15 Free Medical Research Opportunities for High School Students
If you're a high school student curious about medicine, research programs are one of the best ways to test that interest before committing to it in college. These opportunities let you work alongside real researchers and clinicians, gain practical lab and analytical skills, and build connections that can lead to recommendation letters or future opportunities. What makes this list especially useful is that every program on it is either free or offers full financial aid, so cost isn't a barrier to getting this kind of exposure. Several of these are run by prestigious institutions, which adds real weight to your application and your resume.
What are the benefits of medical research in high school?
Medical research opportunities help you develop skills like data analysis, lab techniques, scientific writing, and clinical observation, depending on the track you choose. You might work on projects ranging from analyzing patient data and running lab experiments to shadowing physicians or contributing to public health research. Some programs pair you with a mentor for one-on-one guidance, while others have you working in a lab team or presenting your findings at the end of the program. This exposure gives you a much clearer sense of whether medicine or biomedical research is the right path for you, and it gives you real material for college essays and applications.
With that, we've narrowed down our list to 15 free medical research opportunities for high school students, all of which offer either no cost or complete financial aid.
If you’re looking for online summer programs, check out our blog here.
Key takeaways
These programs span cancer biology, genomics, computational biology, biomedical research, pharmacology, public health, and AI in medicine, so students with a wide range of medical interests can find a relevant free or fully funded opportunity.
Several programs offer significant stipends, including JAX Summer Student Program ($7,500), MD Anderson ($7,200), Duke STAR ($4,000), PathMaker Scholars (up to $4,000), and Broad Summer Scholars Program ($3,600), while others, such as Rockefeller SSRP, Cold Spring Harbor PFF, and Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation, are free with no stipend.
Several programs are especially well-suited for students with no prior research experience, including Fred Hutch SHIP (which opens with two weeks of foundational lab training), Seattle Children's Research Training Program (explicitly designed for first-time researchers), and Wistar Institute High School Fellowship.
Application deadlines begin as early as January (Rockefeller SSRP, Duke STAR, Broad Summer Scholars Program), with most programs closing between January and March, so students should identify target programs in the fall of their junior year and begin preparing materials immediately.
1. NIH – Summer Internship Program (SIP)
Location: Multiple NIH campuses nationwide, including Bethesda, Maryland, and Framingham, Massachusetts
Stipend: $2,530 (pre-graduation); $2,840 (post-graduation)
Dates: May 11 – August 31
Application Deadline: Mid-February
Eligibility: U.S. citizens or permanent residents; high school juniors or seniors; 17-year-olds must live within 40 miles of a campus
The NIH Summer Internship Program places you inside a research group at one of the National Institutes of Health campuses, working under a principal investigator on real biomedical, behavioral, or social science research. Depending on where your interests lie, you could end up in a lab studying basic biology, testing new treatments, or working on population-level health data, since NIH runs research across dozens of institutes and centers. Along with your day-to-day lab work, you'll have access to professional development sessions built around the skills researchers actually use, plus career programming and a well-being and resilience track that most internships don't bother offering.
2. Veritas AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies depending on the program type; full financial aid available
Dates: Varies according to the cohort: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
Application Deadline: Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September), and Winter (November); you can apply to the program here
Eligibility: AI Fellowship applicants should either have completed the AI Scholars program or exhibit experience with AI concepts or Python
Veritas AI focuses on providing high school students who are passionate about the field of AI with a suitable environment in which to explore their interests. The programs include collaborative learning, project development, and 1-on-1 mentorship. 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. Broad Summer Scholars Program
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Stipend: $3,600
Dates: June 29 – August 7
Application Deadline: January 21
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors attending a Massachusetts high school within commuting distance of the Broad Institute; minimum B in science and math; U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or non-U.S. citizens with employment authorization
At the Broad Summer Scholars Program, you're paired one-on-one with a working scientist at the Broad Institute to run an original research project in an area like cancer biology, psychiatric disease, infectious disease, or computational biology. Beyond the research itself, you'll sit in on scientific talks, get formal training on building and presenting a scientific poster, and attend a college fair alongside your cohort. Since it's a six-week, fully in-person commitment with no other classes or jobs allowed during program hours, you'll be treating this the way an actual research scientist treats their job.
4. Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation
Location: Remote ( you can participate in this program from anywhere in the world)
Cost/Stipend: Fully funded
Dates: Vary based on yearly cohort | Multiple 12-week cohorts throughout the year, including spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Application Deadline: Spring (January), summer (May), fall (September), and winter (November)
Eligibility: You must be enrolled in high school or plan to enroll as a freshman in college in the fall and must demonstrate a high level of academic achievement.
The Lumiere Breakthrough Scholar Program is the flagship research program offered by the Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation and is equivalent to the Individual Research Scholar Program at Lumiere Education. In the flagship program, talented high-school students are paired with world-class Ph.D. mentors to work 1-on-1 on an independent research project. At the end of the 12-week program, you’ll develop an independent research paper in a subject of your choice. You can choose topics from subjects such as psychology, physics, economics, data science, computer science, engineering, chemistry, international relations, and more. This program is an excellent option if you are interested in interdisciplinary research and want to create an individual research paper. You can apply here.
