If you’re a high school student interested in doing research and building strong academic skills outside of school, research internships are one of the best ways to get started early. These opportunities let you go beyond school assignments and take part in actual projects. You might study biology, computer science, political theory, or psychology while working with complex data, writing research papers, or helping in labs.
Most programs connect you with a mentor who guides your work. Some are based at universities or hospitals, while others are online. You’ll meet regularly with your mentor, join training sessions, and work on a final paper or presentation. If you’re thinking about studying a research-focused subject in college, or just want to try academic work in a more focused setting, these internships are a good place to start.
To help you get started, here’s a list of 15 research internship opportunities for high school students!
15 Research Internship Opportunities for High School Students
1. Research Science Institute (RSI)
Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA
Cost: Free
Program dates: June 22–August 2
Application deadline: December 11
Eligibility: High school juniors worldwide
At MIT’s Research Science Institute (RSI), you’ll spend six weeks engaging with scientific theory and applying it through mentored research at MIT. It begins with an intensive week of academic coursework spanning disciplines like biology, chemistry, and engineering. After this, you’ll be matched with a research mentor and placed in a lab, where you’ll contribute to ongoing investigations and develop your own project. In the final week, you’ll conclude your findings into a formal research paper and present your work to peers and scholars.
2. Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) by the Department of Navy
Location: Varies based on lab locations.
Cost: Free; stipend: $4,000 (new participants) | $4,500 (returning participants)
Dates: June–August (8 weeks)
Application deadline: Applications open in August and close on November 1 every year
Eligibility: Open to high school students in grades 10-12 who are 16 years old by the start of the program and are U.S. citizens
Through this government-led research internship opportunity for high school students, you’ll work in a Navy research lab for eight weeks, gaining practical exposure to active scientific and engineering efforts supported by the U.S. Department of Defense. You’ll participate in projects involving disciplines such as computer modeling, marine systems, or electronics. Scientists and engineers at the lab serve as mentors, guiding you through experimental procedures and helping you understand real-world applications of STEM.
3. Ladder Internship Program
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year, including Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
Application deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort. Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September), and Winter (November).
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 program where you get to intern with a start-up while you’re still in high school. You’ll work with fast-growing companies from different fields like tech, AI/ML, health tech, journalism, marketing, consulting, and more. The start-ups you work with usually raise over a million dollars and are building real products.
During the 8-week virtual internship, you’ll be part of real projects, work directly with your manager, and get guidance from a Ladder Coach. At the end, you’ll present your work to the company. You can check all the available options here.
4. Scripps Student Research Internship
Location: Scripps Research Translational Institute, La Jolla, CA
Cost: Free; a stipend of $4,830 is awarded to interns on completion of the internship.
Program dates: June 2–August 8 or June 16–August 22
Application deadline: March 31
Eligibility: High school students who will be at least 16 years old by the internship start date
At the Scripps Translational Institute, this 10-week research internship gives you a chance to explore how data science, genetics, and health technology come together. You’ll mostly work on dry lab projects, analyzing health data on a computer, with a few chances to be in a wet lab. You’ll have mentors to guide you as you learn to study things like how certain genes are linked to diseases or how wearable devices can help doctors make better decisions.
5. BrainSport Summer High School Research Internship at UCLA
Location: University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Cost: Free
Program dates: June 9 – August 1
Application deadline: April
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors intending to mentor interns in the next year
In the UCLA BrainSPORT internship, you’ll be part of research focused on concussions and brain injuries in kids and teens. You’ll work with doctors, researchers, and medical students on clinical projects, helping with things like finding participants, collecting data, and managing studies.
One major project you’ll support is CARE4Kids, which looks at brain injury symptoms through different tests and tools. Each week, you’ll join meetings with the research team to learn how brain science is done in real-world clinics. By the end of this internship, you’ll create and present a project on a topic you care about within this field.
6. Horizon Academic Research Program (HARP)
Location: Virtual
Application Date: Multiple deadlines throughout the year for the Spring, Summer and Fall cohorts.
Program Dates: The spring and fall cohorts run 15 weeks, while the summer cohort runs 10 weeks (June-September).
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.
Horizon runs trimester-long research programs for high school students in areas like data science, machine learning, political theory, and more. It’s one of the few programs where you get to choose between doing quantitative or qualitative research based on what interests you.
After you pick your subject track, Horizon pairs you with a professor or PhD scholar who guides you through the research process. During the program, you’ll work on a 20-page research paper that you can submit to journals for publication. You’ll also get a letter of recommendation and detailed feedback on your project to help you with future work. Although this isn’t an internship, it offers a super strong focus on research, as well as learning by doing!
7. Heithoff-Brody High School Scholars Program at the Salk Institute
Location: Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA
Cost: Free; interns are awarded a stipend.
Program dates: June 16–August 8
Application deadline: March 28
Eligibility: Must live in San Diego County, be at least 16 by the program start, have finished one year of high school biology and chemistry, attend a local high school, and have a GPA of 2.75 or higher.
