What is a Program?
Research programs give you access to tools and techniques that don’t show up in a standard high school science class. Whether you’re interested in foundational wet lab techniques like PCR, gel electrophoresis, histology, cell imaging, and genotyping, or want to learn computational skills like Python, data cleaning, statistical analysis, and machine learning, there are programs you can find that can teach you in more depth. Some common skills you will be able to learn are study design, collaborative work, the scientific method, and the art of presenting to an audience. You’ll also develop the practice of reading and critiquing primary scientific literature in journal clubs, and writing up your findings as a formal research paper or poster. These are strong, useful skills that will serve you well in multiple career areas.
Why should you choose a program in the Bay Area?
Within a 50-mile stretch, the Bay Area contains Stanford University and its medical school, UCSF, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center, and the Joint BioEnergy Institute. A majority of these prestigious institutions run programs accessible to high school students. The region is also the core of the US biotech and life sciences industry, with Genentech headquartered in South San Francisco and a dense cluster of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies operating throughout the peninsula, East Bay, and South Bay. The combination of research universities, national laboratories, and private industry means many programs here draw on the broader ecosystem, through field trips to active research facilities, guest speakers who are working scientists and clinicians, and mentors whose careers span both academic and industry science. If you’re interested in biomedicine, data science, computational biology, or environmental research, the Bay Area has an excellent concentration of rigorous programs accessible locally without requiring you to travel or relocate for the summer. There are also virtual programs you can apply for if you’re looking for a particular niche not available in the area.
In this article, we’ve tried to appeal to both formats across a variety of fields. You could also check out this article if you’re interested in summer programs specifically, in the San Francisco region.
Key Takeaways
- The Bay Area offers an exceptional concentration of high school research programs, with placements available at Stanford, UCSF, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NASA Ames, and the Joint BioEnergy Institute
- Most programs on this list are free and several are paid, including UCSF CURE, UCSF SSRP ($3,000 stipend), iCLEM ($3,000), and Lawrence Berkeley EinR ($500/week), making elite research experience accessible regardless of financial background
- Programs span a wide range of fields including biomedical research, genomics, bioinformatics, environmental science, AI in medicine, and bioenergy, with both wet lab and computational tracks available
- Most programs run 6 to 8 weeks over the summer and conclude with a poster session or symposium presentation, giving students real practice communicating research findings to professional scientific audiences
15 Programs for High School Students in Bay Area
1. Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR)
Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Cost: Free apart from a $50 application fee
Acceptance Rate: Extremely selective, only ~50 students chosen per cohort
Dates: June 8 – July 30
Application Deadline: February 21
Eligibility: U.S. citizens/permanent residents who are juniors and seniors currently attending high school in the U.S. and are at least 16 by the program start date
SIMR places you inside a Stanford medicine lab for 8 weeks, working one-on-one with a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow on real biomedical research. You get to choose from eight research areas when you apply: Immunology, Neurobiology, Cancer Biology, Bioengineering, Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Cardiovascular Biology, Bioinformatics, and Genetics and Genomics. The day-to-day work is shaped by the specific lab you’re placed in, so the techniques you develop and the questions you pursue will be both distinct and practical. There’s also a Bioengineering Team Internship track where, instead of individual bench work, you’ll join a team of four or five students and move through the full biodesign cycle of identifying a medical need, building and testing solutions, and presenting a finished prototype at the final poster session. Past teams have built things like a light-based cancer diagnostic tool and a machine learning-powered football helmet designed to predict concussions in real time.