5. Rockefeller University – Summer Science Research Program (SSRP)
Location: New York, New York (Rockefeller University)
Cost/Stipend: No cost / Need-based stipends may be available
Dates: June 22 – August 6
Application Deadline: January 2
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors who are at least 16 years old at the program start and can commit to the full seven weeks
This program puts you on a research team led by scientific trainees from Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Weill Cornell, so you're learning from people who are actively working in these labs day to day. Each team of 8 to 10 scholars is guided by at least three research mentors, and your first two weeks are spent getting comfortable with lab techniques and norms before you help shape the actual research question your team investigates. Over the following weeks, you'll move through the real arc of a research project: gathering data, analyzing it, and building a poster to present at a closing symposium, all while attending elective courses, guest lectures, and networking events on the side.
6. JAX Summer Student Program
Location: Bar Harbor, Maine, or Farmington, Connecticut
Stipend: $7,500
Dates: May 30 – August 7
Application Deadline: January 26
Eligibility: Graduating high school seniors and undergraduates interested in genetics and genomics; no concurrent job, internship, or summer classes
In this program, you start with more guided work and gradually take on more independence as the ten weeks go on, which means by the end of the summer, you're contributing real analysis. Along the way, you'll build skills in genetic testing, data visualization, and science communication through structured training sessions, plus weekly Journal Club meetings that expose you to how scientists actually discuss and critique research. You'll also get to talk with professionals outside the lab bench, including grant writers, attorneys, and veterinarians who work at JAX, which gives you a fuller picture of the career paths a science background can lead to.
7. Cold Spring Harbor – Partners for the Future (PFF)
Location: Cold Spring Harbor, New York
Cost/Stipend: None
Dates: September through March
Application Deadline: Nominations open in the spring of junior year
Eligibility: Long Island high school juniors entering senior year with strong STEM academics, nominated by their science chairperson
This program gives you a minimum of 10 hours a week doing original biomedical research at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. You're nominated by your school's science chairperson rather than applying directly, so getting into this one starts with a conversation at your own school. Once you're in, you're paired with a scientist mentor who guides you through actual lab work, which does far more to show you what research looks like day to day than any classroom unit could. The program wraps up with an oral presentation of your project to your mentors, lab administrators, parents, and teachers, giving you real experience explaining your work to a mixed audience.
8. Fred Hutch – Summer High School Internship Program (SHIP)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Dates: June 22 – August 14
Application Deadline: March 13
Eligibility: Students entering their senior year who reside in the Greater Seattle area; must be 16 or older by the program start
In SHIP, your first two weeks are spent learning lab safety and basic techniques before you're placed with a Fred Hutch research group for the remaining six weeks. You'll be immersed in cancer research alongside your mentor team, and the program backs that up with research seminars and workshops focused on college and career planning, so you're getting more than just lab time out of the summer. Because Fred Hutch is one of the country's leading cancer research centers, the work you're contributing to is tied directly to research that shapes how cancer is understood and treated. The internship closes with presentations to the Fred Hutch community along with your family and friends.
9. MD Anderson High School Summer Program
Location: Houston, Texas
Stipend: $7,200
Dates: June 1 – August 7
Application Deadline: January 14
Eligibility: Current Texas high school seniors; 18 or older by the program start; accepted into college for the following fall; U.S. citizens/permanent residents, or work-eligible visa holders
This program places a small group of Texas seniors, just six students a year, directly into a research project inside MD Anderson's labs, working under a full-time faculty member on one of the biomedical disciplines the center studies. You're in the lab five days a week, and most of that time is genuinely hands-on, so you walk away with a real sense of what biomedical research work actually demands. Alongside your lab work, you'll attend faculty seminars on a range of research topics and take part in an abstract, poster, and elevator speech competition with the rest of the summer cohort. The program ends with a presentation of your work.
10. Duke STAR Program
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Cost/Stipend: $4,000 stipend
Dates: June 22 – July 24
Application Deadline: January 2
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors and seniors with U.S. citizenship or permanent residency
Duke's STAR Program has you working in a small team with a faculty mentor to build an original, hypothesis-driven research project centered on the uses and effects of a specific medication, starting from a one-page proposal and working all the way to a full research paper. You'll get direct instruction from a medical writer on building a scientific manuscript and from a statistician on applied statistics, on top of lectures from Duke Medicine and pediatrics faculty on topics like neonatology and pharmacoepidemiology. A standout part of this program is that your team's paper gets submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, so you have a real shot at ending up as a co-author on published research.
11. University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute – PathMaker Scholars
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Stipend: Up to $4,000
Dates: May 25 – July 30
Application Deadline: February 1
Eligibility: Students who have completed their junior year of high school, U.S. citizens or those with valid Alien Registration, with a strong interest in health sciences and biomedical research; particular focus on students from rural and frontier populations in the Mountain West
PathMaker Scholars puts you into a university lab at Huntsman Cancer Institute for a full 10 weeks, working on a project set by a principal investigator while living on campus with the rest of the cohort. You'll spend the week between your individual research placement, weekly meetings, and program events, so it's structured like an actual full-time research role rather than a loosely supervised internship. One thing that sets this program apart is that students who complete it successfully are automatically accepted back the following summer, so you can build a genuine two-year research track record instead of starting over each year. Accepted students also get the chance to present at a national conference with all expenses covered.
