12 Biology Research Programs for High School Students
If you’re a high school student interested in biology research, then this list is for you! Applying for a research program in STEM has a ton of benefits. You’ll get the chance to work with professionals in the field, which opens doors to future opportunities. You can develop solid relationships with potential references and gain lifelong mentors who can give you academic and career advice. Research programs also allow you to explore different career options while helping you gain specialized knowledge and techniques. You’ll get to apply concepts you’ve learned in the classroom to meaningful projects with real-world importance.
Early exposure to biology is particularly important. Biology is a vast field, so the sooner you can learn about different specialties and master the basics, the better. You can boost your college applications by demonstrating your interest in biology and experience with important skills like presenting your research and using laboratory equipment. Finally, research programs can help you qualify for additional scholarships, making paying for college easier.
Here are 12 biology research programs for high school students!
Application Deadline: Varying deadlines based on cohort.
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 and demonstrate a high level of academic achievement.
Program Dates: Varies by cohort: summer, fall, winter, or spring.
Cost: Full financial aid is available!
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.
The Hutton Junior Fisheries Biology Program is an 8-week research internship hosted by the American Fisheries Society. At the end of the internship, you’ll receive a $3,000 stipend and an all-expenses paid trip to the Hutton Scholars Summit. During the program, you’ll be placed with a mentor close to your home. You’ll spend time outdoors, on a boat, in a laboratory, and in an office setting. You might take fish population surveys, participate in electrofishing, examine specimens under a microscope, test water quality, go snorkeling, or help with children’s educational programs. Most students work 32-40 hours per week. You’ll also present your project from the summer, an accomplishment you can share on college applications.
Cost: None. This program provides a $3,000 stipend.
Location: Internships are available all over the country.
Application Dates: Applications open in mid-November and close in mid-January
Program Dates: Start and end dates are flexible and determined by the student and their mentor. Each internship lasts 8 weeks.
Eligibility: 16 by the close of applications
Veritas AI is an AI program for ambitious high school students, founded and run by Harvard graduate students. In the AI + Medicine program, students learn how AI is used in the healthcare and medical industry. You will get a chance to work on real-world projects using AI & ML models to diagnose diseases, sharpen medical scans, and explain their outcomes to aid doctors and patients. Here is the program brochure and the application form.
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. Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September), and Winter (November).
Program dates: Multiple 12-15-week cohorts throughout the year, including spring, summer, fall, and winter.
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.
The University of California San Diego and the Boz Institute host the Life Sciences Research program. You’ll undertake a unique applied research project in biodiversity, neurobiology, and/or molecular biology. During this program, you’ll attend classes twice a week after school in a modern wet lab at the San Diego Science Center. You’ll do research with the Science Center research team and collaborate with classmates. You’ll get to work with state-of-the-art equipment and learn relevant bioinformatics and statistical applications. You’ll also learn to read relevant scientific literature, formulate advanced hypotheses, and design experiments. Finally, you’ll lead poster sessions attended by local scientists and industry leaders.
Cost: Tuition depends on how many courses you register for each semester. Scholarships are available, and you can learn more here.
Location: San Diego Science Center, San Diego, CA
Application Dates: Applications typically open the month before the start of classes.
Program Dates: Programs take place for a full semester during the academic year.
Fall quarter begins the third week of September
Winter quarter begins the second week of January
Spring quarter begins the first week of April
Eligibility: You must be a current high school student.
The LEAH Knox Scholars Program is a two-year biology program hosted by MIT for high school students in the Boston area. This program is for underrepresented students like US Black and Latinx individuals. This program begins the summer before your junior year when you’ll participate in a lab experience on the MIT campus. During your second summer, you’ll be placed in an external university or industry lab. During the school year, you’ll have access to LEAH’s paid STEM Teaching Internship, receive individual mentorship from an assigned STEM professional, attend monthly STEM events like career panels and lab visits, and go on field trips to colleges.
Cost: A stipend is provided for all program activities.
Location: This program has both virtual and in-person components. The in-person components are typically based in Boston or Cambridge, MA.
Application Dates: Applications are typically due in the middle of March each year.
Program Dates: The program begins the summer before your junior year and continues through your junior and senior academic years.
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors who are students at Boston, Cambridge, and Everett high schools, at least 16 years old by July of your application year, and low-income students of color
Aspirnaut, an organization dedicated to helping rural high school students access STEM careers, hosts Summer Research Internships where you’ll conduct biomedical research. Internships last for six weeks and take place at Vanderbilt University. Interns are paid a stipend for lab time, provided room and board, and given networking opportunities with faculty and university administrators. You’ll conduct research on diabetes, cancer, and regenerative biology while living on campus in dorms. You’ll also engage in 1:1 career planning sessions, college planning seminars, ACT/SAT prep sessions, meetings with high-profile scientists, and cultural and social activities.
Cost: $2,000 stipend provided
Location: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Application Dates: Applications open in October and close in mid-January
Program Dates: The program runs for six weeks, starting the first week of June.
Eligibility: Be a high school student from a rural geographic area and at least 15 years of age. Preference is given to students who are from historically underrepresented groups.
