The Ultimate Guide to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center High School Summer Program

Updated October 2026

TL;DR

The Carl B. & Florence E. King Foundation High School Summer Program in Biomedical Sciences is a selective, paid, 10-week research program at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. It is open only to current Texas high school seniors who are 18 or older by the start date and interested in allied health careers. The cohort is limited to approximately six students, who receive a $7,200 stipend, but the current dates, deadlines, and stipend details are still TBA. If you’re not eligible for this program, or want a mentored research experience you can do from home, explore the Horizon Academic Research Program.

If you’re a graduating high school senior in Texas and want to experience biomedical research before college, the Carl B. & Florence E. King Foundation High School Summer Program offers an opportunity to work in a real research laboratory. Hosted by UT MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, the program combines full-time laboratory work, faculty mentorship, research seminars, and a final presentation.

The official High School Summer Program focuses on students interested in allied health careers. However, eligibility is narrow, and participants must arrange their own housing and transportation. If you’re comparing opportunities before applying, start with these free medical research programs for high school students.

Program Overview

Sponsored by MD Anderson’s School of Health Professions, the King Foundation program introduces graduating high school seniors to biomedical research and allied health career paths.

Selected participants spend five days a week in MD Anderson laboratories, generally from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You work on research projects under the guidance of full-time faculty members and take part in educational activities alongside other summer trainees. The experience is in person, and you must arrange your own housing and transportation.

Quick Facts

Dates and Deadlines

The 2027 timeline is TBA. This table shows the 2026 cycle (historical), which is the best guide to how the 2027 schedule may work.

All application documents are due by the closing date, and no new applications are accepted after it.

What you do during the program

The central feature is simple: you spend most of your time doing research. MD Anderson describes the experience as laboratory-based work supervised by a full-time faculty member, with an emphasis on the basic principles behind scientific investigation. You work on a project within a biomedical discipline instead of just hearing about research in lectures.

Your project depends on your lab and mentor, so don’t expect every participant to use the same techniques or study the same disease. You’re entering a research environment and learning the methods relevant to your assigned project. You can browse MD Anderson’s lab directory to get a sense of the research happening there. Past work is also available in the Summer Experience poster archives for 2022 and 2023.

Academic components

• Hands-on laboratory research under a faculty mentor
• Faculty-led seminars on a wide variety of research topics
• Activities shared with students from MD Anderson’s other summer programs, which may include abstract, poster, and elevator speech competitions
• A final presentation and a celebration luncheon

What skills can you develop?

The most beneficial part of this program is learning how biological knowledge becomes a research question that you can test systematically.

• Experimental thinking: You learn to separate a hypothesis, an experimental design, an observation, and a conclusion. That matters most when an experiment doesn’t behave as expected, and you have to ask whether the problem is biological, methodological, statistical, or just normal variation.
• Laboratory technique: Your training depends on the lab you join. You may encounter areas like molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, pathology, or imaging. The program doesn’t promise a specific list of techniques, so expect project-specific training, which is arguably more realistic preparation.
• Data interpretation: You may compare experimental and control conditions, spot patterns, evaluate unexpected findings, and decide whether your evidence supports your hypothesis.
• Scientific literature: As your project becomes more specialized, you’ll read research papers, learn unfamiliar terminology, and separate what authors demonstrated from what they only proposed.
• Scientific communication: Finishing the experiment isn’t the last step. You have to explain what you did, and the program ends with a participant presentation, which helps you translate technical work for someone outside your project.

Related read from Horizon: Want to build research skills before you apply? These biology research opportunities for high school students are a good place to start.

Admissions and Eligibility

For the 2026 cycle, applicants had to:

• Prefer a career in an allied health discipline
• Be at least 18 years old by the program start date
• Be a senior-level student in a Texas public, private, charter, or homeschool during the spring before the program
• Graduate from high school the spring before the program starts
• Be accepted to a college or university to begin the fall immediately after the program (with preference for a two-year institution leading to a School of Health Professions application)
• Be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or work-eligible visa holder
• Be able to attend the entire program, though participants may be excused up to three days for college orientation with permission from both the School of Health Professions and their mentor.

Previous laboratory or research experience is not required. The review committee looks for academic achievement, leadership, scientific aptitude, service to your school or community, and interest in an allied health career.

MD Anderson doesn’t publish an acceptance rate. With a cohort capped at six students, treat this as a selective opportunity, because meeting the requirements doesn’t guarantee serious consideration. The 2027 eligibility criteria are TBA, so confirm them when MD Anderson posts the new cycle.

How to apply to the MD Anderson High School Summer Program

The first step is to confirm that you meet the program’s age, Texas enrollment, graduation, and college acceptance requirements. Since the King Foundation program has a small cohort, you should also review how your academic background, scientific interests, leadership, and community involvement align with the published selection criteria.

