14 Best Math Programs for High School Students
If you are a high school student with a genuine interest in mathematics, dedicated math programs give you access to mathematical theory and foundations that can go far beyond what a high school class can offer. These programs can let you engage in original research alongside university faculty, practice applied mathematical modeling, or benefit from deep immersion in advanced theory, helping translate your mathematical curiosity into real skills and real output. Many of them are run by universities and research institutions with strong academic reputations, which means the connections you build with mentors, counselors, and peers carry weight well beyond high school.
What are the benefits of a math program?
Through structured math programs, you will explore advanced mathematical concepts and skills and methodologies transferable to other fields. For instance, you may spend time learning to write a rigorous mathematical proof, which trains a kind of careful logical thinking that applies across fields. Such programs push you to take an abstract problem with uncertainty, work through it systematically, and produce something you can defend. Research-oriented programs give you firsthand experience with the full cycle of academic work, from reading literature and formulating questions to gathering and analyzing results, and ultimately communicating findings to an expert audience. In more applied experiences, you will learn how mathematical thinking operates inside working university labs and research groups. The mentorship relationships you build in these environments are often among the most lasting outcomes, giving you a clearer picture of what careers in mathematics and related fields actually look like.
With all that in mind, we have compiled a list of the 14 best math programs for high school students.
If you’re looking for online summer programs, check out our blog here.
Key takeaways
These 14 programs span proof-based mathematics, number theory, algebraic topology, quantum information science, data science, applied mathematical modeling, AI, and computational research, so students with a wide range of mathematical interests can find a relevant option in person or online.
Several programs are free or paid, including MIT PRIMES (free), √mathroots (free), UChicago DSI Summer Lab ($5,600 stipend), CMU SAMS (free), NIST SHIP (free), IMD Summer Research (free), and HCSSiM (free for families earning under $85,000), while Clark Scholars provides a $750 stipend and Simons offers a stipend.
Programs vary significantly in depth and format, from two-week focused intensives, such as MathQuantum Fellowship and √mathroots, to year-long research cycles, such as MIT PRIMES, so students can choose based on their experience level and availability.
Application deadlines for the most selective programs fall early, including MIT PRIMES (December 1), RSI (mid-December), NIST SHIP (January 26), and Simons Summer Research (February 5), so students should begin preparing materials in the fall.
1. MIT PRIMES
Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus, Cambridge, MA
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective; small cohort/year
Dates: January 1 – December 31
Application Deadline: December 1 of the previous year
Eligibility: High school sophomores and juniors residing in the Greater Boston area
MIT PRIMES gives you the opportunity to work year-round on an unsolved problem in mathematics alongside an MIT graduate student or postdoctoral researcher. The program structure follows no syllabus or predetermined answers; your mentor’s job will be to guide you toward the edge of current research and to work to advance mathematical boundaries. The year begins with a reading period during which your mentor will assign foundational material relevant to your project. Once you are up to speed, weekly meetings will shift toward active mathematical work, including forming conjectures, testing ideas, writing proofs, and revising proofs. During the spring and summer, most of your effort will be independent, which means you will develop genuine ownership over your work. By fall, you will write up your results in a research paper and present at the annual PRIMES conference on the MIT campus. Papers from the program are regularly submitted to peer-reviewed journals and national competitions.
2. Veritas AI’s AI Fellowship
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies by program type; full financial aid available
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective
Dates: Vary by cohort: Spring, Fall, Summer, and Winter
Application deadline: Spring (January), Fall (September), Summer (May), and Winter (November). You can apply to the program here.
Eligibility: High school students who have completed the Veritas AI Scholars program or have some experience with AI or Python
Veritas AI focuses on offering high school students passionate about AI a supportive environment to explore their interests. The programs offer collaborative learning, project development, and one-on-one mentorship opportunities. Students are expected to have a basic understanding of Python or are recommended to complete the AI Scholars program before pursuing the fellowship. The AI Fellowship program will allow students to pursue independent AI research projects. Students work on their research projects over 15 weeks and can opt to combine AI with any other field of interest. You can find examples of previous projects here and read about a student’s experience in the program here.
