10 Online Medical Internships for High School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 4 hours ago
- 7 min read
If you’re a high school student passionate about medicine and want to explore the industry early on, consider an internship in the field!
However, many medical internships for high school students are often in-person, and may require you to move cities/states if selected. An accessible alternative you can consider is an online medical internship.These programs provide hands-on exposure through virtual shadowing, online lab simulations, and mentorship from healthcare professionals.
By participating in online medical internships, you can gain valuable insights into medical careers, develop critical skills, and strengthen your future college and medical school applications. Whether you’re interested in surgery, research, or patient care, these internships help build a strong foundation for your journey in healthcare. Explore our list of 10 online medical internships for high school students to kickstart your medical career.
Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year.
Application Deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort.
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks are eligible to apply. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Cost: $2,490. Financial aid is available.
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 health tech, AI/ML, to marketing, journalism, consulting, and more. You can explore all the options here on their application form.
Ladder’s start-ups are companies on average raising over a million dollars. Past founders have included YCombinator alumni, founders raising over 30 million dollars, or founders who previously worked at Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. Interns work closely with their managers and a Ladder Coach on real-world projects and present their work to the company.
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.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; 25 students per year
Dates: June 16 - 27
Application Deadline: February 28
Eligibility: High school students who are over 14 by the start of the program and have strong math and/or computer programming skills and/or experience with a healthcare project
Location: Virtual
Cost: Application Fee: $40 | Tuition: $850. Financial aid is available.
The Stanford Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging (AIMI) offers high school students a two-week virtual program to explore AI in healthcare. You will engage in daily activities that include foundational lectures on AI applications in medicine, mentorship sessions with Stanford researchers and student leads, collaborative research projects, and interactive social events. The program also features Virtual Career Lunch and Learns with experts from academia, industry, and government. If you’re interested, you can even opt for an extended independent research internship opportunity. Participants receive a Certificate of Completion on successful completion of the internship.
Dates: 5 weeks in the summer
Application Deadline: March 1
Eligibility: Current high school juniors and seniors interested in future research and clinical careers in behavioral sciences (psychiatry or psychology) or brain health-related sciences (neurology, neurosurgery, or neuroscience)
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
The Johns Hopkins Internship in Brain Sciences (JHIBS) is a summer research internship for high school juniors and seniors interested in exploring careers in neurological sciences. This five-week virtual internship provides an immersive experience in brain science research, wherein you will engage in a range of activities, including educational sessions, professional development training, mentorship, and hands-on learning of fundamental laboratory techniques and experiments. Those who successfully complete the program will receive a certificate of completion. JHIBS aims to cultivate a passion for brain science and medicine by offering early exposure to academic research, clinical environments, and long-term mentorship opportunities.
Dates: July 28 - August 8
Application Deadline: February 24
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors who are aged 16 years or older
Location: Virtual
Cost: $4,380
The Stanford Clinical Summer Internship (CSI) offers a two-week virtual program for high school students, providing an in-depth exploration of clinical medicine. Designed to foster a passion for healthcare, the program features interactive lectures, hands-on virtual training, and expert-led sessions covering a range of medical specialties. You will engage in small group case discussions, develop diagnostic and treatment skills, and gain insights from Stanford faculty and medical professionals. The curriculum also includes simulated patient interactions, clinical technique workshops, and career-focused sessions. You will receive a certificate on successful completion of the internship.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; 60-90 students per session
Dates: Session I: July 7 - 17 | Session II: July 21 - 31
Application Deadline: February 14
Eligibility: Current 11th and 12th-grade high school students from Los Angeles and its adjacent counties
Location: Virtual.
Cost / Stipend: No cost. Interns receive a stipend of $500.
The Los Angeles Pediatric Society's Eve and Gene Black Summer Medical Career Program aims to inspire high school students to pursue careers in healthcare. Designed as a medical mentorship experience, the program offers daily virtual sessions featuring interactive presentations from healthcare professionals across various specialties, including pediatrics, surgery, nursing, pharmacy, dietetics, radiology, and therapy. You will gain exposure to different medical fields through expert-led discussions and hands-on learning opportunities. Upon successful completion of the program, you will receive a certificate.
