15 Online Science Summer Programs for High School Students
If you are a high school student interested in science, an online summer program can help you explore advanced topics without relocating or committing to a residential experience. Depending on the program, you may conduct research, analyze scientific data, take college-level courses, or study subjects such as biology, engineering, computer science, genomics, and environmental science. These programs can help you develop research, analytical, and technical skills while exploring potential academic interests from home.
Why should you attend an online science summer program?
Many online science programs are hosted by universities and research organizations such as MIT, Stanford University, Columbia University, and NASA. Through these programs, you may complete research projects, work with scientific datasets, learn programming and data analysis, attend seminars, or earn college credit under the guidance of faculty and researchers. Whether you are looking for a short academic course or a longer research experience, online programs offer flexible ways to study science from anywhere.
With all of that in mind, we've narrowed down the list to 15 online science summer programs for high school students worth considering.
If you’re looking for online summer programs, check out our blog here.
Key takeaways
These programs span a wide range of scientific disciplines, including genomics and bioinformatics (NASA GL4HS, Penn SAS), biomedical engineering (Johns Hopkins BMEI), neuroscience (Stanford SPCSI), cancer biology (Columbia SEM), sustainable energy (Johns Hopkins SEE), and general science research (Lumiere, Veritas AI).
Several programs are free, including MITES Semester, NASA GL4HS, and Columbia's Scientific Enrichment Month, while others range from around $3,200 (Stanford SPCSI) to over $8,000 (Harvard Secondary School Program), with most offering need-based financial aid.
Johns Hopkins' programs (BMEI, EEI, and SEE) stand out for awarding college credit, with EEI specifically offering three university credits equivalent to a 16-week JHU freshman engineering sequence.
Most programs run synchronous live sessions, making them closer in pace to a real course than a self-paced program, with some like Columbia Online Summer Immersion meeting in two three-hour live sessions daily.
Application deadlines are spread from January through early June, with the earliest being MITES Semester (February 1) and Veritas AI (rolling), while several Johns Hopkins programs close as late as May 27.
1. MITES Semester
Location: Remote
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; approximately 275–300 students
Dates: June – December
Application Deadline: February 1
Eligibility: High school juniors who are U.S. Citizens/Permanent Residents
MITES Semester runs in two phases across six months, both completed from home. The summer portion centers on two rigorous, project-based STEM courses, which have covered subjects like machine learning, genomics, astrophysics, and thermodynamics in past cohorts, and the phase closes with a Final Symposium where you present your completed work to the broader MIT community. Weekly cluster meetings connect you with a current MIT undergraduate mentor throughout the summer, and regular webinars bring in working professionals from across STEM fields. When your senior year begins, the program shifts to college preparation through essay review, mock interviews, and personalized guidance on school selection from admissions counselors. Mentorship continues well into the application season.
2. Veritas AI’s AI Fellowship
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies depending on the program type; full financial aid available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; small group and 1:1 mentorship formats
Dates: Vary by 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: High school students who have completed the AI Scholars program or have some experience with AI or Python
Veritas AI focuses on providing high school students passionate about AI with a supportive environment 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. NASA GeneLab for High Schools (GL4HS)
Location: Virtual
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not selective; typically, large cohorts (>800 students)
Dates: June 1 – August 28
Application Deadline: March 15 or 1,000 applications, whichever is earlier
Eligibility: U.S. citizens and permanent residents attending U.S.-based high schools; rising juniors, seniors, or incoming college freshmen in Fall; have completed at least one biology course; maintain a minimum unweighted GPA of 3.0; have access to a computer with reliable internet
GL4HS lets you analyze RNA sequencing data from past NASA spaceflight experiments stored in the GeneLab Data Repository, learning to work with the same biological datasets that space biology researchers use. The 12-week asynchronous curriculum takes you through the full bioinformatics pipeline, from quality control and sequencing alignment through transcript counting, differential gene expression analysis, gene-set enrichment, and pathway analysis. The scientific focus is on omics-based research and how computational methods reveal what happens to biological systems under spaceflight conditions, covering concepts in computational biology, genomics, and molecular data interpretation. Students who want to go further can opt into the Capstone Project.