3. MIT’s Research Science Institute (RSI)
Location: MIT campus, Cambridge, MA
Cost: $75 non-refundable application fee (waivers available)
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: ~2.5% acceptance rate; 80 – 100 students/year
Dates: Six weeks in the summer
Application deadline: Mid-December
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors, ages 16 and up
RSI begins with a week of intensive college-level STEM coursework taught by faculty and researchers, followed by a five-week individual research placement with an MIT-affiliated mentor. You will engage in real work within the mentor's area of expertise, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, neuroscience, or engineering. You will read primary literature, develop a research plan, execute it, and revise based on what your results show. In the final week, you will write a full research paper and deliver a conference-style oral presentation to a panel that typically includes former RSI participants now working as scientists. An evening lecture series will run throughout the program, featuring working researchers who will speak directly to participants about ongoing research and career paths. Many students submit their RSI work to Regeneron STS, and a number of those submissions have won. The combination of coursework, mentored research, and engagement with the scientific community makes the six weeks rigorous.
4. Lumiere Research Scholar Program: Math Track
Location: Remote! You can participate in the program from anywhere in the world.
Cost: Varies by program type; full financial aid available.
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective
Dates: Varies by cohort: fall, summer, spring, and winter. Options range from 12 weeks to a year.
Application deadline: Varies based on cohort
Eligibility: Students in high school who demonstrate strong academic performance
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous research program designed for high school students. It offers extensive one-on-one research opportunities across a broad range of subjects that you can explore as a high schooler. The program will pair you with Ph.D. mentors to work one-on-one on a research project. At the end, you will have developed an independent research paper! You can choose from areas such as math, data science, computer science, engineering, chemistry, psychology, physics, international relations, economics, and more. You can learn more about the application here, and check out students’ reviews of the program here and here.
5. √mathroots @ MIT
Location: MIT campus, Cambridge, MA
Cost: Free; travel scholarships are available.
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective; small cohorts
Dates: July 1 – 15
Application deadline: March 3
Eligibility: Current high school students (not graduating seniors), ages 14 – 18, who are U.S. citizens or attending high school in the U.S. with demonstrated academic excellence in math; applicants must be comfortable with high school algebra, geometry, trigonometry, exponents, and logarithms; precalculus is strongly recommended.
√mathroots is a 14-day residential summer program hosted by MIT PRIMES designed for high-potential high school students interested in exploring creative topics in mathematics and problem-solving. You will discover new mathematical ideas and learn problem-solving techniques through classes, group activities, and lectures led by instructors with experience in research and competition math. The program focuses on creative problem-solving outside the standard curriculum, exposing you to challenging yet accessible mathematical ideas and introducing you to proof techniques and logical reasoning. You will live in an MIT dormitory with residential counselors and participate in activities with peers, mentors, and instructors on campus. Unlike programs that cover many topics, √mathroots focuses on the deep exploration of problem-solving as a systematic process, helping you develop skills to tackle challenging mathematical questions.
6. University of Chicago Data Science Institute Summer Lab
Location: University of Chicago campus, Chicago, IL
Cost/Stipend: No fees; $5,600 stipend
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective; 22 students in the past cohort (the number can vary each year)
Dates: June 15 – August 7 (tentative)
Application deadline: January 12 (tentative)
Eligibility: Undergraduate students and Chicago-area high school students; familiarity with one or more programming languages and coursework in statistics, computer science, and math is preferred.
DSI Summer Lab is an eight-week program that places you within an active research group at the University of Chicago to work on real questions that data scientists at the institution are trying to answer. Project areas include computer science, public policy, climate and energy, materials science, and biomedical research, and the common thread is quantitative reasoning; so, you will use statistical methods, computational analysis, and data-driven logic to investigate real-world challenges and resolve uncertainty. You will work as part of a team alongside undergraduate collaborators and connect with the broader Summer Lab cohort through activities, guest speaker sessions, and events during the summer. The program concludes with a research video presentation, formatted as an academic conference, in which you will explain your findings and their implications.
