Science Summer Programs

What you do with your summer matters a lot for college strategy. If you’re aiming for the ivies, the summer isn’t a time for rest. It’s a time to get research opportunities, push ahead in your sport or academic subject of choice, get into prestigious programs that you can add to your resume, and more. This is my resource to help you find the right summer programs and get into the college of your dreams.

Keep in mind, there are plenty of local programs that can be really amazing. I list the big ones here, but feel free to send me any local camps, courses, etc. that you think sound cool! I’ll look it over and let you know if it seems worthwhile.

Research Science Institute (RSI) at MIT

Age Range: only Juniors may apply
Location: MIT (Cambridge, MA)
When: June-August
Cost: Free
Deadline to Apply: Dec 11, 2024

RSI hosts students for math and science. It is perhaps the most respected summer program for science research, and it will nearly guarantee admission to ivies and MIT. You’ll start with some lectures and then focus your remaining weeks on research. By the end, you should have completed research, a paper, and an oral presentation.

Biolympiads Training (for USABO)

Age range: Middle & High Schoolers
Location: Online
When: Courses start year-round
Cost: ~$1000-$2000 depending on course length
Deadline to Apply: None, rolling admissions

The USA Biology Olympiad is one of the most challenging things you can do in the field. Biolympiads has a solid track record of producing winners, and they offer a Junior Bio Olympiad Training Course for middle school students. If you want to go heavy on biology, you can go for this. If you can get to the international round, you’re looking at nearly guaranteed admission to any school you want. But, if you’re not 1000% into biology, don’t go for this. Any of the Olympiad’s will take up a lot of time, so be prepared for this to become your number one activity. If it looks like you probably won’t progress very far, you should have a family conversation early on. It’s better to cut your losses and spend your time on other things that will get you into college than to sink your time into something that won’t benefit you.

How to advance through USABO

  • You’ll start out as early as possible doing local biology competitions and bees. I can help you search for these.

  • When you get to high school, you’ll make sure your school is registered for USABO.

  • If you score high enough in the USABO Open Exam (online), you’ll advance to the Semifinal Exam (online).

  • If you score high enough in the Semifinal Exam, you’ll advance to a training program where you’ll learn more biology, write a paper, conduct 6 lab assessments, and complete the National Finals Exam (in person).

  • The top four scorers in the National Finals will go to the International Biology Olympiad (in person).

Check out my page on additional training materials and USABO prep. It’s a lot of testing, a lot of studying. It’s intense. But, if you push yourself on this, you’ll benefit in math classes at school, on the SAT/ACT, and in your ability to work under pressure. I can even help you take extra science APs as early as middle school (common among students who pursue this path)!

NIH High School Summer Internship Program

Age Range: 11th & 12th graders, 17+
Location: Various campuses with specific areas of focus for their research
When: Varies by location, summer
Cost: Free with a stipend
Deadline to Apply: Feb 19, 2025 at noon ET

NIH High School Summer Internship Program (HS-SIP) is a well-respected and competitive program. Various locations and various topics.

Summer Science Program (SSP)

Age Range: 15-18 (Juniors & Exceptional Sophomores)
Location: Multiple locations
When: June-July
Cost: ~$8000
Deadline to Apply: mid-February

In SSP, you’ll choose from Astrophysics, Biochemistry, or Genomics. You’ll conduct research in groups and spend time learning and doing problem sets.

Simons Summer Research Program

Age Range: Juniors, 16+
Location: Stony Brook University (New York)
When: July-August
Cost: Free
Deadline to Apply: February

For Simons, you need to be nominated by your high school. You’ll want to express interest in this program in your Sophomore year or high school and reiterate your interest early in your Junior year. In Simons, you will come up with your own research question, and you will be paired with a research mentor who can help guide you. I can help you come up with your research question.

The Clark Scholars Program

Age Range: 17+ by the program’s start date
Location: Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX)
When: June-August
Cost: Free with a stipend
Deadline to Apply: mid-February

Clark Scholars will give you hands-on research experience. They release a list of research disciplines each year that you can choose from. Within that area, you’ll have some freedom to choose your own research topic.

