If you’re a high school student in Boston looking for summer programs, you have quite a few to pick from. There are several fields, including computer science, engineering, medicine, history, and more, in formats ranging from academic immersions and research programs to paid internships.
Summer programs allow you to dive into a specific field — often involving university-level coursework — and will enable you to upgrade your knowledge. You also gain hands-on skills in research and laboratories, which could be handy in the future.
Here is a list of 14 summer programs for high school students in Boston:
Subject area: Entrepreneurship and business
Application Deadline: The upcoming deadlines are as follows:
- Spring regular deadline: February 9, 2025
- Summer priort admission deadline: March 9, 2025
- Summer deadline: May 11, 2025
Eligibility: The program is currently open to all high school students
Program Dates:
- Spring individual program starts March 3, 2025
- Summer individual program starts June 2, 2025.
- Group program, Summer 1: June 9 - 29, 2025
- Group program, Summer 2: August 4 - 24, 2025
Location: This program is 100% virtual, with live, interactive workshops
Fee: $2900
Financial aid: Need-based financial aid is available
The Young Founders Lab is a start-up boot camp for high school students where you can build a revenue-generating start-up that solves a real-world program. Through the process, you will be mentored by professional entrepreneurs and learn about all business basics like user research, growth strategies, sales negotiations, and more. You will also attend panel discussions and workshops during the program.
Subject area: Multiple fields available
Application Date: February 16, 2025 for the spring cohort
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.
Program Dates:
- Spring seminar begins March 5, 2025
- Summer seminar begins June 16, 2025
- Lab dates are flexible, but you must apply 4 weeks in advance
- Students are expected to spend a total of 100 hours on the program
Location: Virtual
Horizon is a research program in which you explore a specific topic and develop a 20-page research paper under the guidance of a professor or PhD scholar. You can choose from several fields such as engineering, economics, psychology, data science etc. This program can help you explore a particular field in depth while also getting mentorship.
Subject area: Artificial Intelligence
Application deadline: On a rolling basis. Winter cohort deadline - December 1, 2024
Eligibility: 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.
Program dates: Varies according to cohort
Location: Virtual
Fee:
- $2,290 for the 10-week AI Scholars program
- $5,400 for the 15-week AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase
- $6,900 for both
Financial aid: Need-based financial aid is available for AI Scholars. You can apply here.
Veritas AI’s programs cover topics in computer science, focusing on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. There is an AI Scholars track if you’re a beginner and a Fellowship track if you’re an advanced student, which also includes a publication component. Each program includes theory lessons, mentorship, and hands-on project work.
Subject: Data science
Application deadline: May 1, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Eligibility: All high school students who have a basic understanding of algebra. Students from low-income backgrounds are encouraged to apply
Program dates: June 22, 2025 – July 10, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Location: Harvard University, Boston, MA
Fee: Free (stipends are available for students from low-income backgrounds)
The Data Science in Action program is a two-week summer camp that teaches you about machine learning and programming through a project where you build a self-driving toy car. In the process, you will learn about coding, statistics, image classification, neural networks, and how to use a Raspberry Pi.
Subject area: Multiple fields available
Application deadline: Varies depending on the cohort. The spring cohort deadline is February 9, 2025
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week, for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
Program dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Fee: $2490
Financial aid: Available
You can consider the Ladder Internship if you’re looking for professional work experience and mentorship. Ladder connects you with an internship at a start-up, where you will get individual training from a mentor, and develop a real-world project. The start-ups include AI, engineering, finance, consulting, health, and non-profit.
Subject area: Multiple fields available
Application deadline: Four cohorts throughout the year, applications due in February, May, September, and December. You can apply here.
Eligibility: All high school students
Program dates: There are four cohorts throughout the year in spring, summer, fall, and winter
Location: Online
Financial assistance: You can check out the Lumiere Foundation, a non-profit research program, which offers assistance to low-income students
The Lumiere program allows you to learn about a specialized topic in depth. During the program, you will work on an independent research project under the guidance of a PhD mentor. The process will introduce you to complex, university-level subjects while honing your research skills.
Subject area: Multiple fields available
Application deadline: December 11, 2024
Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA
Eligibility: Current high school juniors who meet the required test scores. International students can apply as well
Program dates: June 23 – August 3, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Fee: Free
While the Research Science Institute takes place at MIT in Cambridge, we have included it on this list due to its proximity to Boston. As a participant, you will engage in research, learn how to find publications, model complex systems, conduct lab work, and make a conference-style presentation of your findings.
