: Virtual
Cost:
$2,290 for the 10-week AI Scholars program
$5,400 for the 15-week AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase
$6,900 for both
Need-based financial aid is available for AI Scholars. You can apply here.
Application deadline: On a rolling basis. Winter cohort deadline - December 1, 2024
Program dates: Various according to the cohort
Program selectivity: Moderately selective
Eligibility: Ambitious high school students located anywhere in the world. AI Fellowship applicants should either have completed the AI Scholars program or exhibit experience with AI concepts or Python.
Application Requirements: Online application form, answers to a few questions about the student's background & coding experience, math courses, and areas of interest.
Horizon offers trimester-long research programs for high school students across subject areas such as data science, machine learning, political theory, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, and more! It is one of the very few research programs for high school students that offers a choice between quantitative and qualitative research!
Once you select a particular subject track and type of research you’ll be paired with a professor or Ph.D. scholar (from a top university) who will mentor you throughout your research journey. You’ll work to create a 20-page, university-level research paper that you can send to prestigious journals for publication as a high school student.
This program is a solid opportunity for you to pursue a research program in highly specialized fields, under the guidance of a top scholar. The program also provides a letter of recommendation for each student, as well as detailed project feedback that you can use to work on future projects and on college applications. Apply here!
Location: Virtual
Application Date: May 21, 2024 for the summer cohort, and September 25, 2024 for the fall cohort
Program Dates:
Summer seminar - June 24, 2024 - September 2, 2024
Fall seminar - October 23, 2024 - February 19, 2025
Lab dates are flexible, but you must apply 4 weeks in advance.
Eligibility: High school students with good academic standing (>3.67/4.0 GPA) can apply. Most accepted students are 10th/11th graders! Only a couple of tracks require formal prerequisites, more details of which can be found here.
Ladder Internships is a selective start-up internship program for ambitious high school students! In the program, you work with a high-growth start-up on an internship. Start-ups that offer internships range across a variety of industries from tech/deep tech, and AI/ML to health tech, marketing, journalism, consulting, and more. You can explore all the options here on their application form. Ladder’s start-ups are high-growth companies on average raising over a million dollars. Past founders have included YCombinator alums, founders raising over 30 million dollars, or founders who previously worked at Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. In the program, interns work closely with their managers and a Ladder Coach on real-world projects and present their work to the company. Here is the application form.
Interns are offered one-on-one training in communication, time management, and other such valuable skills and will also have the opportunity to attend group training sessions with other interns in their cohort. The virtual internship is usually 8 weeks long.
Cost: $2490 (Financial Aid Available)
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Application deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort
Program dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
The Young Founder’s Lab is a real-world start-up boot camp founded and run by Harvard entrepreneurs. In this program, you will work towards building a revenue-generating start-up that addresses a real-world problem. You will also have the opportunity to be mentored by established entrepreneurs and professionals from Google, Microsoft, and X.
Apart from building the start-up itself, you will also participate in interactive classes on business fundamentals and business ideations, workshops and skill-building sessions, case studies, panel discussions, and more.
The program is an excellent opportunity to delve into the world of business in high school and have a space to explore multiple theoretical as well as practical frameworks that lead to a successful business. You can check out the brochure for the program here.
Cost: The total cost to attend the 4-week program is $2900. There is need-based financial aid.
Location: This program is 100% virtual, with live, interactive workshops
Eligibility: The program is currently open to all high school students
Program Dates: The 2024 edition of the program starts on June 5th and spans over 4 weeks.
Application Deadline: There are 3 application deadlines that you can choose between:
Early Decision Deadline: March 17th, 2024
Regular Admission Deadline 1: April 14, 2024
Regular Admission Deadline 2: May 12th, 2023
You can access the application link here!
MIT's Women's Technology Program (WTP) is an intensive four-week summer academic experience introducing high school students to engineering through hands-on classes, labs, and team projects after their 11th-grade. The program is completely free with a mechanical engineering focus and looks to empower students with limited STEM access. You can expect to be introduced to topics such as fluid mechanics, statics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, and engineering design. The program is designed and taught by graduate students and assisted by undergraduate students at MIT.
Location: Massachusetts's Institute of Technology (MIT) campus
Cost: None
Program Dates: June 29, 2024, to July 26, 2024
Application Deadline: January 22
Eligibility: Female-identifying 11th-grade students
This two-week course at UC Berkeley allows students to familiarize themselves with teamwork, communications, presentations, creating a business plan, and research methods in a highly selective cohort of only 50 students. In addition to the program, students will also attend guest lectures, engage in social activities, and work in teams to create a business plan that they will present at the end of the course. As part of the program, they will also be able to interact with other UC Berkeley students.