7. Texas Tech University Anson L. Clark Scholars Program
Location: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
Cost/Stipend: $25 application fee; $750 stipend
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Extremely selective; 12 students/year
Dates: June 21 – August 6
Application deadline: February 16
Eligibility: Students, ages 17 and up, who are juniors and seniors in high school and U.S. citizens/permanent residents
As a Clark Scholar, you will work with a Texas Tech faculty member on their active research for seven weeks. You will join a small cohort, taking on an individual project and working on a research question with your mentor. The project areas span mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science, and social sciences, depending on which faculty participates in a given year. Weekly seminars will bring the cohort together to discuss the research process in the abstract, and field trips will provide context beyond the lab. By the end, you will produce a written research report and present your findings. As the program hosts only a handful of students each year, you will gain access to personalized mentorship.
8. Stony Brook University’s Simons Summer Research Program
Location: Stony Brook University campus, Stony Brook, NY
Cost: None; stipend is available.
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: ~5% acceptance rate
Dates: June 29 – August 7
Application deadline: February 5
Eligibility: High school juniors who are 16 or older and U.S. citizens/permanent residents
Simons Summer Research Program places you within an existing research group at Stony Brook for six weeks. Research areas include various fields within math, science, and engineering. As a participant, you will spend a minimum of four hours daily on your project, alongside the grad students and postdocs who are part of the same team. The proximity to university lab researchers will let you gain firsthand insight into research workflows and teamwork. Weekly research talks from Stony Brook faculty will broaden your view of what's happening across the institution, and workshops throughout the summer will focus on academic communication and professional practice. The program will end with a poster symposium where you will present your abstract and findings.
9. MathQuantum High School Fellowship
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Highly selective; ~10 high school students/year
Dates: Two weeks in the summer
Application deadline: February 13
Eligibility: High school students with a strong background in mathematics; international students can also apply.
This fellowship is designed to introduce you to the mathematical foundations of quantum information science, an area where serious mathematical training is increasingly relevant but rarely taught before college. Over two weeks, you will attend lectures and seminars covering linear algebra in complex vector spaces, probability in quantum contexts, and introductory results in quantum algorithms and quantum cryptography. Faculty from the MathQuantum Research Training Group at the University of Maryland will lead the sessions. The program also includes professional development workshops focused on what research in this field looks like in practice. You will complete a mini-project drawing on what you have covered and participate in hands-on quantum computing activities. For students drawn to mathematical physics, theoretical computer science, and/or quantum computing, this is one of the few programs that offer this level of specialization.
10. Carnegie Mellon University SAMS
Location: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Highly selective
Dates: Virtual jumpstart: June 15 – 16; residential program: June 20 – August 1
Application deadline: February 1
Eligibility: Current high school juniors, ages 16 and up, who are U.S. citizens/permanent residents; the program strongly encourages students underrepresented in STEM, first-generation college students, English-language learners, and students from schools with historically low college acceptance rates.
SAMS (Summer Academy for Math and Science) is a six-week college-level program at Carnegie Mellon, with mathematics as one of the central areas of study. You will spend the summer attending quantitative and computational seminars, carrying out a research project advised by a CMU faculty member or graduate student, and presenting your findings at the program's closing research symposium. Running alongside the academic core is a credit-bearing college transition course focused on research in psychology and science, which can teach you how to study, set goals, and develop as a scholar. Writing workshops will run throughout, introducing you to both scientific communication and college application essays.
11. NIST Summer High School Internship Program (SHIP)
Location: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) campus in Boulder, CO, or NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
Cost: Free!
Acceptance rate: 4% for Boulder, CO | 10.6% for Gaithersburg, MD
Dates: June 22 – August 7
Application deadline: January 26
Eligibility: Current high school juniors and seniors with a GPA of 3.0 or higher who are U.S. citizens living within 50 miles of the assigned NIST campus
SHIP places high school students in research labs to work with scientists at NIST, a non-regulatory federal agency focused on measurement science. You will work on a project under the mentorship of a NIST scientist, applying computation, analysis, and research techniques relevant to the given lab’s work. Placements span areas such as math, statistics, materials science, data science, engineering, and computer science. You will learn how to collect, assess, and visualize data, work with measurement instruments, and collaborate within professional environments. At the end of SHIP, you will present your work as a poster.