4. Lumiere Research Scholar Program
Location: Remote
Cost: Varies by program type; full financial aid is available.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; small mentor groups
Dates: Varies by cohort: summer, winter, fall, or spring; options ranging from 12 weeks to 1 year available
Application Deadline: Varies based on cohort
Eligibility: Students currently enrolled in high school who demonstrate a high level of academic achievement (accepted students typically maintain an unweighted GPA of 3.3 or higher)
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous research program tailored for high school students. The program offers extensive 1-on-1 research opportunities across a wide range of subject areas for high schoolers to explore. The program pairs you with Ph.D. mentors to work 1-on-1 on an independent research project. At the end of the program, you will have developed an independent research paper! You can choose research topics from subjects such as data science, engineering, chemistry, psychology, physics, computer science, international relations, and more. You can find more details about the program application here, and check out students’ reviews of the program here and here.
5. Columbia University HICCC Scientific Enrichment Month (SEM)
Location: Online
Cost: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Open registration; limited capacity
Dates: July 1–29
Application Deadline: Late June or when capacity is reached
Eligibility: Current high school students
Scientific Enrichment Month is a free, four-week online program from Columbia University's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center covering cancer biology, health equity, and environmental equity, with researchers and oncology professionals from Columbia leading panel discussions and sharing their current work. You participate in small public health working groups organized around specific focus areas, including anti-tobacco advocacy, sun safety, HPV prevention, and genetics education, giving the program a community engagement component alongside the science content. Sessions also cover how to develop a scientific hypothesis, a concrete and important research skill that will serve you well. If you attend at least 70% of the sessions, you also receive a certificate from Columbia.
6. Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes
Location: Fully online
Cost: $3,200 + $65 application fee; need-based financial aid available.
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; small class sizes
Dates: Session 1: June 15–26; Session 2: July 6–17
Application Deadline: March 13
Eligibility: Students currently in grades 8–11 at the time of application; ages 13–19
SPCSI offers more than 75 live online courses across sciences, engineering, and other disciplines, with science options covering biomedical engineering, bioscience, biochemistry, neuroengineering, neuroscience, and biotechnology. The Biomedical Engineering course has you examine implantable devices, neural interfaces, nanobiotechnology, and AI in medicine, and closes with a group design challenge to build a prosthetic arm and present a capstone project addressing a current biomedical problem. In the Neuroengineering course, you study the nervous system through chemical and electrical engineering models, work in teams to develop proposals for regenerating neurological function, and finish with an independent research study proposal. All SPCSI courses are ungraded and non-credit.
7. Harvard Secondary School Program
Location: Online option available
Cost: $4,180 (4 credits) or $8,160 (8 credits) + $75 application fee; financial aid available
Acceptance rate: Highly selective; over 2,800 students across all program formats
Dates: June 20 – August 8
Application Deadline: April 1
Eligibility: Graduating high school and entering college in program year/+1/+2 years; at least 16 years old by June 20 and not turning 19 before July 31
The 7-Week Online Secondary School Program enrolls you in actual Harvard undergraduate courses alongside college students and adult learners from around the world, covering more than 200 subjects with science pathways that include medical sciences and ethics, neuroscience and psychology research, and computer science. Courses are formally graded, credit-bearing, and taught by Harvard faculty and distinguished visiting faculty at the same pace and level of expectation applied to full-time undergraduates, with roughly 8 to 12 hours of independent work expected outside of class each week. Virtual college-prep activities, journal clubs, language meetups, and admissions panels run alongside the academic program throughout the summer.
8. Penn SAS Online Seminar: Genomics and Bioinformatics
Location: Online
Cost: $2,950 + $100 non-refundable application fee
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; cohort size not specified
Dates: July 13–24
Application deadline: June 1
Eligibility: Current 9th–11th grade students; minimum 3.5 GPA
This two-week synchronous seminar focuses on how next-generation sequencing technologies generate large-scale genomic data and how researchers develop the tools to analyze it. The hands-on core of the course is Python programming, and you are taught how to build and apply a bioinformatics pipeline for high-throughput data analysis from the ground up. Working with real biological datasets gives you exposure to what authentic research in this field looks like, and you contribute to an ongoing research project as part of the course. The curriculum covers both the underlying theory behind the tools and the biological reasoning for why particular analyses reveal useful information about how genomes work and evolve.
9. Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering Innovation (BMEI)
Location: Online
Cost: $4,260; need-based financial assistance and scholarships are available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; 12:1 or lower student-to-teacher ratio
Dates: June 22 – July 31
Application Deadline: May 27
Eligibility: High school students who have completed one full year of high school physics, or a score of 4 or 5 on the AP Physics 1 exam; must have As and Bs in your high school math and science classes; completed a course where trigonometric functions are taught, and have completed Algebra II
Three main lab projects structure the BMEI course: building a biosensor prototype using an Arduino microcontroller with lab accessories shipped to your home, analyzing shoulder forces in static biomechanical positions to understand how muscles and joints work together, and designing an electrical model of the human cardiovascular system to simulate the effects of exercise and disease on blood flow. Pre-recorded lectures paired with regular deadlines and optional twice-weekly live study sessions give you flexibility while keeping the pace of a college course. The final project gives you a choice of either a research paper reviewing current literature, a designed experiment, or a working biomedical device prototype.
10. Johns Hopkins Explore Engineering Innovation (EEI)
Location: Fully virtual
Cost: $4,225; need-based financial aid and scholarships are available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; 12:1 or lower student-to-teacher ratio
Dates: June 29 – July 31
Application Deadline: May 27
Eligibility: High school students who have completed one full year of high school physics, or a score of 4 or 5 on the AP Physics 1 exam; have As and Bs in high school math and science classes; have completed a course where trigonometric functions are taught, and have completed Algebra II
EEI covers five engineering disciplines in four weeks, working through civil, chemical, electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering alongside materials science in daily live three-hour sessions. Projects include designing and load-testing a spaghetti bridge, running a cornstarch-to-sugar enzyme experiment to calculate energy efficiency of a heating element, programming a Circuit Playground Express to build a group memory game, and many more. A Request for Proposal exercise rounds out the program, where your team prepares and pitches a solution to a technical problem as a PowerPoint presentation to your peers. The full course covers the same material as a 16-week JHU freshman engineering sequence and carries three university credits.
11. Johns Hopkins Sustainable Energy Engineering (SEE)
Location: Online
Cost: $4,328; need-based scholarships are available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly competitive; 16–24 students per class
Dates: June 29 – July 31
Application Deadline: May 27
Eligibility: High school students who have completed a high school science course with a lab component. You must have As and Bs in your high school math and science classes and have completed Algebra II.
SEE examines energy production, distribution, and policy across four weeks, covering hydroelectric, wind, solar, and biomass systems alongside transportation efficiency and building energy performance. Daily live sessions are paired with pre-recorded lectures and homework, and a significant part of the coursework involves data collection, experimentation, and presenting findings to your group. A distinctive aspect of the course is how you’re asked to examine how community context, economics, and policy shape which technologies get built and where, not just how the systems themselves work. The Capstone Project brings the course together as a group design challenge where you plan and present a sustainable retreat center, drawing on the energy systems, data analysis, and policy thinking covered across the program.
12. Brown University Summer@Brown Online
Location: Online
Cost: $3,364 to $6,520 depending on course length; need-based scholarships are available for eligible U.S. citizens
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; typically small groups
Dates: Multiple two- to six-week sessions available between June 15 – July 24
Application Deadline: May 15
Eligibility: Students in grades 9–12, ages 14–18 by June 14; specific courses may have additional prerequisites.
Brown's online pre-college catalog includes more than 35 courses across biological and natural sciences, physical sciences and mathematics, engineering and technology, and medical and health studies. Courses are offered in mostly asynchronous or blended formats, with blended options including one to three scheduled live sessions per week, and the expected time commitment across either format is around 15 hours per week. The courses are ungraded and non-credit, and you get feedback in the form of a written Course Performance Report from your instructor at the end of any three-week or longer course. The range of session lengths, from two weeks to six weeks, lets you calibrate how much time you commit.