Research in Science & Engineering (RISE)

Age Range: Juniors
Location: Boston University (Massachusetts)
When: June-August
Cost: ~$6000 commuter, $9000 residential
Deadline to Apply: mid-February

For RISE, you’ll apply to a particular research discipline and participate in existing research in that track.

Stanford Institutes of Medicine Research Program (SIMR)

Age Range: Juniors & Seniors, 16+
Location: Stanford University (heavy preference for local, Bay Area students)
When: June-August
Cost: Free
Deadline to Apply: Feb 22, 2025

SIMR will support you in medical research. They heavily favor local students. You will pick from eight areas of research, and you’ll be assigned based on your preferences. The eight areas are listed here.

Summer Student Program (HOPP)

Age Range: Freshman-Seniors, 14+ by the start of the program
Location: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (Manhattan)
When: June-August
Cost: Free with a stipend
Deadline to Apply: Feb 3, 2025

At HOPP Summer Student Program, you’ll conduct research with mentors, attend training sessions and tours, and participate in a final poster session presentation.

Garcia Center High School Summer Program

Age Range: 16+ by the start of the program
Location: Stony Brook University (New York)
When: June-August
Cost: ~$4000-$7000
Deadline to Apply: early March

At the Garcia Center Summer Program, you’ll design your own research project and work with faculty for seven weeks in the summer. If you live nearby, there is an option to continue that research throughout the year.

Science & Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP)

Age Range: 9th grade and up, 16+ by the start of the program
Location: Multiple locations
When: Varies by location
Cost: Free with a ~$4000 bi-weekly stipend
Deadline to Apply: November 1, 2025

SEAP is run by the Department of the Navy. If selected, they will place you in a DoN laboratory.

High School Honors Science, Math, and Engineering Program (HSHSP)

Age Range: Juniors
Location: Michigan State University
When: June-August
Cost: ~$4000
Deadline to Apply: early March

HSHSP is long-standing and interested in helping you foster a depth of interest in your favorite area of STEM. You’ll conduct research with peers and faculty.

MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science (MITES)

Age Range: Juniors
Location: MIT (summer program) or Online (semester program)
When: June-August (summer) or June-December (semester)
Cost: Free
Deadline to Apply: February 1, 2025

MITES does target underprivileged races and low-income families, but you can still apply if you don’t meet those criteria. Both programs confer strategic value. The summer program is great because it’s in person and completes before early decision in your senior year. The semester program is useful because you get more time with professors (even though it’s online), and you may produce more research, a paper, or other publications.

Secondary Student Training Program (SSTP)

Age Range: 10th & 11th grade
Location: University of Iowa (or Online)
When: June-July
Cost: ~$4500 Online or $7500 in person
Deadline to Apply: Mid-February

SSTP lists many research areas. You will be paired with a faculty mentor, and you’ll conduct research in a group for five weeks.

Research in the Biological Sciences (RIBS)

Age Range: 10th & 11th grade
Location: University of Chicago
When: June-July
Cost: ~$14000
Deadline to Apply: mid-January (priority), early March (regular)

RIBS is a strong program and you can get in as a sophomore, but it’s expensive. You do get 2 full course credits, so it’s a lot of work. That’s also where some of the cost comes from.

Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS)

Age Range: High School Students
Location: Nationwide
When: Main Symposia: Jan - Feb
Cost: Free, and you can win scholarship money!
Deadline to Apply: October - January (varies by region)

Backed by the Department of Defense, JSHS is free to participants. If you progress through the rounds, you can win scholarship money at the regional and national levels. There are 8 categories for the research you conduct. Research can be conducted independently or in teams.

Those programs above will confer a lot of College Strategy advantage on your application. And…they tend to benefit heavily from having prior research. So, how do you get that elusive “prior research”? Here are a few ideas.

In High School

  • Look for opportunities at colleges close to home. I live in Colorado. If I search “University of Colorado summer science research for high schoolers”, I find that they offer a STEM Research Experience, Science Discovery Summer, Young Scholars Summer Research Program, and more. That’s just from one Google search. Look up your local universities and see what they have to offer! These courses are often non-credit and much cheaper than the above options. They are also generally a bit easier to get into, but double check the age requirements.

