10 STEM Summer Programs for High School Students in Massachusetts
Are you a high school student in Massachusetts with a passion for science, technology, engineering, or math? If so, you're in luck! Massachusetts is home to some of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world and offers a variety of STEM summer programs designed to challenge and inspire students like you. Whether you're interested in hands-on research, exploring engineering concepts, or diving into advanced mathematics, there's a program tailored to your interests.
In addition to helping you build new skills, summer internships, research opportunities, and immersions can be an asset when applying to college. Participating in a rigorous summer program can show college admissions officers that you have a genuine interest in academic subjects outside the classroom.
In this blog, we'll explore 10 STEM summer programs for high school students in Massachusetts.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $2,990: Individual Research Program (12 weeks), $5,900: Premium Research & Publication Program (16–20 weeks), $8,900: Research Fellowship (6–12 months). All programs come with need-based financial aid
Application Deadlines: November 24, 2024 for the upcoming Winter cohort. Apply here!
Program Dates: Four cohorts throughout the year: spring, summer, winter, and fall
Eligibility: High school students
Established by researchers with backgrounds from Harvard and Oxford, Lumiere Research Scholar Programs offer high school students a range of program durations. From 12-week to 12-month research opportunities, students can immerse themselves in various subjects for individualized research. For students interested in STEM, the program offers research in biology, astrophysics, computer science, chemistry, medicine, mathematics, and more. Check out the full subject offerings here.
Collaborating one-on-one with accomplished PhD mentors, each student has the opportunity to produce university-level research papers. These programs are conducted entirely online, providing flexibility in research depth to accommodate individual preferences.
Location: Online
Cost: $2,290. Financial aid available
Application Deadline: October 20, 2024 for the upcoming Winter cohort
Program Dates: Multiple, year-round cohorts
Eligibility: Open to any student from grades 8-12 who has either completed the AI Scholars program or has experience in coding
The Veritas AI Deep Dive is a 10-week online course designed for ambitious students like you who are interested in the intersection of AI and medicine. In this program, you will learn how AI transforms healthcare, work on projects diagnosing diseases, and sharpen medical scans using AI models.
Over the first two weeks, you’ll be introduced to AI and its applications in medicine. Weeks 3 to 5 cover key topics such as medical data preparation, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and Convolutional Neural Networks. In the final weeks, you’ll delve into more complex subjects like image segmentation, regularization, transfer learning, and the fundamentals of clinical evaluation.
Note that to participate, you need to have completed the AI Scholars program or prior experience with Python.
Location: Virtual
Application Deadline: November 10, 2024 for the Winter cohort, and February 9, 2025 for the Spring cohort
Program Dates:
Winter seminar: December 2, 2024 onwards
Spring seminar: March 3, 2025 onwards
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 few tracks require formal prerequisites, more details of which can be found here
Horizon offers trimester-long research programs for high school students across subject areas such as data science, machine learning, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, 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 PhD 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: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Cost: Free
Application Deadline: February 15, 2025 (tentatively, based on previous year’s dates)
Program Dates: Late June to Early August
Eligibility: High school juniors who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
MITES Summer is a prestigious program that involves taking five challenging courses in subjects like math, science, and the humanities, along with opportunities for lab tours, social activities, and guidance on the college admissions process. The program covers all expenses except for travel to and from MIT.
Throughout the program, you'll engage in daily classes, recitations, workshops, and tours, with evenings and weekends dedicated to exploring the Greater Boston area. Elective options have previously included topics such as architecture, engineering design, and machine learning.
By the conclusion of the program, you will have gained valuable insights into STEM careers, developed both academic and personal skills, and received a written evaluation from your instructor. Applications open in the fall of your junior year. Find more information on this program here.
Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Cost: Free
Application Deadline: December 13, 2024 (tentative, based on last year’s program)
Program Dates: June 23 – August 3, 2025 (tentative, based on last year’s program)
Eligibility: High school juniors
The Research Science Institute (RSI) at MIT is a prestigious summer program that brings together 100 high school students from around the world passionate about science and engineering. RSI is a free program that integrates rigorous on-campus coursework and off-campus research experiences in various STEM fields. You’ll have access to MIT’s extensive resources, including computing tools and databases, and benefit from interactions with industry leaders and Nobel laureates through an ongoing lecture series. You can see a list of past RSI speakers here.