Location: University of California (Berkeley) campus
Cost:
California resident tuition: $6,050
Out-of-state resident tuition: $7,050
Program Dates:
Session I: July 6 – July 20, 2024
Session II: July 20 – August 3, 2024
Application deadline: March 15, 2024
Eligibility: High school students
The Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR) is an eight-week opportunity that lets high school students with diverse experiences, interests, and backgrounds engage in research alongside Stanford faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and researchers. The program aims to boost interest in biological sciences and medicine among high school students and provides insight into the process of scientific research. Each year, about 50 students are accepted and participants are given a minimum stipend of $500. Participants are also allowed to choose from 8 research areas within the program.
Location: Stanford University campus
Cost: $40 application fee
Program Dates: June 10, 2024, to August 1, 2024
Application Deadline: February 24, 2024
Eligibility: All 3 of the following requirements must be met (no exceptions):
Students must currently be juniors or seniors at the time of application (as of the spring of 2024). Students must be in the graduating class of 2024 or 2025.
Students must also be 16 years old or older by the start of the program.
Students must currently be living in and attending school in the U.S. AND must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents with a green card in order to apply.
CS Scholars (CSS), part of the CS Pathways initiative, is a fully funded, 4-week immersive program at CMU for rising high school juniors. It is led by Carnegie Mellon faculty and researchers, and offers college-level courses, college prep seminars, and hands-on Python programming with a focus on problem-solving techniques. In this program, you can expect to learn algorithmic components, basic data structures and computational skills. Students will engage in a group project addressing real-world challenges using computer science and present their work at the end of the program. Beyond the program, students will get to interact with CMU faculty and industry leaders in the field of computer science.
Location: Carnegie Mellon campus
Cost: None
Program Dates: June 22, 2024, to July 20, 2024
Application Deadline: March 1, 2024
Eligibility: To be eligible for CS Scholars, students must:
Be 16 years old by the program start date.
Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Students who are registered with DACA are also eligible.
Be a sophomore in high school at the time of application submission.
The prestigious Spark Summer Internship Program matches high school students with industry experts, professors, and community leaders to introduce them to the idea of working on projects in the real world under their mentos. As part of the program, students take on research projects through their internship for a period of 8-12 weeks. In the new model that the program is adopting in 2024, the mentors will choose their preferred candidates for the internship and guide them through their research work. The program focuses on various STEM fields and prepares students for a potential career in scientific research.
Location: Depends on internship provider
Cost: To be announced
Program Dates: To be announced
Application Deadline: April (tentatively, based on previous years)
Eligibility: To be able to apply for SPARK SIP, you must:
Be in grades 9-12 during the current school year. Each internship project may have slightly different requirements, so make sure you check before applying!
Be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident. The program is not open to international students.
Be committed to full participation in a residential internship at the location specified by the sponsor. This may involve expenses above the program fees.
The Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC) program allows high school students to be a part of live research projects that enhance their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The program helps you partner with organizations such as Indian School of Democracy, World Resources Institute, Lung Care Foundation, Breakthrough, and Teach for India. This is the perfect summer research opportunity for students interested in working on issues across advocacy, gender, governance, public policy, public health, and environment.
Location: Virtual
Cost: INR 25,000 plus taxes
Program Dates: June 22, 2024, to July 21, 2024
Application Deadline: May 5, 2024
Eligibility: Current 10th, 11th and 12th grade students who are not more than 18 years old at the start of the program
PROMYS is a six-week residential math program that aims to build a deeper understanding and appreciation of mathematics among students. One of the salient features of the program is the opportunity that it offers to work alongside professional mathematicians on projects at the PROMYS-designed exploration labs. The research projects that students work on in small groups are a part of the concluding material that they present at the end of the program. This program is also partially funded by sponsors and explores topics such as number theory. You will be challenged and encouraged to develop your problem-solving and investigation skills.
Location: Boston University campus
Cost: $6,100
Program Dates: June 30, 2024, to August 10, 2024
Application Deadline: March 1, 2024
Eligibility: Students must satisfy ALL the following criteria by the first day of the program:
Be at least 14 years old
Have completed 9th grade (or its equivalent)
Not yet enrolled as a full-time college or university student
The Research Science Institute (RSI) provides students with a summer research initiative that is sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), and hosted at MIT. During this 6-week program, students participate in intensive STEM courses while working on their research projects. You will have the opportunity to work under esteemed scientists and get a hands-on understanding of the various components of a usual research cycle. You will also create a research project that you have the opportunity to present and publish at the end of the program.
Location: MIT campus
Cost: None
Program Dates: June 23, 2024, to August 3, 2024
Application Deadline: December 13 (tentatively, based on previous years)
Eligibility: Current 11th grade students
The University of Chicago's Research in the Biological Sciences (RIBS) program is a rigorous four-week pre-college summer initiative designed to introduce students to diverse research methods in molecular biology, microbiology, and cellular biology. The primary focus of the program is hands-on lab work and projects, although they are supplemented by lectures that are included in the curriculum. At the end of the program, students have the opportunity to present their individual projects.
Location: The University of Chicago campus
Cost: $14,000
Program Dates: June 15, 2024, to July 13, 2024
Application Deadline: January 18 (tentatively, based on previous years)
Eligibility: Current 10th or 11th grade students
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.
Image Source: University of Chicago logo