12. UT Southwestern Medical Center – Summer Research Opportunities (STARS)
Location: Dallas, Texas
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Dates: Eight weeks over the summer
Application Deadline: January 20
Eligibility: High school juniors in North Texas with excellent academic records, at least 16 years old by June 1; U.S. citizen, national, or eligible to work in the U.S.; must not have prior biomedical research experience
Through STARS, you're placed in a UT Southwestern research laboratory for eight weeks, working side by side with a faculty host on an actual biomedical research project. The program is intentionally lab-only, meaning you won't get clinical shadowing or patient contact, so you're focused entirely on what it takes to run experiments and interpret results in a research setting. At the end of the summer, you present your findings just like a professional researcher would, and afterward you're expected to bring that experience back to your own school by presenting to your classmates.
13. Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center – Future Scientist Program
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Dates: Eight weeks over the summer (between June and July)
Application Deadline: Late February
Eligibility: High school juniors at Indianapolis or Marion County public schools; minimum 3.0 GPA and good attendance
The Future Scientist Program gives you eight weeks on the IU School of Medicine campus, working under the mentorship of a university researcher on an actual cancer research project. It was built specifically to address a real gap: fewer high school graduates are choosing science as a career, so the program treats you as part of the next generation of researchers rather than just a summer visitor. Beyond the research itself, you're getting work experience, including a stipend, which makes this a practical option even if you'd otherwise need a summer job.
14. Seattle Children – Research Training Program (RTP)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Stipend: $2,000
Dates: July 13 – August 7
Application Deadline: March 8
Eligibility: Current 10th and 11th graders who can commute to downtown Seattle; must possess an SSN or ITIN
The Research Training Program is built for students getting their very first taste of laboratory research, so no prior experience is expected or required. Over four weeks, you'll get hands-on lab time covering techniques like microscopy, gene editing, and bacterial transformation, alongside lectures on biochemistry, immunology, and infectious disease. Throughout the session, your activities will include conducting polymerase chain reactions (PCR), running agarose gel electrophoresis, participating in college readiness workshops, and delivering a final oral presentation. You'll also get college and career workshops and a facility tour, and the program wraps with an independent project and a final oral presentation of your findings.
15. Van Andel Institute – High School Graduate Research Program
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Stipend: $15 per hour
Dates: Eight weeks over the summer
Application Deadline: Mid-March
Eligibility: Students aged 17 or older, graduating high school by the end of the school year; minimum 3.0 GPA; U.S. citizen or permanent resident (green card holder with work permit)
Van Andel Institute's High School Graduate Research Program takes recent grads from the Grand Rapids area and puts them to work full-time in an active research lab, right alongside technicians, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and the lab's principal investigator. Depending on which lab you're placed in, your work could range from molecular biology techniques such as working with DNA, RNA, and proteins to cell culturing, or even bioinformatics work sorting through large genomic datasets. Beyond the bench work, you're expected to keep a real lab notebook and present at weekly lab meetings, which means you're practicing the same habits professional researchers rely on, not just observing them.
Frequently asked questions
1. What free medical research opportunities are available for high school students?
Options include federal research programs, such as NIH Summer Internship Program, cancer and biomedical research programs, such as JAX Summer Student Program, MD Anderson, Broad Summer Scholars Program, Fred Hutch SHIP, and Rockefeller SSRP, computational and AI-focused programs, such as Veritas AI Fellowship and Lumiere Research Inclusion Foundation, and regional programs, such as Duke STAR, PathMaker Scholars, UT Southwestern STARS, and Van Andel Institute.
2. Which free medical research programs offer the largest stipends for high school students?
JAX Summer Student Program offers the largest stipend at $7,500, followed by MD Anderson ($7,200), Duke STAR ($4,000), PathMaker Scholars (up to $4,000), Broad Summer Scholars Program ($3,600), Seattle Children's RTP ($2,000), NIH SIP ($2,530 to $2,840), and Van Andel Institute ($15/hour). Fred Hutch, IU Future Scientist Program, and UT Southwestern STARS are paid but do not disclose specific amounts.
3. Which free medical research programs are best for students with no prior lab experience?
Fred Hutch SHIP opens with two weeks of dedicated lab safety and technique training before placement. Seattle Children's Research Training Program is explicitly built for students with no prior experience, covering microscopy, PCR, and gel electrophoresis from scratch. Cold Spring Harbor PFF and UT Southwestern STARS also welcome students without prior biomedical research backgrounds.
4. When should I apply to free medical research opportunities for high school students?
The earliest deadlines are Rockefeller SSRP and Duke STAR (January 2), followed by MD Anderson (January 14), Broad Summer Scholars Program (January 21), and JAX Summer Student Program (January 26). PathMaker Scholars closes February 1, and NIH SIP closes in mid-February. Fred Hutch SHIP and Seattle Children's RTP close in March. Students should begin identifying programs and requesting materials in the fall of their junior year.