In this eight-week biology program at the Salk Institute, you’ll get hands-on experience working in a real research lab. You’ll learn essential techniques like pipetting, running gel electrophoresis, and using microscopes, while also attending sessions on bioinformatics and data analysis. Along the way, you’ll take part in seminars and workshops that explain how your lab work connects to bigger discoveries in biology. At the end of the program, you’ll share what you worked on through a scientific poster or a presentation at a symposium with other students, mentors, and families.
8. Johns Hopkins Internship in Brain Sciences (JHIBS)
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free; virtual interns are provided a $500 stipend
Dates: 5 weeks (June to August)
Application deadline: December 1–March 1
Eligibility: Open to U.S. high school juniors and seniors
JHIBS is a virtual neuroscience internship where you’ll team up with research professionals from Johns Hopkins to work on projects about how the brain works, develops, or deals with disorders. It’s made for upper high school students and introduces you to the tools and techniques used in brain science. Along with research tasks, you’ll join discussions about scientific ethics, how to read and understand data, and the big issues researchers are working on today.
9. OPTIMUS Outreach Program
Location: Moores Cancer Center, UC San Diego
Cost: Free; a stipend is awarded to all participants.
Program dates: June 16–August 8
Application deadline: TBA
Eligibility: Open to students in grades 10 and 11 who reside in San Diego and attend Lincoln, Hoover, Crawford, Morse, Madison, Garfield, Mark Twain, or Preuss High Schools.
In the OPTIMUS program at UC San Diego, you’ll divide your time between cancer research and clinical observation. You’ll work in research labs on cancer-related projects and shadow doctors to see how those discoveries affect real patients. This mix of lab work and hospital experience helps you understand how science connects to medicine. You’ll also attend lectures and group sessions with medical students and researchers.
10. NYU Tandon’s Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering (ARISE)
Location: NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY
Cost: Free
Program dates: June 2–August 8
Application deadline: February 21
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors who are New York residents
ARISE lets you spend 10 weeks of your summer working in a real research lab at NYU. You’ll get to choose from over 80 labs in areas like machine learning, robotics, biomedical engineering, materials science, and more. After training in lab safety and academic writing, you’ll join a lab that matches your interests. With help from faculty and grad student mentors, you’ll work on research projects and later present your work at a colloquium and a poster symposium at the American Museum of Natural History.
11. The San Diego Natural History Museum Youth Internship Program
Location: San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego, CA
Cost: Free
Dates: Internships are offered all year round
Application deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: High school students 16 years and older
In the San Diego Natural History Museum Youth Internship Program, you’ll get hands-on experience in natural sciences by working in departments like Paleontology or Herpetology. You might help sort specimens, update collections, or use scientific guides to identify different species. You’ll also learn about how museums care for and manage their collections, along with basic lab safety. Since this internship is tied to school credit, you’ll need to be enrolled in an academic internship course to apply.
12. Stony Brook University’s Simons Summer Research Program
Location: Stony Brook University campus, Stony Brook, NY
Cost: Free
Program dates: June 30–August 8
Application deadline: February 7
Eligibility: High school juniors who are at least 16 years old by the program’s start date and are U.S. citizens or permanent residents are eligible to apply.
As a Simons Fellow, you’ll spend seven weeks working in a research lab at Stony Brook University, contributing to real STEM projects under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Alongside your lab work, you’ll attend seminars, write research abstracts, and create a poster presentation for a final symposium. You can choose from research areas like applied math, environmental science, and more. The program focuses on giving you serious, hands-on experience with how scientific research is done day to day.
13. George Mason University’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP)
Location: Remote, hybrid, and in-person at George Mason University
Program dates: June 18 – August 8
Application deadline: February 2
Eligibility: Students must be at least 15 years old for remote internships and at least 16 years old for in-person or hybrid wet-lab internships.
George Mason University’s ASSIP is a competitive, full-time summer program where you’ll work side by side with researchers on real projects in STEM and engineering. You’ll get hands-on lab experience in areas like environmental tech, robotics, or molecular biology, depending on what interests you. Along with your research, you’ll join weekly sessions on science communication and ethics. Many students end up contributing to papers or presentations after the program.
14. J. Craig Venter Institute’s High School Internship
Location: J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA
Cost: Free; $17/hour
Dates: May – August; 10-15 week opportunities are offered throughout the year
Application deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: High school students aged 16 and above
In the J. Craig Venter Institute’s High School Internship program, you’ll join a research team working in areas like synthetic biology, computational genomics, or environmental microbiology. Over several weeks, you’ll help with lab tasks, take part in journal clubs, and attend seminars to build new skills. You’ll work closely with mentors, getting regular chances to learn from researchers about how science happens in real labs. At the end of the program, you’ll put together a research poster and present it to scientists at the institute.
15. Stanford AIMI Summer Research Internship
Location: Virtual
Cost: $840 + $40 application fee (financial aid is available)
Program dates: June 16-27
Application deadline: December 9–February 28
Eligibility: High school students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents who will be 14 years or older by the program’s start are eligible.
Stanford’s AIMI Summer Research Internship is a two-week virtual program where you’ll explore how artificial intelligence connects with medicine and medical imaging. You’ll join lectures led by Stanford researchers, work on group research projects, and see how AI is being used in real healthcare settings. The program encourages you to think about current problems in healthcare and how technology can help fix them.
Image source – Stanford University