2. Stanford Science, Technology, and Reconstructive Surgery (STaRS) Internship
Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective; only around 20 participants are chosen
Dates: June 15 – August 7
Application Deadline: Generally in the preceding winter – keep an eye on the program website for details
Eligibility: U.S. high school or community college students, 16+
STaRS puts you inside Stanford’s Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery labs for 8 weeks, where you’ll work through a research project under the mentorship of clinician-scientists who are actively doing this work themselves. You’ll develop hands-on fluency in lab techniques, including histology, imaging, and genotyping, while also building skills in scientific communication through workshops on presentations, technical writing, and how to structure research findings. The subject matter spans molecular biology, cellular biology, computational sciences, materials science, and biomedical engineering. At the end of the summer, you’ll present your findings at a showcase attended by mentors and the broader Stanford Pediatrics research community. Prior lab experience is not expected or required, making STaRS both highly prestigious and a solid introductory experience for students who are just starting in research.
3. UCSF CURE Research Internship
Location: Multiple UCSF campuses, San Francisco, CA
Cost: Free! This is a paid internship.
Acceptance Rate: Extremely selective
Dates: June 15 – August 7
Application Deadline: February 8
Eligibility: Current 11th graders or CCSF students, aged 16+, with a minimum GPA of 2.5. Must have completed Biology or Chemistry with a grade of B or better
CURE places you in a UCSF research lab for 8 full-time weeks, where you’ll take on an independent research project in one of three areas: basic science, clinical research, or behavioral and population sciences. Your work is shaped by the specific mentor you’re matched with from UCSF’s faculty, postdoc, and graduate student community, and by the live research questions that the lab is actively investigating. Past projects have included creating cell lines to study chromosome looping and targeting genetic drivers to treat hepatocellular carcinoma. The program concludes with a Research Symposium where you will present your findings to the UCSF scientific community, providing real-world experience in communicating research at a professional level. Career development and college prep are threaded throughout, with dedicated sessions on Fridays running alongside the core research work.
4. Stanford Pediatrics Internship Program (PIPS)
Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Cost: No cost; students demonstrating financial need receive a $3,000 stipend
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective
Dates: June 8 – July 24
Application Deadline: February 23
Eligibility: Rising juniors or seniors, 16+, residing and attending high school in specific Northern California counties. Must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. Full criteria available here.
PIPS gives you real-world research experience in pediatrics and maternal-child health, even if you’ve never worked in a lab before. You’ll spend the bulk of your hours working directly in a Stanford Pediatrics research lab on a project guided by faculty and their team of postdoctoral scholars and lab staff, and you’ll close out the 7 weeks by presenting a scientific poster at a symposium open to families and the Stanford research community. What distinguishes PIPS from many similar programs is the Near Peer Mentor structure, which pairs every intern with two or three Stanford undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, along with program alumni. You’ll meet with those near-peer mentors weekly to talk through your progress, your questions, and what careers in medicine and science look like from the inside. The 6 hours per week of cohort workshops cover how to conduct and communicate research, exploration of careers across science and medicine, and leadership development.
5. Stanford Genomics Research Internship Program (GRIPS)
Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Cost: None, except a $55 application fee
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective
Dates: June 15 – August 6
Application Deadline: February 28
Eligibility: High school students from Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, or Contra Costa counties, aged 16+, with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Must have some prior knowledge of biology, chemistry, or computer programming.
GRIPS lets you work in a Stanford Department of Genetics lab for 8 weeks on a real genomics research project under the supervision of a faculty mentor. The work sits at the intersection of computational genetics and genomics. So whether you come in with a stronger biology background, a stronger computer science background, or a mix of both, the project will draw on data analysis and molecular reasoning in roughly equal measure. Weekly journal clubs are a consistent feature, training you to read and critically discuss current scientific literature. Career panels and seminars with researchers across biomedical fields run throughout the summer, connecting you with scientists to understand what careers in genomics look like from the ground level. Your work contributes to active research, and while publication isn’t the norm on an 8-week timeline, the mentorship and technical grounding you build are the real takeaways.
6. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Experiences in Research (EinR)
Location: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
Cost: No cost; this is a paid internship offering a $500/week stipend
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective
Dates: June 15 – July 24
Application Deadline: March 22
Eligibility: High school students in grades 10–12 enrolled in a Northern California high school, aged 16+
EinR connects you with active projects at the federally funded Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for a 6-week research program over the summer. You will have the choice of working on a project that centers on data science, experimental research, and coding-intensive projects, or science communication and administration. You’ll work 30 to 35 hours a week alongside Berkeley Lab scientists and staff as a contributing member of the project team. There will be professional development workshops on Tuesday afternoons and research and career talks on Friday mornings, which bring in Berkeley Lab staff and Bay Area professionals to discuss STEM careers from a range of vantage points.
7. UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Summer Student Research Program (SSRP)
Location: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Oakland, CA
Cost: Free; participants are paid a $3,000 stipend
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective
Dates: June 15 – July 31
Application Deadline: February
Eligibility: High school students in grades 10–12 who have completed at least one year of math and one year of biology and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Must be 16+ by June 1 and be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
SSRP pairs you one-on-one with a healthcare provider or researcher at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, where you’ll spend 7 weeks contributing to an active biomedical research project. The type of work you do depends on your placement: some interns work in basic science labs on biological mechanisms, others contribute to clinical research involving patient data or healthcare delivery, and others take on community or public health projects focused on population-level outcomes. In addition to the lab work itself, weekly seminars bring in MDs and PhDs from UCSF and regional healthcare systems to present on their research, giving you regular exposure to science and medicine beyond your immediate placement. A weekly journal club runs throughout the summer, building the habit of reading, interpreting, and critically engaging with scientific literature. The program ends with a Research Symposium where every intern presents their project findings to the scientific community.
8. iCLEM — Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI)
Location: Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, CA
Cost: Free; participants are paid a $3,000 stipend
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective
Dates: June 8–12 virtual prep + June 15 – July 24 in-person
Application Deadline: March 20
Eligibility: High school sophomores and juniors aged 16+ who are residents of Alameda, Contra Costa, or San Francisco county, with a household income below the HUD low-income threshold for the county of residence. Must have a GPA of at least 2.5 and have completed Algebra 1 and Biology
The iCLEM at the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville is a six-week in-person research intensive focused on the biological science underlying next-generation bioenergy. You’ll work in JBEI’s laboratories alongside researchers and UC undergraduate teaching assistants, building hands-on technical skills in methods like gel electrophoresis and PCR while working through concepts in microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, synthetic biology, and biofuels. Field trips to Bay Area biotech and pharmaceutical companies run throughout the program, giving you an in-depth look at how applied science in the life sciences industry actually operates.
9. Stanford Young Investigators
Location: Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective
Dates: Third Tuesday in June – first Thursday in August
Application Deadline: March 15
Eligibility: Students who have completed at least one year of high school and live and attend school within 25 driving miles of the Stanford campus. Only Bay Area residents can apply.
Young Investigators places you inside an active Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability research group for 8 weeks, working 20 hours a week alongside graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and lab managers on real ongoing projects. Available research tracks include Biodiversity, Oceans, Geology, Energy, Environmental Science and Engineering, Agriculture, and Social Sciences. Twice weekly, the full cohort comes together for talks, lab tours, and field trips covering the broader field of earth and environmental sciences, and you’ll spend the rest of your days conducting independent research. The summer closes with a final presentation at Stanford.
10. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Director’s Apprenticeship Program (BLDAP)
Location: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective
Dates: June 16 – July 24
Application Deadline: March 22
Eligibility: Current 10th or 11th graders in Alameda, San Francisco, or Contra Costa county public schools, aged 16+, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents
BLDAP takes you through a Python programming course, a data science curriculum, and a series of scientific projects and bioscience experiments, building a skill set that sits at the intersection of computation and biological research. You get to work with Berkeley Lab researchers and operations staff, building your understanding of how a national lab functions, from the science to the operational side, and developing your technical abilities. The program targets students who haven’t necessarily had access to professional STEM networks, and that intent shapes both the content and the culture of the experience. College and career guidance runs in parallel with the technical work, connecting the skills you’re building to what comes next. The six weeks end with a final presentation at Berkeley Lab, giving you practice communicating data-driven work to a real institutional audience.
