The Best Bay Area Summer Programs for High School Students

The San Francisco Bay Area offers more than 20 summer programs for high school students, including university research placements, college courses for credit, entrepreneurship programs, and paid jobs. Eligibility rules narrow the list quickly. Several of the most selective programs accept only U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and most paid positions require local residency and U.S. work authorization. Most applications close between January and March, so students should build their list in October and November. International students have the widest range of options among the tuition-based programs at Stanford, UC Berkeley, Wharton’s San Francisco campus, and Leangap.

Northern California’s San Francisco region is home to Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz, and two U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories. Each of these institutions runs summer opportunities for teenagers, and Stanford alone offers at least eight, ranging from an eight-week placement in a medical research lab to a two-week artificial intelligence program for ninth graders. Startup programs, science museums, and the youth employment offices of San Francisco, Oakland, and San José add further options, bringing the regional total above 20 programs.

These programs vary widely in cost, eligibility, and time commitment. Residential students at Stanford Summer Session pay more than $20,000, while the UCSF High School Intern Program pays each of its interns $4,500. Some programs welcome applicants from any country, and others admit only juniors enrolled in San Francisco public schools. Research placements can require 40 hours a week on campus, while several online programs meet for only a few hours each day.

We have grouped the programs below by the type of work students do in each one. Every figure comes from the program’s official website as of September 2026. Most programs have not yet posted their 2027 tuition or deadlines, so each figure is labeled with the application cycle it comes from. Confirm the details on the official site before you apply.

Which programs are open to you?

Before you read any program description, consider three things: where you live, what your grade is, and your citizenship status. These can eliminate more options in the region than grades or test scores do.

Several of the region’s most selective programs are funded by federal or university research grants, and they limit eligibility to U.S. citizens and permanent residents (people who hold a “green card,” which grants lawful permanent residence in the United States). Other programs are funded by a single city or school district and admit only students who live or attend school there. San Francisco programs often refer to SFUSD, the San Francisco Unified School District, which runs the city’s public schools.

Paid jobs add a third filter. In California, a minor needs a work permit issued through their school to hold a job, usually requested through a school counselor or the main office, and any paid position requires legal authorization to work in the United States. That rules out most international students for the paid programs in this guide.

If you’re an international student, the programs most clearly open to you are Stanford SS, Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes, SUMaC, Stanford AI4ALL, the Stanford Clinical Summer Internship, UC Berkeley Pre-College Scholars, the Berkeley Haas youth programs, Wharton’s San Francisco program, Leangap, and ASDRP. UC Santa Cruz’s program also accepts some international students, depending on visa and country of citizenship.

Many descriptions below use U.S. grade terms. A “rising junior” is a student who has just finished 10th grade and will enter 11th grade in the fall. Junior year is 11th grade and senior year is 12th grade.

How do the programs compare?

Program	Location	Length	Cost or pay (latest published)	International students
Stanford SIMR	Stanford	8 weeks	Free ($50 application fee)	No
Echelon Scholars	Remote	6-9 months	$12,500	Yes
Stanford SHTEM	Stanford	8 weeks	Free, unpaid ($95 application fee)	No
UCSF High School Intern Program	San Francisco	8 weeks	Pays $4,500	No (SF public school juniors only)
UCSF Summer Student Research Program	San Francisco	7 weeks	Pays $3,000	No
UC Santa Cruz Scholar Immersion Program	Santa Cruz	8 weeks	2027 tuition posted in December	Some visas and countries
Berkeley Lab Experiences in Research	Hybrid, Berkeley	6 weeks	Pays $500 per week	Northern California students
ASDRP	Fremont	About 13 weeks, part-time	$1,070 per semester	Yes
Stanford Summer Session	Stanford	8 weeks	From about $20,000 residential	Yes
UC Berkeley Pre-College Scholars	Berkeley	6 to 8 weeks	$14,687 to $15,987 residential	Yes
SUMaC	Stanford or online	3 to 4 weeks	$3,750 online, $8,950 residential	Yes
COSMOS at UC Santa Cruz	Santa Cruz	4 weeks	$5,518 (2026)	No (California residents only)
Leangap	UC Berkeley or online	4 weeks	$6,450 online, $14,950 on campus	Online is open worldwide
Berkeley Haas B-BAY	Berkeley	2 weeks	2027 fees posted this fall	Yes
Wharton Innovation and Startup Culture	San Francisco	2 weeks	$8,959	Yes
BlueStamp Engineering	San José	6 weeks, half days	$5,200	Not stated
Stanford AI4ALL	Stanford or online	2 weeks	$4,120 online, $9,800 residential	Yes
Stanford Clinical Summer Internship	Stanford	2 weeks	$6,580 on campus	Yes
Stanford Medical Youth Science Program	Stanford	5 weeks	Free	No (Northern California only)
Cal Academy Careers in Science	San Francisco	Multi-year	Paid	No (SFUSD students only)
Exploratorium High School Explainers	San Francisco	One session	Paid	No (work permit required)
Lawrence Hall of Science Teen Internship	Berkeley	10 weeks	$3,500 stipend	Not stated

