*Note: NOT organized by field of research
About: The Rockefeller University Summer Science Research Program (SSRP) provides high school students with a unique and personalized opportunity to conduct hands-on research. For instance, students study under the mentorship of leading scientists at great research facilities. Overall, during this rigorous 7-week program, students immerse themselves in scientific culture while gaining an appreciation for discovery.
Age: 16+
Cost: Free (stipend paid)
About: Simons Summer Research Program gives high school students the opportunity to engage in hands-on research. Research subjects include science, math or engineering. In addition, Simons Fellows work with distinguished faculty mentors, learn laboratory techniques and tools, become part of active research teams, and experience life at a research university
Age: 16+
Cost: Free (stipend paid)
*must be nominated by a teacher before the student can initiate an application.
About: MDI Biological Laboratory offers summer research fellowship opportunities for high school students with an interest in developing science research skills. MDI welcomes applicants who desire hands-on, research training experience within an advanced laboratory.
Age: 16+
Cost: Free (stipend paid)
About: It's takes place at at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a cancer research institute. They only accept about 20-30 kids per year, so if there's anyone interested in applying, I would first encourage them to reach out to a post-doc or a lab investigator at MSKCC, then apply to HOPP to maximize their chances.
About: A unique 5 ½ week-long research experience for highly capable students. Participants conduct scientific research under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Thus, students spend approximately 40 hours a week working in labs on The University of Iowa campus.
Age: Current 10-11th graders
Cost: $6,395
About: Each summer, 80 students gather at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the Research Science Institute (RSI). In contrast to others, RSI is the first cost-free summer science & engineering program to combine on-campus course work in scientific theory with off-campus work in science and technology research.
Age: Rising 12th graders
Cost: Free
About: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides an opportunity to spend a summer working at the NIH side-by-side with some of the leading scientists in the world. Accordingly, these students work in an environment devoted exclusively to biomedical research.
Age: 17+
Cost: Free (stipend paid)
About: The UCSD Research Scholars program allows up to about 25 total students to each work individually with a UCSD Faculty researcher. They will do so in an actual Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biology or Nanotechnology lab on campus. In this case, this program offers both winter and summer sessions for these online summer programs.
Age: Rising 10-12th graders
Cost: $4,200
About: Students work one-on-one with researchers at George Mason University or collaborating institutions. Hence, students will use state-of-the-art technology to solve hypothesis driven questions in a variety of STEM and related fields.
Age: 16+
Cost: Free
About: The IU Simon Cancer Center Summer Research Program (SRP) aims to increase the number of under-represented high school and undergraduate students. Specifically, this program is for students pursuing biomedical and behavioral science careers. In order to do this, IU supports these students by providing first-hand exposure to these fields.
Age: Current 12th graders
Cost: Free (stipend paid)
About: The CHORI Summer Student Research Program allows students to immerse themselves in basic and/or clinical research for three months during the summer. More importantly, the program pairs students with one or two CHORI PI’s who serve as mentors, guiding the students through all phases of research. As such, the phases include: the research design, testing of their own hypotheses, and methodology growth. Coupled with these aspects, students present their research to their peers just as any professional researcher would do.
Age: Current 11-12th graders
Cost: Free
About: Students who are passionate about the sciences and entering their senior year of high school are invited to apply to the Research in Science & Engineering (RISE) program. RISE offers two tracks: Internship and Practicum. Because of this, you can spend six weeks at BU conducting university laboratory research with some of the nation’s brightest scientific minds and advance your knowledge and skills.
Age: Rising 12th graders
Cost: Residential student – $7500, Commuter student – $5000
About: The UPMC Hillman Cancer Center Academy, previously the UPCI Academy, strives to provide cutting edge research and career preparatory experiences. Like other programs, they seek a diverse group of highly motivated high school students. Above all, the program is designed for students who are pursuing higher education and careers in STEM fields, especially research and medicine.