11. Aspiring Scholars Directed Research Program (ASDRP)
Location: Fremont, CA
Cost: $1,070
Acceptance Rate: Selective, with only around 30% of applicants selected for the summer term
Dates: June 1 – August 30 for the summer term
Application Deadline: April 15 for the summer term
Eligibility: All high schoolers
ASDRP allows you to conduct original, publishable research in a purpose-built facility with professional-grade scientific equipment. It matches you with a mentor who holds real academic or industry credentials in your field, and together you design and execute an actual investigation that expands current knowledge. Every researcher writes a paper, goes through a mock peer-review process, and has the opportunity to publish in ASDRP Communications, and many also present at the program’s biannual Expo and Symposium and at external academic conferences. The research spans biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, psychology, medicine, and engineering, and students have access to more than $4 million in laboratory equipment across multiple specialized facilities in Fremont.
12. California Academy of Sciences Careers in Science (CiS) Intern Program
Location: California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective
Dates: Year-round program, running on weekdays in summer and Saturdays during the school year
Application Deadline: Application cycle opens in February; keep an eye on the website for details
Eligibility: Current 9th or 10th graders who are San Francisco residents and enrolled full-time in an SFUSD school
CiS is a multi-year, year-round internship that starts when you enter as a 9th or 10th grader and carries through to graduation, making it something fundamentally different from a single-summer commitment. You’ll work on the public floor of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, facilitating science learning for museum visitors. You’ll also spend time in research project groups where you will conduct field research and environmental data collection under the direction of Academy scientists. The skills development here is cumulative: science communication, research methodology, leadership, and professional practice build on each other across the years you’re in the program. Training sessions, scientific lectures, workshops, and conferences give you ongoing exposure to careers across the natural sciences, and participation in the Leadership Council is a structured way to take on real programmatic responsibilities as you advance through the program.
13. Stanford AIMI Summer Research Internship
Location: Virtual
Cost: $2,400
Acceptance Rate: Highly selective
Dates: June 15–26 OR July 6–17
Application Deadline: February 21
Eligibility: High school students in grades 9–12, aged 14+, who are U.S. residents attending a U.S. high school
AIMI puts you inside the applied field of artificial intelligence in medicine through a two-week virtual program. You’ll work in a small team on a health AI research project guided by Stanford Student Leads and research mentors. The curriculum moves through machine learning fundamentals, medical imaging AI, clinical data applications, model evaluation, and responsible AI, all delivered through lectures by Stanford researchers and clinicians who work in these areas. You’ll frame a research question, work with real-world data, and communicate findings in a format that mirrors what professional researchers actually do. In past cohorts, teams have built ML algorithms to detect medical tubes in chest X-rays and trained convolutional neural networks to evaluate endotracheal tube positioning in clinical images, which gives you a sense of how technically substantive the work can get. A guest speaker series throughout the two weeks brings in perspectives from academia, healthcare, industry, government, and nonprofits, broadening the view of where health AI is heading and who is doing that work.
14. NASA GeneLab for High Schools (GL4HS)
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate: Selective
Dates: June 1 – August 28
Application Deadline: March 15
Eligibility: Rising juniors, rising seniors, or graduating seniors who have completed at least one high school biology course and have a GPA of 3.0+. Must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
GL4HS is a 12-week virtual program hosted by NASA Ames Research Center that introduces you to omics-based bioinformatics and has you analyzing complex biological data, including genomic sequences, to understand how living systems respond to the conditions of spaceflight. The program is largely asynchronous and self-paced. It is built around modules covering computational biology, data science techniques, and the biological science that underlies NASA’s space life sciences research, including virtual field trips and networking opportunities with scientists and engineers. You and your teammates develop a bioinformatics research proposal responding to genuine scientific questions about how biology changes in space, which you then present at the Capstone Showcase in September. The top 8 teams are invited into a written proposal run-off, and the top 3 may earn an all-expenses-paid trip to the annual American Society for Gravitational and Space Research conference to present their work to the professional community.