Costs are for the 2026 cycle unless a program has already published 2027 figures.

Which summer scholars programs have you doing real research?

These programs place you inside an active research project, usually with a mentor who is a faculty member, postdoctoral researcher, or graduate student. They’re also the most competitive programs in this guide.

1. Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program (SIMR)

SIMR places about 50 students in Stanford labs for eight weeks, working roughly 40 hours a week alongside faculty, postdocs, and research staff. Research areas include immunology, neurobiology, cancer biology, stem cells, cardiovascular biology, bioinformatics, and genetics. A separate bioengineering track combines lectures with team design projects.

The program is free once you’re admitted. The application fee is $50, and it’s waived for families with a gross income under $80,000. Limited need-based stipends are available. SIMR provides no housing, and you must live with a parent or legal guardian during the program, which in practice limits it to students who live within commuting distance of Stanford.

For summer 2027, SIMR is open to students who are juniors or seniors in fall 2026 and who will be at least 16 by the start date. You must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident who lives in and attends high school in the United States. The 2027 application opens December 18, 2026, with a deadline in late February 2027. The tentative program dates are June 7 to July 29, 2027.

2. Echelon Scholars

Echelon Scholars is a research mentorship program in which each student completes an original research project with a mentor and submits the resulting paper to a peer-reviewed journal or conference as first author. Echelon reports more than 75 student publications with IEEE, the engineering association behind many of the largest technical conferences, and states that its mentors conduct research at institutions including MIT, Oxford, Duke, and Caltech. The program admits ~20 students a year, including several from the Bay Area. 

Tuition is $12,500, paid in two installments, but need-based aid can cover 10-50% of tuition. Students can also earn up to eight graduate-level extension units through the University of San Diego. If a student’s paper is not accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or conference, Echelon continues mentoring the student at no additional cost. Echelon runs cohorts each season, and applications for the fall 2026 cohort are now open.

3. Stanford SHTEM Summer Internships

SHTEM, run by the Stanford Compression Forum, puts students into research groups of two to five, mentored by Stanford faculty, staff, and students. Projects cross information science, engineering, linguistics, psychology, biology, neuroscience, computer science, and the arts. You’ll commit 20 to 30 hours a week for eight weeks.

The internship is unpaid and charges no tuition. The application fee is $95. There’s no housing, so you’ll need to arrange your own lodging and transportation. For 2027, SHTEM is open to current juniors and seniors who will be at least 14 by June 20, 2027, and who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The application opens in December 2026, and decisions arrive in late March or early April. First-time applicants receive preference.

4. UCSF High School Intern Program (HIP)

HIP pays $4,500 for eight weeks of full-time biomedical research, about 35 hours a week, with a UCSF scientist as your mentor. Interns also receive college counseling and campus tours.

Eligibility is narrow. HIP accepts only current juniors attending an SFUSD school or a San Francisco public charter high school, and the program states there are no exceptions. It interviews about 50 students each year for 25 spots, and grades are not used in selection. The 2026 deadline was February 8, and a 2027 interest form is available on the program’s site.

5. UCSF SSRP

SSRP runs seven weeks in person at UCSF and pays $3,000. In 2026, the program ran June 15 to July 31 and accepted only high school applicants. It’s open to students in grades 10 through 12 who are at least 16 by June 1 and who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Applicants must come from an economically, educationally, or medically disadvantaged background, and the typical admitted GPA is 3.0 or higher, with a year each of math and biology.

Applications are due in February, with decisions by about the end of March. The 2027 cycle is expected to open in December 2026. No housing is provided.

6. UC Santa Cruz Scholar Immersion Program (SIP)

Until August 2026, this program was called the Science Internship Program, and you’ll still see the old name in many places. SIP pairs students one-on-one with mentors on existing UC Santa Cruz research projects in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and art. Students finish with a formal presentation. The program reports receiving “a few thousand” applications each year.