The program begins with a week of in-depth seminars led by professors. You will then complete a five-week research internship, working on individual research projects under the mentorship of scientists and researchers. You will learn how to review current literature, develop and execute a research plan, and give conference-style oral and written presentations on your findings. RSI is extremely competitive, with a 3% acceptance rate.
Cost: $2,490 (Financial Aid Available)
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Application deadline: November 24, 2024 for the upcoming Winter cohort
Program dates: December 16, 2024 onwards for the Winter cohort
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
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, environmental science, software engineering, 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.
Location: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston/Cambridge/Somerville, MA
Cost: No cost, stipend provided
Application Deadline: March 1, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Program Dates: July 1 – August 9, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors or recent graduates who live or study in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts General Hospital’s Youth Neurology Education and Research Program is an educational and research opportunity for high school and college students underrepresented in neurology. This program gives you the chance to meet neurologists and neuroscientists from diverse backgrounds and learn about their career paths.
Before the program begins, you will complete a ‘boot camp’ that will train you in the essential skills you need to work in a research lab. Each student will be matched with an MGH Neurology faculty member with whom you will work on an ongoing research project. The program culminates in a research presentation, and you will receive support to publish your work and submit it for awards.
Location: Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Cost: $2,650. Scholarships available for Greater Boston Area residents
Application Deadline: March 25, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Program Dates: You can choose from nine available sessions between mid-June and mid-August
Eligibility: High school students
HMS MEDscience offers a biology course that blends hands-on learning with real-world medical experiences. The program uses simulated medical emergencies to foster critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, and effective communication. At the core of the experience is the MEDscience ‘Emergency Room’ at Harvard Medical School, where you will engage in evaluating, diagnosing, and treating life-like patients in state-of-the-art simulation labs.
You will also practice important clinical skills, such as suturing, intubation, and IV insertion, while exploring healthcare careers through MEDchats with Harvard-affiliated professionals. Harvard Medical School offers three other science programs for high school students—MEDscienceLAB for hands-on lab and research experiences, the Moonshot Program for developing AI surgical robots, and MEDscienceLAB Forensics for studying crime scene investigation.
Location: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA or virtual
Cost: $75 application fee + $5,550 (pre-college program), $3,600–$13,750 (secondary school program, depending on the number of courses selected). Financial aid available for U.S. citizens and permanent residents
Application Deadline: February 12, 2025
Program Dates: There are multiple sessions from June – August
Eligibility: Applicants must :
Be expected to graduate from high school and enter college in 2025 or 2026
Be at least 16 years old by June 21, 2025
Not turn 19 years old before July 31, 2025
Harvard University’s Pre-College Program is a 2-week summer experience where students engage in college-level coursework and get a taste of university life. The program offers a wide range of courses, including options in STEM fields such as “Molecular Oncology: Unraveling Molecular Biology Techniques” and “Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: From Schrödinger's Equation to Quantum Computers.”
It’s important to note that this 2-week program does not offer college credit. For students interested in earning credits over the summer, Harvard’s Secondary School Program might be a better fit, offering 4- to 7-week courses that provide academic credit.
Location: Smith College, Northampton, MA
Cost: $4,745 per session (2 weeks); $8,082 for both sessions (4 weeks). Financial aid available
Application Deadline: May 15, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Program Dates: TBA for 2025. Two STEM programs were offered in 2024:
Summer Science & Engineering Program: July 6 – 19, 2024 and July 21 – August 3, 2024
Sustainable Futures Program: July 21 – August 3, 2024
Eligibility: Open to high school students who identify as female or gender-nonconforming
Smith Pre-College offers a variety of 1- to 4-week in-person summer courses on their campus. Students with an interest in STEM should consider the Summer Science & Engineering Program or the Sustainable Futures Program.
In the Summer Science & Engineering Program, participants have the opportunity to engage in hands-on research alongside Smith faculty in fields like life and physical sciences. Course options include topics such as the chemistry of herbal medicine, designing intelligent robots, global young women’s health, and novel bacteriophage discovery. More details on the individual modules are available for those interested.
The Sustainable Futures Program combines STEM with public policy, allowing students to tackle current environmental challenges through fieldwork and develop ideas for a sustainable future that can be implemented in their communities.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. 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.
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