Extracurricular Deadlines in February — Programs to Apply to

February is the single busiest deadline month for competitive summer programs, research placements, and merit scholarships.

Most programs listed here run on annual cycles, so the February deadline pattern repeats every year — check each listing for the exact current date.

214 verified programs match this page; 23 of the featured listings are completely free; 6 can be done online.

Featured programs

Browse 30+ curated programs for high school students:

• Caltech Signature Award for Innovation — California Institute of Technology: Earn recognition for your groundbreaking ideas in science with this free high school research award. Boost your college applications and showcase your
• Amgen Scholars Program — Amgen Foundation: Transform your summer with a paid high school research internship in biotech. Conduct hands-on projects at top universities to boost skills and colleg
• Beaver Works Summer Institute — MIT: Elite summer program for high schoolers in Grades 10-11 focused on STEM fields like drones and cybersecurity. Gain hands-on experience and boost colle
• Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) — IMSA: Transform your high school journey with a free, residential STEM program in Illinois. Gain hands-on experience, boost college applications, and develo
• Stanford AI4ALL — Stanford University: Discover a free summer program empowering high school juniors with hands-on AI experience, skill-building for college applications, and diversity-focu
• Harvard Summer School — Harvard: Transform your summer with a 7-week program at Harvard. Earn college credit, deepen academic skills, and boost your college applications through hands
• Clark Scholars Program — Texas Tech: Elite summer research program for high school juniors and seniors. Gain hands-on STEM experience, earn a $750 stipend, and boost your college applicat
• Davidson Fellows Scholarship - Music Category — Davidson Institute: Prestigious music scholarship recognizing high school students with exceptional compositions. Boost your college applications and showcase your creati
• Davidson Fellows — Davidson Institute: Win $50k, $25k, or $10k scholarships in this elite STEM competition for high-achieving high school students. Boost college applications with hands-on
• Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition — Blue Ocean Global Network: Join the world’s largest virtual pitch competition for high school students. Build entrepreneurship skills, boost your college applications, and showc
• PROMYS at Boston University — Boston University: Explore number theory in a 6-week immersive summer program for high schoolers. Build research skills, enhance college applications, and dive into hand
• Vanderbilt Programs for Talented Youth (PTY) — Vanderbilt University: Summer and weekend academic enrichment programs at Vanderbilt for gifted K-12 students, offering fast-paced college-level courses in math, science, wr
• St. Gallen Symposium Wings of Excellence Essay Competition — St. Gallen Symposium Foundation: Top 100 essayists invited to prestigious annual symposium with global leaders. Fully funded trip to Switzerland. One of most selective student opportu
• Barry Goldwater Excellence in Education — Goldwater Foundation: Recognition program leading to Goldwater Scholarship eligibility in college.
• National Spanish Exam Gold Medal — AATSP: Top 2.5% of test-takers. National recognition in Spanish proficiency.
• Beta Alpha Psi High School Competition — Beta Alpha Psi: Financial literacy and accounting case competition. Regional and national levels.
• Stulberg International String Competition — Stulberg Competition: International string competition for young artists. Significant prizes.
• Economics Olympiad Regional Competitions — Various Universities: Regional rounds of the International Economics Olympiad. Top performers advance to national team selection for global competition.
• Carnegie Mellon AI Scholars — Carnegie Mellon University: Selective, merit-based AI program. Fully grant-funded. ~30 students work on real AI problem-solving.
• Stanford Compression Forum Summer Internship — Stanford University: Data compression research internship at Stanford. Work with researchers on multimedia compression.
• Fermilab TARGET Program — Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory: Summer research internship at premier US particle physics laboratory. Work with world-class physicists on cutting-edge experiments. Exceptional prepar
• St. Gallen Symposium Wings of Excellence — University of St. Gallen: Top 100 essayists meet global business and political leaders in Switzerland. One of the most selective business/leadership opportunities globally.
• National Spanish Examinations Gold Award — American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese: National Spanish proficiency exam with tiered awards. Gold medal recipients demonstrate exceptional Spanish language mastery.
• Whitehead Institute High School Research Program — Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: Biomedical research program at MIT-affiliated Whitehead Institute. Hands-on experience in cutting-edge life sciences research.
• Mount Sinai High School Research Program — Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Competitive summer research program at top NYC medical school. Students work in biomedical labs on real research projects. Strong pathway for medical/
• Mayo Clinic Summer Research Fellowship — Mayo Clinic: Clinical and biomedical research at world-renowned medical center.
• Carnegie Mellon CS Scholars (CSS) — Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science: Full-scholarship pre-college program in CS for rising seniors from underrepresented groups.
• SAMS (Summer Academy for Math and Science) at CMU — Carnegie Mellon University: 6-week free program for underrepresented students. Rigorous STEM curriculum. All expenses covered.
• Yale Science & Engineering Association Award — YSEA: Special award at ISEF and regional fairs for outstanding research.
• MITES Summer — MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs: Six-week, residential MIT program for underrepresented rising seniors in STEM.

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