Subject area: Biomedical research
Application deadline: February 3, 2025
Eligibility: High school sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are at least 16 years old, reside/attend school in Massachusetts, and either be from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group or come from an economically disadvantaged background
Program dates: The program begins on June 18, 2025, and generally goes on for 7-11 weeks
Location: Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Boston, MA
Stipend: A stipend is provided but no amount has been specified
Offered by the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, CURE is a summer research internship where you will learn all about biomedical research. During the program, you will be paired with a mentor alongside whom you will study and gain technical research skills by working on a cancer research project. You will also attend professional development sessions, networking opportunities, and a journal club where you will dissect scientific literature.
Subject area: Neurology and neuroscience
Application deadline: January 31, 2025
Eligibility: High school seniors or recent graduates living/studying in Massachusetts. Students who are female or non-binary; Black, Latinx, Native American/Alaska Native; or first-generation college students are encouraged to apply
Program dates: June 30 – August 8, 2025
Location: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Stipend: Interns are paid but no amount has been specified
The Mass General Youth Neurology Education and Research Program offers educational and research experience within neurology and neuroscience. This commuter program consists of a boot camp involving basic clinical training followed by 1-on-1 mentorship, where you will work in a lab and contribute to research projects. In the end, you will have the chance to present your findings.
Subject area: STEM
Application deadline: March 1, 2025
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors who reside in Massachusetts within commuting distance of the University
Program dates: June 23 – July 31, 2025
Location: Northeastern University, Boston, MA
Fee: Free
The YSP allows you to work in the laboratories of Northeastern University’s Colleges of Engineering, Science, and Health Sciences. You will engage in lab work within STEM fields — previous students have worked on topics like “Thermal Effects of Terahertz-Band Radiation on Heart Tissue” and “Engineering Microfluidics for Human Health Applications”. You will learn more about STEM through additional seminars and field trips to speak with practicing engineers.
Subject area: Biomedical Engineering
Application deadline: The application window generally opens in spring and closes in April
Eligibility: High school students who are at least 16 years old
Program dates: July 1 – August 16, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Location: Tufts University, Boston, MA
Fee: Free
TUBERS offers an understanding of the research process while allowing you to study a particular topic deeply. Previous students have explored the manufacture of a 3D in vitro silk-scaffolded brain model and studied breast cancer metastasis to the liver. You will conduct lab work and learn various research techniques and experimental protocols. TUBERS is also a prestigious program with only 15-20 students being accepted from hundreds of applications.
Subject area: Multiple options available
Application deadline: Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis
Eligibility: All high school students and international students can apply as well
Program dates: Multiple options available from June 16 – August 4, 2025
Location: There are three locations: Olin College, Bentley University, and the institute’s Boston campus. The first two options are a little outside of Boston but the distance is commutable
Fee: Ranges from $699 - $4,597
Financial assistance: Very limited scholarships are available for students in need
The Boston Leadership Institute offers summer programs in science, engineering, medicine, and business. You can choose between day camps and residential tracks, as well as between 1-week and 3-week programs. Each program explores topics such as cybersecurity, clinical psychology, and marine biology. You can find more information here.
Subject area: History
Application deadline: February 28, 2025
Eligibility: All high school students
Program dates: June 23 – July 4, 2025
Location: Commonwealth School, Boston, MA
Fee: $5,250
Financial assistance: Not available
The Concord Review is a prestigious social sciences journal and its history camp allows you to get training in historical research and writing. Over two weeks, you will develop a research topic of your choice into an essay while attending individual sessions with an instructor. In the process, you will learn how to formulate research questions, find sources, examine essays, explore writing strategies, and contemplate larger philosophical dilemmas.
Subject area: Architecture
Application deadline: June 21, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Eligibility: All high school students (international students can apply as well)
Program dates: July 1 – August 2, 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Location: Boston Architectural College, Boston, MA
Fee: $1,800 for the non-credit program, $2,000 for the credit-bearing program
Financial assistance: Scholarships are available
If you are interested in architecture and design, consider attending the BAC’s Summer Academy. The program has three focus areas — architecture, interior architecture, and landscape architecture. You will work in a studio-like setting and work with real-world design challenges. You will also build up a digital portfolio by the end of the program which could be useful during college applications. The program even offers 3 college credits.
David Wilkinson is a freelance writer for Horizon and currently resides in the United States.