The Lawrence Hall of Science at Berkeley offers multiple teen research programs, including this Bioinspired Design program. Based on an integrative biology course, this research program tackles real-world problems by combining biology and engineering. This program aims to help you investigate how scientists can adapt ideas from nature to solve current challenges. You will work in pairs or small groups in the lab, building and experimenting with a 3D-printed prosthetic hand, assembling test wildlife-inspired robots, or making materials like gecko-inspired adhesive. In the afternoon, you’ll view museum exhibits and attend Q&A sessions with faculty and graduate students. You’ll present your projects and receive a UC Berkeley certificate of completion.
Cost: $1,350 or $1,215 (reduced); financial aid available
Location: Valley Life Sciences Building, UC Berkeley Campus, Berkeley, CA
Application Dates: TBA
Program Dates: June 10 through June 14, from 9:00 am through 5:00 pm.
Eligibility: Rising 10th-12th graders
The Lawrence Hall of Science also offers a Marine Biology Research Program. This program has both lab work and field work. It is designed to help you gain skills, knowledge, and insight into marine biology. In the morning, you’ll study beaches or examine tidepools. You will study these ecosystems to understand the connections between organisms and their habitats. You’ll sample organism populations and then compare data to those from long-term monitoring projects to look for changes. You’ll use microscopes to observe organisms like plankton and conduct marine invertebrate labs. You will design and conduct your investigation, answering a research question in response to field observations.
Cost: $2,500 or $2,250 (reduced); financial aid available
Location: UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Application Dates: Application dates haven’t been posted yet
Program Dates: July 21 through July 26
Eligibility: Rising 10th-12th graders
The Northwest Association of Biomedical Research (NWABR) hosts yearly summer camps in biology and medicine. This summer, six tracks were available, including a molecular biology camp, a bioinformatics camp, a genetic engineering camp, and a microbiology camp. Each camp concludes with a Culminating Expo, where you can present your research and projects. You will learn foundational skills like genomic analysis through molecular techniques using a lab computer. You will also study genetic variation and DNA barcoding to study biodiversity. You might also collect, cultivate, and analyze microbial strains and meet with microbiologists to discuss hospital-associated infections.
Cost: $625-$695. Financial aid is available.
Location: Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA; Whitworth University, Spokane, WA
Application Dates: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the program is full.
Program Dates: The program lasts for five days and is typically available for different sessions throughout July and August.
Eligibility: Grades 9-12
Hosted by University Lab Partners, a private, non-profit wet lab for the life sciences, this Summer Research Experience is open to talented high school students interested in careers in the life sciences. During this program, you’ll learn cell culture and molecular biology techniques used in research and development laboratories. You’ll study the intersection of the life sciences and medicine and acquire vital research skills in biotechnology laboratories. You’ll get to use surveillance mechanisms of immune cells to help create cancer therapeutics. The program ends with a Science Showcase, where you’ll share your research projects with peers and professional scientists.
Cost: $1,950, scholarships available
Location: Irvine, CA
Application Dates: Applications open in December and are due May 31st each year.
Program Dates: Cohort A: June 17-August 8; Cohort B: June 18- August 8; Cohort C: June 18- August 8
Eligibility: You must have taken Molecular Biology 1 at ULP or apply for a prerequisite waiver; grades 9-12 and undergraduate students are accepted
The Broad Summer Scholars Program is hosted by the Broad Institute. If you’re interested in the intersection of Biology and Medicine, this program might be for you. This program is designed for motivated high school students interested in science and biology. You’ll spend 6 weeks at the Broad Institute, where you’ll be matched with a scientist. You’ll conduct original research in fields like chemical biology, computational biology, and more. You’ll also explore different scientific careers, attend scientific lectures and a college fair, and network with students and professionals. At the end of the program, you’ll present your research.
Cost: $3,600 stipend provided
Location: The Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA
Application Dates: Applications open in mid-November and are due the third week of January.
Program Dates: The program typically runs from the last full week of June through the first Friday of August.
Eligibility: Rising seniors in high school who attend a high school in Massachusetts within commuting distance of the Broad Institute, have earned a B or better in science and math classes, and are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident or a non-U.S. citizen with employment authorization (DACA).
The Institute for Systems Biology Baliga Lab offers Systems Education Experience (SEE) internships for high school students. They only offer a limited number of internship programs each year, so slots are highly competitive. In the past, they offered two types of internships: the Systems Thinkers in STEM Ambassadorship (STiSA) and a summer internship. STiSA is a primarily virtual program. During this program, you’ll take workshops and participate in discussions. You’ll participate in research projects, collaborate with peers, and network with ISB staff. During a summer internship with ISB Baliga, you can expect to learn about systems modeling and how biological systems thinking is used in research and careers. You will be assigned a mentor and a cohort of 6-8 students.
Cost: The summer internship provides a $5,000 stipend
Location:
Virtual and in-person opportunities are available for STiSA students.
Summer internships are completely in-person.
All in-person activities take place in Seattle, WA
Application Dates: Only one application is required for all high school internship opportunities. Applications are due on March 15 every year.
Program Dates: Some programs start in the spring and continue through the following school year. The summer internship lasts 8 weeks and typically begins at the end of June.
Eligibility: For summer internships, you must be a rising high school senior; for non-summer internships, you must be a current 10th or 11th grader.
Elise is a writer for Lumiere and a graduate of the University of Montana School of Law. She began writing for Lumiere to help connect high school students to research opportunities. She is passionate about agency, advocacy, and linguistics. Outside of academics, she enjoys hiking, swimming, and drinking copious amounts of coffee.