  • Create your own research opportunity. I created a page that walks you through the research and cold emailing process.

  • Check out Lumiere Education or Pioneer Academics. These are less prestigious and less competitive, so they can help you build up your “prior research” to look more appealing for some of the hyper-competitive programs above. These online research programs pair you with a mentor to conduct research fully virtually. You’ll notice this option comes after creating your own research opportunity. If you create your own, you’ll email actual professors to try to secure an internship. If you enroll in these programs, you may end up working with a graduate student or other researcher, not a professor. But again, your goal here would be to gain prior experience.

  • Ask your science teachers if they have recommendations for local science programs.

  • Take the science fair seriously. Create a great experiment, and obviously don’t wait until the last minute! Try to take your experiment to states and beyond.

  • Ask your science teachers if you can use your school’s labs.

  • Conduct your own rigorous experiments at home.

  • Pursue Biology Olympiad (see above on this page).

  • Take additional courses outside of school.

Below you’ll find some programs for high schoolers that might help you gain experience and should be a bit less competitive to get into.

In Middle School

It will be almost impossible to get wet lab experience at the collegiate level while in middle school. That’s okay. You have other options.

  • Ask your science teachers if they have recommendations for local science programs.

  • Ask your science teachers if you can use your school’s labs (if you have a very science-heavy middle school) or if they could help you get access to high school labs.

  • Ask your school if you can take more advanced science courses. To do this, you’ll have to have the highest grades in your science classes so far.

  • Take the science fair very seriously. Create a really awesome experiment, and don’t wait until the last minute! Get your science teacher involved in your experiment, even if that just means talking to him/her about aspects of your project.

  • Conduct your own rigorous experiments at home. This can be something as simple as figuring out how to make the best kombucha. You can apply the scientific method to anything, and you can take detailed notes about anything.

  • Start studying for Biology Olympiad. This will give you an amazing foundation to prove your passions and strengths to professors competitive programs.

  • Take additional courses outside of school. While it is unlikely you can get into a lab at your age, you generally won’t see the same age requirements for an online or community college course.

  • Study areas of science that aren’t necessarily your first choice. You’ll see below, it’s far more likely to find a middle school summer camp doing marine biology than it is to find a middle school summer camp doing genetic editing. So, just do the marine biology, learn something cool, get the experience, and move on to the genetic editing (or whatever else you like) later.

  • Take extra math and writing courses as well! For most science, you’ll need a strong foundation in math. And for every application, you’re going to need to write several essays. Getting strong math and writing skills early on will always benefit you massively.

And fill your summers with science! Below you’ll find science summer programs that accept middle school students. These are not necessarily the most prestigious opportunities. Your goal here is to do something fun that will give you the prior experience to be a serious candidate for the more prestigious opportunities later on. This is not an exhaustive list. Feel free to explore opportunities specific to your area. I can vet them for you.

In Elementary School

  • Engage with Citizen Science. This is an easy way to get your elementary schooler involved with real science projects. They also have projects for older ages through adults!

  • Get science kits. KiwiCo has kits by category. Lakeshore Learning and Educational Innovations have a lot to offer as well. VSauce (a nerdy YouTuber) puts out Curiosity Box. Mark Rober (NASA engineer turned Apple product designer turned YouTuber) puts out Build Box with engineering projects. There are so many amazing options out there these days. Most of these kits ship once a month. I think that’s a great cadence.

  • Take extra science classes outside of school. You’ll likely want these to be in person, so just search “science enrichment elementary school” and you should find things local to you!

  • During down time, watch science YouTube channels and tv shows. Check out Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil deGrasse Tyson, The Magic School Bus on Netflix, Thomas Edison’s Secret Lab on Prime Video, SciGirls on PBS, Destination World by National Geographic, Earth to Luna on Prime Video, NOVA also on Prime, The Universe on the History Channel, Oh Yuck! on Prime, Backyard Science on ABC, DragonflyTV on PBS (they also have a website), Emily’s Wonder Lab on Netflix, and Planet Earth on Discovery. There are so many more options out there!

Here are a few summer programs that accept elementary schoolers.