15. UCSF PITCH (Program for Investigation and Training in Careers in Health)
Location: Multiple UCSF campuses, San Francisco, CA
Cost: Free
Acceptance Rate: Competitive
Dates: July 6 – 24
Application Deadline: March 1
Eligibility: Rising sophomores and juniors with at least a 2.5 GPA
PITCH’s focus is on exploring health and science careers through a direct combination of lab participation, faculty engagement, and group research. You’ll be mentored by current UCSF graduate students, which gives you access to a broad cross-section of the healthcare professions. The research component has you contributing to a group project and presenting your findings at the PITCH Health Symposium at the close of the program. You will receive college advice runs throughout in both one-on-one and small group formats, addressing academic preparation and the realities of navigating the application process from a first-generation perspective. PITCH is designed as an introductory experience rather than an advanced research placement, so it works particularly well as a first exposure to professional science and medicine before you pursue more intensive programs in later high school years.
One more option – Horizon Academic Research Program
If you’re looking for a competitive mentored research program in subjects like data science, machine learning, political theory, biology, and chemistry, 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!
Frequently Asked Questions
What programs are available for high school students in the Bay Area? Bay Area high schoolers can access research programs at Stanford (SIMR, STaRS, PIPS, GRIPS, Young Investigators, AIMI), UCSF (CURE, SSRP, PITCH), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (EinR, BLDAP), NASA Ames (GL4HS), the Joint BioEnergy Institute (iCLEM), and the California Academy of Sciences (CiS). Programs span biomedical research, genomics, environmental science, computational biology, and AI in medicine.
Do I need prior research or lab experience to apply? Not always. STaRS, PIPS, PITCH, and iCLEM explicitly welcome students without prior lab experience. Programs like GRIPS and SIMR benefit from some background in biology, chemistry, or computer science. BLDAP and EinR are designed to build skills from the ground up. More competitive placements like SIMR and UCSF CURE may favor students with stronger academic preparation, but prior research experience is rarely a formal requirement.
Are there paid Bay Area research programs for high school students? Yes. UCSF CURE, UCSF SSRP, and iCLEM each provide a $3,000 stipend. Lawrence Berkeley EinR pays $500 per week. Stanford PIPS provides a $3,000 stipend for students demonstrating financial need. ASDRP charges a program fee but is not stipend-based. Most other programs on this list are free with no associated cost.
Are there Bay Area programs for students interested in computational or data science research? Yes. BLDAP at Lawrence Berkeley covers Python programming and data science alongside bioscience experiments. GRIPS sits at the intersection of computational genetics and molecular biology. Stanford AIMI focuses on machine learning in medicine. NASA GL4HS is built around bioinformatics and omics data analysis. EinR also offers a data science and coding-intensive project track.
How selective are Bay Area high school research programs? Highly selective across the board. SIMR and UCSF CURE are among the most competitive, each placing roughly 50 students from a large national applicant pool. ASDRP accepts around 30% of summer applicants, making it one of the more accessible options. CiS at the California Academy of Sciences is limited to SFUSD students in 9th and 10th grade. Programs targeting underrepresented students, including iCLEM and BLDAP, have eligibility criteria that narrow the applicant pool by geography and income.
When should I apply for Bay Area high school research programs? Most deadlines fall between late February and late March. UCSF CURE closes in early February, Stanford SIMR and PIPS close in late February, and Stanford GRIPS, Young Investigators, and Lawrence Berkeley programs close in mid to late March. ASDRP closes in April for its summer term. Reviewing program requirements in the fall and requesting recommendation letters early gives you the strongest position going into application season.
Image Source: NASA