Machine learning internships for high school students typically combine coding, data analysis, and real-world problem-solving. Instead of just learning theory, you’ll get to work on datasets, build simple models, and explore tools like Python, TensorFlow, or Jupyter notebooks. These internships often focus on applied projects such as image recognition, predictive modeling, or data visualization. Participating in an ML internship can significantly enhance your resume, as many are conducted by universities, research laboratories, or large organizations, providing valuable exposure to how machine learning is applied in science, healthcare, and technology.
Why should you choose an ML internship?
A machine learning internship lets you move beyond basic coding and start working with real datasets and algorithms. You’ll gain hands-on experience with programming languages like Python and tools such as NumPy, Pandas, and ML frameworks. These internships help you understand how models are trained, tested, and optimized. You’ll also develop problem-solving and analytical skills by tackling real technical challenges. Overall, they give you early exposure to how AI is applied in real industries.
If you’re exploring AI-related opportunities, you might also enjoy checking out our guides on Computer Engineering Programs for High School Students or Spring Coding Programs for High School Students in NYC.
With that, here are 15 machine learning internships for high school students!
15 Machine Learning Internships for High School Students
1. Meta Summer Academy
Stipend: Paid
Program Dates: June 16 – July 25
Application Deadline: December 1 – February 14
Location: Meta Headquarters, Menlo Park, CA
Who is Eligible: Current high school sophomores who are full-time residents of East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, North Fair Oaks, or Redwood City, CA; Must have a minimum 2.0 GPA; No prior tech experience required
Meta Summer Academy is a six-week program that places you inside one of the world’s leading tech companies, allowing you to work directly with Meta mentors on projects spanning software engineering, AI, and social technologies. By the second week, you’ll be working on an assigned project in areas like data science or software engineering, while also attending regular workshops on resume building, presentation skills, and professional communication. The program has a strong diversity and inclusion mission, and acceptance is highly competitive.
2. NASA SEES High School Summer Intern Program
Cost/Stipend: None
Program Dates: Virtual: May – early July; On-site: July 5 – 18
Application Deadline: February 22
Location: University of Texas at Austin Center for Space Research, Austin, TX + Remote options
Who is Eligible: U.S. high school sophomores or juniors (16+); Strong STEM interest required
This internship begins with structured distance-learning modules followed by remote collaboration with research mentors, and concludes with a two-week on-site research experience at UT Austin. You’ll work on NASA-aligned projects involving Earth and space science, such as satellite data analysis, climate systems, and geospatial modeling. The program integrates computational tools (including Python modules for some tracks) with scientific workflows like data interpretation, visualization, and systems modeling. Throughout the internship, you’ll collaborate in research teams, engage with scientists, and participate in technical discussions and speaker sessions. The program ends with a formal science symposium where you’ll present your findings.
3. NIH Summer Internship Program (SIP)
Stipend: Paid
Program Dates: 8 weeks in the summer
Application Deadline: February 18
Location: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD + Virtual options
Who is Eligible: Graduating high school seniors (17+) who reside within 40 miles of an NIH campus
During the NIH Summer Internship Program, you’ll get the chance to participate in biomedical research projects that use machine learning for large-scale data analysis. You may also get to work with genomic, clinical, or experimental datasets using Python and R. Projects often include building predictive models and visualizing research outcomes. During this internship, you’ll learn how ML supports healthcare research and scientific discovery. You’ll also work under mentors, who will guide you through technical workflows and research practices.
4. Microsoft High School Discovery Program
Stipend: Paid
Program Dates: Atlanta: July 6 – 31; Redmond: July 13 – August 7
Application Deadline: Opens in February (tentatively)
Location: Microsoft, Redmond, WA, or Atlanta, GA
Who is Eligible: Graduating high school seniors (rising college freshmen) planning to enroll in a bachelor’s degree program, living within 50 miles of Redmond, WA; Must be enrolled in a Western Washington school and have completed a pre-calculus or equivalent course
The Microsoft High School Discovery Program introduces you to applied machine learning through hands-on technical projects. You’ll practice coding, data cleaning, and simple model building, and you’ll get to work with real datasets and simple algorithms. You’ll also learn how AI solutions are designed in industry settings. The program offers the chance to gain hands-on project experience, develop professional skills, and gain mentorship from Microsoft employees.
