Medical Research Internships for High School Students: 2027 Guide

Medical research internships for high school students put you in a hospital or research institute lab, working on a real project under a scientist mentor, usually for six to ten weeks in the summer. Most of them are free, many pay a stipend, and almost all of them are local: they take students from one city or state. This guide lists the programs, checked on each official site in October 2026, with age rules, 2027 deadlines and what to do if none of them are near you.

Want to do medical research with a PhD mentor, from anywhere? See if you qualify for the STEM Research Program →

Research internship or career internship?

Search for "medical internships for high school students" and you will find two different things under one name:

Research internships place you with a principal investigator in a lab or clinical research group. You work on an open question and usually finish with a poster or presentation.
Career or clinical exposure programs let you rotate through hospital departments, learn basic skills and meet nurses, doctors and technicians. They are useful if you are deciding on a career in medicine, but you do not do research.

Both are worth doing. They are not the same thing on a college application. A research internship gives you your own project and a mentor who can describe your work. This guide focuses on research and lists the best-known career programs separately.

Medical research also covers more than wet-lab biology. Hospitals run clinical research (patient data and studies), public health and epidemiology, psychology and data science. If you are under 16 or cannot work in a lab, the data side is often the easier way in.

Medical research internships at hospitals and cancer centers

These programs place high school students in a research group at a hospital or research institute. Check the location rule first, because it rules out most applicants.

West

UCSF High School Intern Program (San Francisco): an eight-week paid internship, 35 hours a week, for current juniors at San Francisco public (SFUSD) or SF charter high schools. Each intern does a research project with a UCSF scientist mentor and also gets college counseling. UCSF says it does not use grades to select interns. It looks for maturity, persistence, science interest and motivation. The 2026 deadline was February 8; for 2027, UCSF has an interest form.
Fred Hutch Summer High School Internship Program (Seattle): an eight-week, full-time paid internship for rising 12th graders. Two weeks of lab training (pipetting, tissue culture, DNA isolation, PCR), then six weeks in pairs in a Fred Hutch research group. International students are not eligible. You need two recommendations. Information for 2027 is posted in November.
Seattle Children's Research Training Program (Seattle): four weeks in person for students in 10th or 11th grade who live within commuting distance of downtown Seattle. There is no cost, and students receive a stipend. Each student does an independent project and gives an oral presentation. Applications for 2026 opened in January.
Huntsman Cancer Institute PathMaker Scholars (Salt Lake City): a ten-week residential cancer research program for high school and undergraduate students, 40 hours a week, with compensation. The program pays housing and meals for out-of-state students. Students who complete it are accepted into the next summer's program without reapplying. The 2026 deadline was February 1.

Most of these programs take students from one city. Ours is online, so location doesn't matter. See if you qualify for the STEM Research Program →

South, Midwest and East

St. Jude High School Research Immersion Program (Memphis): eight weeks, June 1 to July 24, 2027, for current juniors in the Memphis area and nearby counties of Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. You must be 16 or older, have a GPA of at least 3.0 and be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Students work in pairs with a research mentor in laboratory, clinical or data science research, receive a stipend and finish with a poster at a community exhibition. Applications close Friday, December 4, 2026.
Children's National Hospital (Washington, D.C.): its research labs take high school interns during the year. You must be 15 and a rising junior or senior. Its METEOR program is a seven-week summer internship in neuroscience research for D.C.-area high school students.
Mayo Clinic SPARK (Jacksonville, Florida): mentored research for rising juniors and seniors in areas such as cancer biology, immunology, neuroscience, drug development, epidemiology and artificial intelligence. It needs at least 40 hours a week in the summer, plus time during the school year. The 2027 program runs from June 3 to December 4.
MD Anderson High School Summer Program (Houston): ten weeks of research with a faculty member, with a stipend, for Texas high school seniors who are 18 by the start date and already accepted to college. Previous lab experience is not required. Applications open November 16, 2026 and close January 13, 2027.
UT Health San Antonio and Northside ISD Summer Research Mentorship: free, unpaid research with a UT Health faculty member, Monday to Friday from June to early August, for Northside ISD students who are at least 16.

National and university medical research programs

These programs accept students from a wider area, but each one has its own limits.

Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR): eight weeks, tentatively June 7 to July 29, 2027, for juniors and seniors who are 16 by the start date and are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Stanford says selection heavily favors Bay Area students. There is an application fee, with fee waivers. Applications are due in late February 2027.
NIH Summer Internship Program: six to eight weeks in basic and clinical research labs at the National Institutes of Health, mainly in Bethesda, Maryland. It is open to high school students among others. Age and citizenship rules differ by program; the NIH Clinical Center's internship, for example, requires students to be 18. Check the NIH training site before you plan around it.
Stanford AIMI Summer Research Internship: mentored research in artificial intelligence and medicine, using real health data. Applications open November 10, 2026 and close February 1, 2027.
Boston University RISE: a six-week program for domestic students in their junior year. The internship track includes medical laboratory research, neuroscience, biomedical engineering and public health, 40 hours a week, ending with a poster symposium. RISE charges tuition. Applications open December 17.

Also look at the medical school or cancer center nearest you. Many run small summer programs that never appear on national lists. Search for the institution's name with "high school summer research".

Hospital career internships (not research)

If you want to see what working in a hospital is like, these programs are a good start. Expect rotations and skills training, not your own research project.