Age: 15+
Cost: Free; Cost to reside on campus – $7,000
About: The Summer Youth Intensive Program (SYIP) is designed, organized and delivered by the College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley. However, SYIP is far from the traditional summer program. In fact, SYIP goes over the course of one year and serves students who are passionate about scientific research and who are focused on maximizing their future success in college. Importantly, it’s worth noting which online summer programs like this help you transition to college life.
Age: Rising 9-12th graders
Cost: Approx. $14, 500
About: Students learn the fundamentals of enzyme structure, function, and evolution. After that, each team of three combines bench experiments and computer tools to characterize a member of an enzyme family that is implicated in crop infection by fungal pathogens. In fact, students work with one which has never been modeled by anyone before.
Age: Rising 12th graders but will consider rising 11th graders too
Cost: $3,950 if online, or $6,950 if in-person
About: The National Eye Institute NIH Summer Internship Program (SIP) provides opportunities for students to spend the summer working with some of the world’s leading scientists. As a result, summer interns come to the NEI to participate in research projects.
Age: 17+ (In addition, applicants must reside approximately 40 miles of the NIH Bethesda campus at the time of application, if they are not eighteen by June 15, 2021)
Cost: Free, monthly stipend is paid
About: SIP is a summer-long (10 week) research internship program for high-school students in STEM fields. In other words, UCSC faculty, graduate students, and post-doctoral researchers provide one-on-one mentoring of these high-school interns. As you can see, this is a great opportunity to see how some online summer programs allow you to work at a collegiate level. The research projects are real, in that they are not made up just for the high-school students; instead, students are inserted into existing research projects here at UCSC.
Age: Must be 14 (or 16 for some projects)
Cost: Approx. $4,000
About: Rising high school juniors and seniors are invited to apply for an authentic STEM research experience at a world-class research university for 6 weeks during the summer. Given that they are accepted, students gain hands-on experience in various STEM fields.
Age: Current 10-11th graders
Cost: Free (stipend paid)
About: High school students are welcome to apply for an 8 week, paid summer research internship at Fred Hutch. Indeed, the Hutch has an international reputation for its pioneering research in biological sciences, bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, cancer prevention, epidemiology, and biostatistics.
Age: Rising 12th graders
Cost: Free (stipend paid)
About: Pioneer Academics is an online research program founded in cooperation between American university professors and international education experts. Its goal is to provide outstanding high school students around the world with challenging and creative research opportunities across a wide range of disciplines. Carry out research in the areas of natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences and humanities. This is one of several online summer programs especially equipped for digital learning.
Age: Current 9-12th graders
Cost: Approx. $6,500
About: The Research Mentorship Program is a competitive, six-week summer program that engages high-achieving high school students from all over the world in university-level research. Students will be paired up with a mentor (graduate student, postdoc, or faculty) and choose a research project from a large list of disciplines offered by the program each year.
Age: Current 10-11th graders
Cost: Approx. $10,500
About: Math ExpLR is a program in mathematical biology. Students will be paired up with undergraduates and work with a PI on a computational biology research project. In addition, there will be weekly activities in skills development, including how to give presentations, or how to write math on the computer. By the end of the project, all students will give a presentation about their research and submit an expository paper about their work.
Age: High school students
Cost: Not specified
About: The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. Their goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community, and many publications. You don’t need any specialized background, training, or expertise to participate in any Zooniverse projects. We make it easy for anyone to contribute to real academic research, on their own computer, at their own convenience. To volunteer just go to the Projects page, choose the one you like the look of, and get started.
Age: Any age
Cost: Free
About: Burke Neurological Institute invites interested and qualified undergraduate students to apply to this program. The purpose of this program is to give undergraduate students interested in pursuing a career in biomedical sciences the opportunity to conduct cutting edge research. Participants will be part of a laboratory research project related to neural repair and rehabilitation. Summer research scholars will have considerable direct interaction with their faculty mentors and the Burke staff.
Age: High school students
Cost: Free (stipend paid)