5. Stanford AIMI Summer Research Internship
Cost: $2,400 + $45 application fee; Financial aid offered
Program Dates: Session A: June 15 – 26; Session B: July 6 – 17
Application Deadline: December 15 – February 20
Location: Virtual
Who is Eligible: High school students (14+) with strong math or computer programming skills or experience with a healthcare project
The Stanford AIMI Summer Research Internship is a two-week virtual program that teaches you how AI is applied to real medical challenges. The curriculum covers machine learning fundamentals, medical imaging AI, clinical applications, model evaluation, and more, with a focus on datasets. The program also includes expert-led lectures, career sessions with Stanford researchers, and mentorship from Stanford faculty and graduate students. Expect to do real data wrangling, bounding box annotation, and model evaluation as part of a small group research project. Strong Python fundamentals and comfort with linear algebra will help you get the most out of it.
6. EDIT AI Summer Internship
Cost/Stipend: None
Program Dates: June 13 – August 31
Application Deadline: March 15
Location: Virtual
Who is Eligible: High school students nationwide with a background in computer science and some prior exposure to ML/deep learning concepts
EDIT AI offers three tracks: Skills (foundational ML), Research (independent project work), and a more advanced track for experienced coders. You’ll work with Python and R in a high-performance computing environment, analyzing medical images using gigapixel imaging and applying NLP to clinical text data, all in service of real cancer detection and diagnostics research. Past intern projects have covered cancer detection, gigapixel image processing, biomedical text prediction, and more, with over 100 completed projects to date.
7. NYU Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering (ARISE)
Stipend: $1,000
Program Dates: June 2 – August 8
Application Deadline: February 27
Location: NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY
Who is Eligible: NYC high school students currently in 10th or 11th grade with a strong academic record and demonstrated STEM interest; Students from underrepresented backgrounds are strongly encouraged
ARISE immerses you in cutting-edge topics, including machine learning, AI, robotics, and bioengineering, through hands-on research in interdisciplinary NYU labs. The first four weeks consist of remote evening workshops on foundational concepts, followed by six weeks of full-day in-person lab work under the mentorship of NYU faculty and graduate researchers. You can contribute to research across roughly 50 different NYU labs, with ML-specific placements available in the Machine Learning for Good Lab and the Immersive Computing Lab. The program concludes with a research colloquium where you present your findings to NYU faculty, graduate students, and invited academic experts.
8. University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute (DSI) Summer Lab
Stipend: $5,600
Program Dates: June 15 – August 7
Application Deadline: January 12
Location: University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Who is Eligible: Current high school seniors residing in the Chicago area
During the DSI Summer Lab, you will be introduced to machine learning through project-based learning. You’ll work with real datasets and practice coding for data cleaning and modeling. Topics include basic algorithms, visualization, and analytical methods. You’ll also get to collaborate in teams and present your project’s results. The focus is on practical data-driven problem solving.
9. Brookhaven National Laboratory’s High School Research Program (HSRP)
Stipend: Paid
Program Dates: July 6 – August 14
Application Deadline: January 12 – March 20
Location: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY
Who is Eligible: High school students who have completed at least grade 11 (ages 16-18)
This highly competitive six-week program places you directly within BNL’s scientific community, where you will work on hands-on projects that support the Department of Energy’s mission in energy, environmental, and nuclear science. Past student projects have included work that’s directly publishable; one notable example involved computational studies of inhibitor drugs that disrupt proteins helping infectious particles escape from cells, done in support of COVID-19 research. You’ll collaborate with BNL’s scientific and engineering staff on-site and wrap up the program with a poster session or oral presentation of your research. Projects span areas like computational biology, environmental data analysis, and physics simulations, all of which frequently involve ML and data science tools.
10. UC Berkeley: Experiences in Research (EinR)
Stipend: Paid
Program Dates: June 15 – July 24
Application Deadline: February 2 – March 22
Location: Berkeley Lab, Berkeley, CA (virtual options offered)
Who is Eligible: Current high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors (16+) from Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco Counties; Must live within a 20-mile radius of Berkeley Lab and have a GPA of 3.0+
Funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, EinR matches you with a Berkeley Lab mentor and places your project under one of four tracks: Administration or Communications, Coding-Dependent, Data Science, or Experimentation and Data Collection. You’ll work 30-35 hours per week, including 5-10 hours of structured workshops, meetings, and career talks alongside independent project work. Past data science interns have built network data visualizations using Python libraries like Matplotlib, working through real challenges in data wrangling and visual design. You’ll present your work at the final Summer Student Graduation and Symposium alongside other Berkeley Lab interns. Only about 10% of applicants are accepted, so demonstrated experience with independent, long-term projects is a real differentiator in the application.