Follow these steps when preparing your application:

1. Check the official program page. Confirm that the application is open and review the instructions for the correct year.
2. Verify your eligibility. Pay particular attention to the age requirement, graduation timing, and college acceptance condition.
3. Prepare your academic and activity information. Be ready to describe your achievements, scientific interests, leadership, and community involvement accurately.
4. Explain your interest in allied health. Connect your academic experiences and career goals to the program’s stated focus rather than writing a generic statement about wanting to study medicine.
5. Follow the published application checklist. Submit only the documents and materials required for your application cycle, and complete all steps before the stated deadline.

The exact 2027 application materials for this specific high school program have not yet been confirmed on its individual page. Use the official application information alongside the program-specific instructions, and confirm any differences before submitting.

Cost, Stipend, and Housing

In 2026, invitees received a $7,200 stipend for the 10-week program (a reduced amount applies if you start a week late). The stipend is taxable income and is meant to subsidize the cost of living. The 2027 stipend is TBA.

You’re responsible for:

• Housing and transportation
• Meals (unless the Summer Experience program says otherwise)
• Other personal expenses

MD Anderson doesn’t provide housing for this program, so don’t treat the stipend as spending money. If you’re traveling to Houston from another part of Texas, housing and daily transportation could take up a large portion of it. Think of it as financial support for a full-time summer research appointment, not a scholarship or a free residential program. If you are looking for lower-cost research options that don’t require relocating, check out these free online research programs for high school students.

Student Experience and Research Outcomes

The best way to understand the program is to look at what participants produce. MD Anderson’s Summer Experience archives include research posters from King Foundation students alongside other summer programs, and they show how different each student’s project can be.

A useful example comes from Isabella Tran, a Texas Academy student whose selection for the 2025 program was reported by Lamar University. In the interview published before the summer program, she discussed the challenge of presenting her academic experiences, extracurricular activities, research interests, and future goals in her application. She also described how her earlier chemistry research had strengthened her interest in medicine and scientific investigation.

The common thread is the research setting, mentorship, technical learning, and the requirement to communicate what you’ve learned. You can read more about the broader CATALYST summer programming and watch the program video.

Strengths and Considerations

Strengths

• Real laboratory experience: You spend most of the program in an actual MD Anderson laboratory.
• Faculty mentorship: Your project is guided by a full-time MD Anderson faculty member.
• Small cohort: With up to six students selected, the program is intentionally small.
• Research communication: You present your work and join activities that may include abstracts, posters, and elevator speeches.
• No prior research requirement: You can apply without having worked in a lab.
• Paid experience: The 2026 stipend was $7,200 for the 10-week commitment.

Considerations

• Narrow eligibility: If you’re not a Texas high school senior, this program isn’t currently an option.
• Age requirement: Being a senior isn’t enough. You must be 18 by the program start date.
• Housing not included: You arrange and pay for your own housing and transportation.
• Demanding schedule: Five days a week, generally 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., for 10 weeks is closer to a full-time job than a casual summer course.
• The project is not fully customizable: Apply because you want to learn research, not because you’re guaranteed a favorite cancer subtype or technique.

Who Is This Program Best For?

This program makes the most sense if you’re a graduating Texas high school senior who’s already asking questions like:

• Do I actually enjoy laboratory research?
• Do I like solving biological problems when the answer isn’t obvious?
• Am I interested in allied health rather than only becoming a physician?
• Can I handle a full-time research schedule?
• Am I comfortable spending weeks becoming very familiar with one narrow research question?

You don’t need to arrive as an experienced researcher, because the program says prior experience isn’t required. What you need is evidence that you’re scientifically curious, academically serious, willing to work through difficult material, and genuinely interested in allied health. If you mainly want a short clinical-shadowing experience, this may not be the right fit, since the program is much more research-intensive.

How to Think About the Program as a College Applicant

It’s tempting to treat a program like this as an admissions credential, but the more useful question is what you’ll actually learn. Ten weeks of reading primary literature, following lab protocols, keeping careful records, interpreting data, troubleshooting experiments, and presenting findings build skills that transfer into college lab courses and future research roles.

It can also test your assumptions. You might discover you love molecular biology but dislike repetitive bench work, or that you’re more interested in diagnostics or in the research process itself than in the clinical side of medicine. A good pre-college program doesn’t have to confirm that you’re certain about your future. It can give you better information for your next academic decision.

Other Summer Options at MD Anderson

MD Anderson runs many other summer programs with different eligibility rules. Two that list high school participants are the DACCPM Summer Research Program and the UPWARDS Summer Program. Check each program page for its current requirements before you plan around it.

One More Option: Horizon Academic Research Program

If you’re not a Texas senior, or you’d rather do mentored research from home, the Horizon Academic Research Program is an online, one-to-one research mentorship experience that typically runs 10 to 15 weeks and ends with an independent research paper. It’s a flexible way to build the kind of research skills this program develops, and you can compare more choices in these pre-college medical programs and online biology research programs.

Common questions about this high school research summer program

Image source: The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center