12. Institute for Mathematics and Democracy (IMD) High School Summer Research Program
Location: Remote
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Highly selective; ~17 – 28 students in the past cohort.
Dates: Six weeks in the summer (late June – early August)
Application deadline: March 6
Eligibility: Current high school students (domestic and international)
IMD's research program lets you work on a project that uses mathematics to analyze real problems in democratic governance, such as how mathematical tools can detect, quantify, or address issues in redistricting, electoral fairness, and the design of representative systems. Your project group will work with actual data from elections and the census. Past projects have focused on studying how court decisions affect gerrymandering metrics, analyzing the mathematical properties of alternative voting systems, and examining how changes to House apportionment shape presidential election outcomes. You will meet twice a week with a faculty mentor from a university mathematics department and will also work with your group between sessions to advance the analysis. Weekly guest talks will feature mathematicians and policy practitioners who will help connect research to current decision-making in courts and legislatures.
13. Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM)
Location: Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
Cost: Free for students with family incomes below $85,000/year; $7,208 for others. Financial aid is available.
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: Selective; ~40–50 students/year
Dates: June 28 – August 8
Application deadline: April 17
Eligibility: High school students, including international students
HCSSiM is an on-campus math program that runs for six weeks, reflecting the structure of a working mathematical community rather than a course. You will explore areas such as combinatorics, number theory, topology, and algebraic structures through morning classes and afternoon problem sessions. The schedule also includes an open forum in the evenings where students, counselors, and faculty present ideas, proofs, or questions to the group. Counselors are graduate students and faculty from research universities who live within the program community alongside students throughout the full six weeks.
14. Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC)
Location: Remote or Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Cost: $8,950 in-person fee | $3,750 online fee; financial aid available
Acceptance rate/Cohort size: 40 residential participants/year | 64 online participants/year
Dates: Residential: June 21 – July 17 | Online: June 15 – July 3 or July 6 – 24
Application deadline: February 2
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors or seniors, ages 15 – 18; International students can also apply.
SUMaC is a rigorous summer program that lets you dive into university-level mathematics through two focused tracks. You can explore the abstract algebra and number theory track, which trains you from the basics of group theory to results such as the classification of finite abelian groups. Here, the number theory material covers quadratic reciprocity and ideas from analytic number theory. The algebraic topology track guides you through fundamental groups, covering spaces, and an introduction to homology. The daily schedule consists of lectures followed by problem-solving sessions run by graduate student counselors, designed to push you to build a deep understanding of advanced theoretical concepts. Guest lectures from working mathematicians will give you a window into where these ideas live in current research.
Frequently asked questions
1. What are the best math programs for high school students?
Strong options include MIT PRIMES and RSI for year-long or summer research on unsolved problems, SUMaC and HCSSiM for proof-based immersion in abstract algebra and topology, UChicago DSI Summer Lab for applied data science and quantitative research, and Veritas AI and Lumiere for virtual independent research in AI and mathematics.
2. Are there free math programs for high school students?
Yes, MIT PRIMES, √mathroots, CMU SAMS, NIST SHIP, IMD Summer Research, and MathQuantum Fellowship are all free. HCSSiM is free for families earning under $85,000, and SUMaC and Simons Summer Research offer need-based financial aid. UChicago DSI Summer Lab and Clark Scholars also provide stipends on top of being free to attend.
3. Which math programs are most selective?
Clark Scholars at Texas Tech accepts only 12 students per year, MathQuantum Fellowship accepts around 10 high school students, Simons Summer Research has an acceptance rate of roughly 5 percent, and RSI admits about 80 to 100 students from a global applicant pool. MIT PRIMES is also highly selective and limited to Greater Boston residents.
4. When should I apply to math programs for high school students?
MIT PRIMES closes December 1, and RSI closes in mid-December. Simons Summer Research closes February 5, CMU SAMS closes February 1, and Clark Scholars closes February 16. Programs, such as HCSSiM (April 17) and √mathroots (March 3), fall later in the spring. Veritas AI and Lumiere accept rolling applications throughout the year.