11. Los Alamos National Laboratory High School Internship Program
Stipend: Paid
Program Dates: Multiple cohorts in a year
Application Deadline: Varies by cohort
Cost: Free
Location: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM
Who is Eligible: NM high school juniors and seniors (16+) with a GPA of 2.75+
At one of the U.S.’s leading national security research labs, you’ll work directly alongside scientists on projects spanning computational science, AI, and engineering. During the school year, you will work part-time; whereas, summers are full-time for roughly 10 weeks. Project areas can include machine learning for image processing, predictive modeling, simulations, and data analysis, with coding in Python or C++ as a core requirement. Each hiring cycle has a dedicated Project Description Book listing specific available projects, so you can target work that matches your interests before applying.
12. Carnegie Mellon AI Scholars Program
Cost/Stipend: None
Program Dates: June 20 – July 18
Application Deadline: February 1
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Who is Eligible: U.S. high school juniors and seniors (16+)
This four-week residential program runs Monday–Friday, 9 AM–6 PM, combining college-level AI coursework taught by CMU faculty with hands-on group projects, guest lectures, and industry engagement with leading tech companies. About a month before arrival, you’ll complete a virtual pre-program Python course with no prior coding experience required to get up to speed before the on-campus sessions begin. The core curriculum covers foundational AI and ML concepts, including supervised learning, classification, and model building, all applied to real-world problem sets. You’ll work on a capstone group project throughout the program, presenting it at a closing symposium to peers and instructors. Weekly college prep seminars on admissions, financial aid, and a writing workshop where you leave with a completed, peer-reviewed college application essay round out the experience alongside the technical work.
13. NYU Machine Learning (ML)
Cost: $3,180; Financial aid offered
Program Dates: Varies by session
Application Deadline: April 17 (Session 1); May 1 (Session 2&3)
Location: NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY
Who is Eligible: High school students (14+) with a GPA of 3.0+; Must have completed Algebra 2 and have some prior programming experience in any language
This two-week program explores the computer science, mathematics, and logic underlying real-world machine learning applications, including video and image recognition, autonomous vehicles, voice control systems, and diagnostic medical technologies. Courses are delivered by Tandon faculty members actively engaged in advanced AI and machine learning research, with graduate student instructors assigned to each class, which is limited to a maximum of 24 students. The week-one mini group project and week-two capstone submission provide structured milestones for you to work toward.
14. Sandia National Laboratories Internships
Stipend: Paid
Program Dates: Multiple cohorts + year-round internships
Application Deadline: Varies by internship
Location: Various Sandia locations
Who is Eligible: U.S. high school seniors (16+) with a GPA of 2.5+
Sandia’s Intern Institute Program places you within discipline-specific teams across areas including cybersecurity, energy security, engineering design, and software development. Each institute is structured around a group of mentors working with interns on real-world projects tied to Sandia’s national security mission. Each internship is assigned within one of Sandia’s departments under a dedicated mentor, with the scope, deliverables, and schedule tailored to the specific project and team. For ML-adjacent roles, expect work in areas like signal processing, computational modeling, or AI for sensing systems. Some internships can convert to full-time employment, making this one of the few high school programs with a genuine long-term career pathway at a national lab.
15. MITRE High School Student Program
Stipend: Paid
Program Dates: 10-12 weeks
Application Deadline: Rolling
Location: Various MITRE locations across the U.S. (McLean, VA; Bedford, MA; Tampa, FL; Ann Arbor, MI; and others)
Who is Eligible: Current high school students with U.S. citizenship; Must be authorized to work permanently in the U.S. (no sponsorship); Strong coursework in computer science, math, or engineering recommended
MITRE is a not-for-profit federally funded research and development organization that works on national security, cybersecurity, healthcare, and AI challenges for the U.S. government. As a high school intern, you’ll be placed within a discipline-specific team, like ML and AI-adjacent roles, covering areas including machine learning for signal processing, AI for defense systems, data analysis, and computational modeling. You’ll work 10-12 weeks alongside senior technical staff, attending technical talks, mentorship sessions, and networking events.
One more option – Horizon Academic Research Program
If you’re looking for a competitive mentored research program, consider applying to Horizon’s Research Seminars and Labs! This is a selective virtual research program that lets you engage in advanced research and develop a research paper on a subject of your choosing. Horizon has worked with 1000+ high school students so far and offers 600+ research specializations for you to choose from. You can find the application link here!
Image Source – The University of Chicago