Cleveland Clinic High School Summer Internship (Ohio): a paid, seven-week internship for local students in grades 9 to 12 who are at least 15 by June 1, 2027. Tracks include clinical areas such as nursing, pharmacy, radiology and laboratory medicine, plus non-clinical and technology tracks. Applications open in January 2027.
Mayo Clinic Career Immersion Program (Minnesota): hands-on experience in healthcare fields for Minnesota high school juniors and seniors.
MD Anderson ONCORE youth programs (Houston): short programs of up to six weeks for ages 15 to 17, with lectures, guided lab tours and mentorship sessions. Applications for 2027 open in January.

Admitted students in our program choose a research question in medicine, neuroscience or public health with their mentor by week four. Learn how the program works →

Can a 16-year-old intern at a hospital?

Yes. Age is one of the biggest filters, so check it first. The minimum ages on the official sites:

15: Cleveland Clinic, Children's National research labs and MD Anderson's ONCORE programs.
16: St. Jude, SIMR and the Northside ISD program at UT Health San Antonio.
18: MD Anderson's High School Summer Program and the NIH Clinical Center's summer internship.

Labs set age limits because minors in wet labs bring safety and liability rules. Research that uses data, such as epidemiology, clinical data analysis, bioinformatics or medical AI, usually has fewer limits.

Application calendar for summer 2027

November 2026: Fred Hutch posts 2027 details. Stanford AIMI opens November 10. MD Anderson opens November 16.
December 4, 2026: St. Jude deadline.
December 17, 2026: BU RISE applications open.
December 2026: SIMR application posted.
January 2027: Cleveland Clinic and MD Anderson ONCORE applications open. MD Anderson's High School Summer Program closes January 13.
February 1, 2027: Stanford AIMI deadline.
Late February 2027: SIMR deadline.

Several programs, including UCSF, Seattle Children's and Huntsman, had not posted 2027 dates in October 2026. Their 2026 deadlines fell between February and March. Check each official site every month.

How to get a medical research internship

The official sites are direct about what they want. A few patterns:

Recommendations decide a lot. Fred Hutch needs two recommendations on its own online form and asks you to give recommenders at least three weeks. St. Jude needs a teacher recommendation by the deadline. Ask early, and ask teachers who know your work.
Grades are not the only signal. UCSF says it does not use grades. It looks for maturity, persistence through challenges, science interest and motivation. Write about a specific time you showed each one.
Experience is not required. MD Anderson says previous lab or research experience is not required. You do need a clear reason for your interest.
Know the work. Fred Hutch asks applicants to learn about the institute before they write. Name a research area you want to work in, and explain why.

If no program is near you, email researchers directly. Clinical research coordinators, postdocs and graduate students at your nearest medical school are better targets than famous physicians. Our guide on how to email a professor for research explains who to write to and what to say.

What hospital programs look for (curiosity, persistence, a clear interest) is what we look for too. See if you qualify for the STEM Research Program →

Medical research you can do without a lab

You do not need a hospital badge to do medical research. Many published medical studies use public data and a laptop:

Public health data: compare disease, vaccination or obesity rates across states with data from the CDC or the World Health Organization.
Survey data: the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) has years of public data on diet, health and lab results.
Clinical trials: analyze trends in registered trials on ClinicalTrials.gov, for example how often trials for one disease include older patients.
Medical imaging and AI: train a simple model on a public medical image dataset and test how well it works.
Literature review: read the published studies on one open question, such as how sleep affects teenage memory, and explain where they agree and disagree.

Our list of research topics for high school students includes a health and medicine section with more questions. When you finish, see how to write a research paper in high school.

Do medical research internships help with college admissions?

They help when you leave with something to show: a project you can explain, a poster or paper, and a mentor who can describe your work. Admissions readers care less about the hospital's name than about what you did there. A career program that only shows you around a hospital is good for you, but it is weaker evidence than a project of your own. For more, see does research help college admissions.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get involved in medical research as a high school student? Apply to a hospital or university program near you, email researchers at your nearest medical school, or start a data project on your own or with a mentor. Most students need to try more than one route.

Are medical research internships for high school students paid? Many are. St. Jude, UCSF, Fred Hutch, Seattle Children's, MD Anderson and Huntsman PathMaker pay a stipend or compensation. The Northside ISD program at UT Health San Antonio is free but unpaid, and BU RISE charges tuition.

Are there medical research internships for 9th and 10th graders? A few. Seattle Children's takes 10th graders, and Cleveland Clinic's career internship takes grades 9 to 12. Most research internships are for juniors and rising seniors.

Can international students apply? Rarely. St. Jude, SIMR and MD Anderson require U.S. citizenship or permanent residency, and Fred Hutch does not accept international students. Online research with a mentor is often the most realistic option for students outside the U.S.

Are there online medical research programs? Huntsman Cancer Institute runs virtual programs for Mountain West students. Our guide to online research programs for high school students lists more, and our summer research programs guide covers residential options in all fields.

About the STEM Research Program

We look for students who are curious, self-motivated and ready for independent work. Prior research experience is not required. Each admitted student works one-on-one with a PhD mentor from a top-20 university, online, for 12 weeks, and sets a research question with their mentor by week four. Students interested in medicine can work in fields such as neuroscience, public health or medical data. They finish with a completed research paper, a written evaluation from their mentor and a one-on-one college counseling session.

Start your application to the STEM Research Program → · Questions about eligibility? Contact us →