Paid Programs & Competitions for High School Students

Every program here pays YOU — stipends, hourly wages, or funded fellowships that cover costs and then some. Getting paid to do research or intern is a double win: real work experience plus proof that someone valued your output.

Paid seats are the scarcest kind (NIH SIP, Simons, SIMR, lab and industry internships), so treat the application like a job application: résumé tight, deadlines early, recommenders warned.

23 verified programs match this page; 22 of the featured listings are completely free.

Featured programs

Browse 23+ curated programs for high school students:

• 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
• Microsoft High School Internship Program — Microsoft: Paid summer internship offering hands-on computer science experience for high school juniors and seniors. Boost college applications while developing
• 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
• NIH Summer Internship Program — National Institutes of Health: Eight-week paid research internship at National Institutes of Health. Work alongside NIH scientists on biomedical research projects.
• WCS High School Internship Program — Wildlife Conservation Society: Explore a paid summer internship at the Bronx Zoo or New York Aquarium! Gain hands-on biology and conservation experience to boost skills and strength
• NIH Summer Internship Program in Biomedical Research — National Institutes of Health: Paid 8-week research internship at NIH. Work with leading scientists.
• Dow Jones News Fund — Dow Jones News Fund: Gain hands-on journalism experience through a paid hybrid internship for high school juniors and seniors. Build writing skills and boost your college
• Fred Hutch Summer High School Internship Program (SHIP) — Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center: Paid laboratory internships in cancer and biomedical research.
• AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellows — American Association for the Advancement of Science: Science communication internships at major media outlets.
• DOE Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships - HS Track — Department of Energy: Paid high school research internship offering hands-on STEM experience at DOE national labs. Boost your college applications while gaining real-world
• Fermilab TARGET Summer Research Program — Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory: Summer research at America's premier particle physics laboratory. Work with world-class physicists on cutting-edge experiments. Paid internship.
• Bank of America Student Leaders Program — Bank of America: Paid 8-week summer internship at local nonprofits plus DC leadership summit. Highly competitive.
• Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) — U.S. National Park Service (with USFS & USFWS partners): Join a paid summer program for high schoolers to protect public lands, gain hands-on conservation experience, and build skills for college and beyond
• Garcia Summer Scholars Program — Stony Brook University: Residential research program at Stony Brook University.
• NASA Internships - High School — NASA: Gain hands-on STEM experience through a paid NASA internship. Perfect for high school students in grades 10-12 to boost college applications and build
• Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center (KAYSC) — Science Museum of Minnesota: The Science Museum of Minnesota's youth development program where high schoolers (grades 9-12) work as paid museum employees on STEM crews in public h
• UCSF CURE High School Intern Program — UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center: Explore cancer research through this paid high school internship. Gain hands-on lab experience, mentorship, and a boost to your STEM skills for colleg
• Fermilab Program for Research, Innovation, and STEM Mentorship (PRISM) — Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory: Fermilab's four-week paid summer program ($500/week) for Illinois high school seniors and new graduates, combining hands-on STEM projects and mentorsh
• Teen Team — High Museum of Art: Paid year-long Teen Leadership Council of 15 high school students at Atlanta's High Museum of Art — behind-the-scenes museum work, program planning, a
• Michigan Science Center Explainers — Michigan Science Center: Paid year-long program hiring Detroit-area 10th-12th graders (about $13/hour, ~7 hours/week) to learn science-center operations and lead exhibit, stag
• High School Scientific Training and Enrichment Program (HiSTEP) — National Institutes of Health: Five-week paid NIH summer program ($2,150 stipend) in Bethesda, MD for rising seniors from DC/MD/VA schools with 30%+ free-or-reduced-lunch enrollment
• Sandia National Laboratories High School Internships — Sandia National Laboratories: Paid year-round internships at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM for students 16+, working up to 25 hours/week during the school year in
• St. Jude High School Research Immersion Program — St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: Eight-week paid summer research program ($4,800 stipend) at St. Jude in Memphis for rising seniors from the Memphis area and nearby TN/MS/AR counties,

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