13. Columbia University Online Summer Immersion
Location: Online
Cost: $4,018 per 2-week course, $2,868 per 1-week course; need-based scholarships are available for U.S. citizens
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; small course size
Dates: June 22–26, July 6–17, or July 20–31
Application deadline: May 4, May 18 or June 1 respectively
Eligibility: Current high school students completing grades 9–12
Columbia's Online Summer Immersion runs across June and July in one-week and two-week sessions, offering more than 40 courses across subject areas including biology, physical sciences, and technology to students from around the world. Classes meet in live synchronous sessions twice daily in three-hour blocks, which makes for a more intensive daily schedule than most asynchronous online programs. Instructors are specialists in their subject areas, and the content is pitched at a university-level register, though courses are not credit-bearing. Completing the program awards you with a Columbia University Certification of Participation and an evaluation letter from your instructor reflecting your performance, both of which can support a college application.
14. Washington University in St. Louis High School Summer Scholars Program — Online
Location: Online
Cost: $4,075 per course; need-based scholarships and WashU employee discounts are available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; 5–20 students
Dates: June 7 – July 11
Application Deadline: April 1
Eligibility: Current high school juniors
The High School Summer Scholars Program gives high school juniors direct enrollment in Washington University undergraduate courses, taught by WashU faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate instructors. You take one credit-bearing online course, work through the same curriculum as degree-seeking undergraduates, and receive an official WashU transcript upon completing the course. One of the options available is Human Biology, with the course covering everything from common diseases and their treatments to current research into health and longevity. The academic experience is supported by college readiness workshops designed to help you navigate the transition from high school to undergraduate study.
15. MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute (BWSI)
Location: Virtual
Cost: $2,400 for families with income > $200,001; no tuition cost for qualifying families (< $200,000 income
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly competitive; approximately 250–330 students across all summer courses combined
Dates: Four-week summer programs
Application Deadline: March 30
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors who live or attend high school in the U.S.
BWSI's virtual courses are focused on specific technical domains. CogWorks uses Python and applied mathematics to build machine learning systems for audio, vision, and language, and every capstone project is built from first principles rather than pre-built tools. Cyber Operations surveys computing security across its entire history, from vacuum tubes to modern cryptography, networking, software reverse engineering, and side-channel attacks, with a team capstone filling the final week. Basics of ASICs walks you through the complete semiconductor design process, starting with a blank silicon substrate, designing a chip using open-source tools, submitting it to a fabrication foundry, and receiving a physical dev kit with your chip etched in silicon roughly six months after the summer ends.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best online science summer programs for high school students?
Strong options depend on a student's interests. Students drawn to genomics or bioinformatics might consider NASA GL4HS or Penn SAS, those interested in biomedical or engineering research might look at Johns Hopkins BMEI or EEI, and those seeking prestigious university coursework might consider Harvard Secondary School Program or WashU High School Summer Scholars.
Are there free online science summer programs for high schoolers?
Yes, MITES Semester, NASA GeneLab for High Schools, and Columbia's Scientific Enrichment Month are all free. Many paid programs, including Stanford SPCSI, Johns Hopkins programs, and Brown Summer Online, also offer need-based financial aid.
Which online science programs offer college credit?
Johns Hopkins Explore Engineering Innovation awards three university credits, WashU High School Summer Scholars provides an official WashU transcript with undergraduate credit, and Harvard Secondary School Program offers four or eight credit-bearing courses taught by Harvard faculty.
Which programs are best for students interested in AI or computational science specifically?
Veritas AI's Fellowship focuses on independent AI research projects, MIT BWSI's CogWorks builds machine learning systems from first principles, NASA GL4HS covers bioinformatics and computational biology pipelines, and Penn SAS's Genomics and Bioinformatics seminar teaches Python-based data analysis on real biological datasets.
How selective are online science summer programs for high school students?
Selectivity varies widely. MITES Semester and MIT BWSI are among the most selective, while NASA GL4HS accepts large cohorts of over 800 students. Programs like Columbia SEM and Brown Summer Online fall somewhere in between.
When should I apply to online science summer programs for high school students?
Deadlines are spread throughout the year. The earliest include Veritas AI (rolling from January) and MITES Semester (February 1), while others like Columbia Online Summer Immersion (May to June) and Johns Hopkins programs (May 27) fall later in the spring.