Dates: 2 weeks in June
Application Deadline: Early February
Eligibility: Rising 10th, 11th, and 12th-grade high school students
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
UT Southwestern Medical Center offers a two-week online summer internship for high school students, providing insight into careers in mental health. Led by experienced mental health clinician-scientists, including licensed clinical social workers, neuropsychologists, physician assistants, and psychiatrists, the internship explores various specialties within the field.
You will engage in interactive online sessions, guided by preparatory readings from diverse sources, including scientific journals and mass media. Through discussions and demonstrations, professionals share their daily work experiences and career journeys, addressing topics such as psychotherapy, neuropsychological testing, neuroscience, interventional psychiatry, and community psychiatry.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; 50 students per year.
Dates: June 16 - 27
Application Deadline: February 28
Eligibility: High school students who are over the age of 14 by the start of the program
Location: Virtual
Cost: Application Fee: $40 | Tuition: $850. Financial aid is available.
This virtual bootcamp is designed for high school students, providing a structured introduction to machine learning in healthcare. Over two weeks, you will engage in interactive online modules, group discussions, breakout activities, and social events. The program also features Virtual Career Lunch and Learn sessions, where experts from academia, industry, government, and non-profit sectors share insights into the field. Key topics covered include the role of machine learning in healthcare, core principles, evaluation metrics, implementation challenges, best practices, and emerging technologies such as foundation models and generative AI.
Dates: July 14 - 25
Application Deadline: April 27
Eligibility: High school students who are at least 16 years of age, residing in Massachusetts, and attending a Massachusetts high school
Location: Virtual
Cost / Stipend: No cost. Interns receive a stipend.
In this paid two-week virtual research experience, you will join the Zon Lab as a scientist, exploring research using zebrafish. Working as part of a team, you will design a study on anemia, formulate hypotheses, plan experiments, and analyze data. Zebrafish experiments will be conducted live in the lab based on your designs, and your team will present findings at the internship’s conclusion. Participants will also attend lectures from leading scientists on topics ranging from fundamental biology to clinical research applications. The program includes training in scientific literature analysis and basic coding for data visualization.
Acceptance rate: 12%
Dates: June 16 – June 27
Application Deadline: March 1. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
Eligibility: High school sophomores, juniors, and seniors
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,595. Need-based financial aid is available.
The Clinical Neuroscience Immersion Experience (CNI-X) at Stanford University is a two-week online summer program for high school students interested in neuroscience, psychiatry, and psychology. You will engage in interactive seminars with Stanford faculty, exploring topics such as clinical neuropsychiatry, psychiatric epidemiology, and behavioral sciences, and gain insights into career paths in medicine. You will collaborate in small teams to develop solutions to social issues related to neuroscience, presenting your findings at a final capstone session.
Dates: The internship runs for one semester and is available year-round.
Application Deadline: March 1
Eligibility: High school students are eligible to apply. The school must submit all applications. Parents and students interested in a Parkview experience should contact their school's Guidance Counselor, internship Coordinator, or CTE Instructor.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Parkview offers high school students a range of internships to explore careers in healthcare. These opportunities provide firsthand experience in both clinical and non-clinical roles, helping students identify their career interests before entering college. You will receive hands-on experience in your chosen medical field and be assigned to a specific department or role of interest. Internships typically last for one semester and are unpaid.
One other option—the Lumiere Research Scholar Program
If you’re interested in pursuing independent research in medicine, consider applying to one of the Lumiere Research Scholar Programs, selective online high school programs for students founded with researchers at Harvard and Oxford. Last year, we had over 4,000 students apply for 500 spots in the program! You can find the application form here.
Also check out the Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation, a non-profit research program for talented, low-income students. Last year, we had 150 students on full need-based financial aid!
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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.