The 2027 program is tentatively scheduled for June 14 to August 7, starting with one online week followed by seven weeks in person. Campus housing is available on weeknights, with a seven-day option for students who live far away. You must be 14 to 17 for the entire program. International students are eligible if they hold an active F-1 or J-1 visa (U.S. student and exchange visitor visas), Canadian citizenship, or citizenship in a Visa Waiver Program country. Citizens of countries on the current U.S. travel-restriction list are not eligible.

Tuition for 2027 will be posted by December 2026. Need-based scholarships cover 25 to 100 percent of tuition and fees. Applications open January 15, 2027, and close February 26, 2027, with a $68 application fee that can be waived.

7. Berkeley Lab Experiences in Research (EinR)

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy lab in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus, runs a six-week summer research internship program for teenagers that pays $500 a week for 30 to 35 hours of work. In 2026, it ran June 15 to July 24 in a hybrid and virtual format, with in-person orientation and closing events. The lab reports accepting about 10 percent of applicants.

EinR is open to students in grades 10 through 12 at Northern California high schools, with priority for students within 30 miles of the lab, and you can participate only once. Applications ran February 2 to March 22 in 2026. Berkeley Lab also offers several smaller high school programs, including a quantum computing camp with a stipend and a paid biotechnology program.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in the East Bay city of Livermore, runs a free two-week Biotech Summer Experience for students entering 11th or 12th grade at Northern California high schools. It requires a 3.3 overall GPA and a 3.5 science GPA. The 2026 session ran July 13 to 24.

8. ASDRP

ASDRP is a nonprofit research institute in Fremont where teenagers do lab and computational research in biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, engineering, and psychology. Students present their work and can publish in the program’s own journal, ASDRP Communications. The summer 2026 term ran June 1 to August 30 at about 20 hours a week.

Tuition is $1,070 per semester, and students facing financial hardship can participate for free. ASDRP accepts students entering grades 9 through 12 and states that applicants come from across California, the United States, and abroad. Students who live outside the region may be able to work remotely.

ASDRP publishes acceptance rates by deadline, and the numbers make the case for applying early. For summer 2026, it accepted 31 percent of applicants at the first priority deadline (February 1), 12 percent at the second (March 1), and 3 percent at the regular deadline (April 15). Applications for the summer cycle opened October 15 last year.

Which programs let you take college courses?

These programs enroll you in university coursework, either real undergraduate classes that appear on an official transcript or specially designed courses taught by university instructors. They’re a good fit if you want to test yourself against college-level material or study a subject your high school doesn’t offer.

9. Stanford Summer Session

This program lets high school students take regular Stanford undergraduate courses for credit alongside college students, and the grades go on an official Stanford transcript. The 2026 quarter ran eight weeks, June 20 to August 16. Residential students take at least eight units, and commuters take at least five units and must live within 50 miles of campus.

Tuition was $1,505 per unit in 2026. Once you add housing, meals, required health insurance, and fees, the eight-unit residential minimum comes to more than $20,000. A five-unit commuter enrollment starts at roughly $8,000. We didn’t find financial aid listed on the program’s official pages. The program welcomes international students from more than 60 countries, and students who need Stanford to issue an I-20 (the document required to apply for a U.S. student visa) should apply by April 30. The 2026 regular deadline was in mid-February.

10. UC Berkeley Pre-College Scholars

Berkeley’s program also enrolls high schoolers in real undergraduate courses for credit. It offers three tracks. The residential track costs $15,987 for the eight-week Session C or $14,687 for the six-week Session D in 2026, and the price covers tuition, housing, meals, orientation, excursions, and basic health insurance. Residential students take two lower-division courses.

The commuter track is limited to California residents and costs $635 per unit plus a $585 registration fee. The virtual track uses the same fees. All three tracks require that you have finished 10th or 11th grade, are at least 16 by the start of summer (June 21 in 2026), are not yet 18, and hold at least a 3.0 GPA. International students must enroll in the residential track. In 2026, residential applications ran February 2 to March 17, and commuter and virtual applications stayed open until June 1.

11. Stanford University Mathematics Camp (SUMaC)

SUMaC teaches advanced mathematics, including abstract algebra, number theory, and algebraic topology, through daily lectures, problem sessions, and a final research project. The residential program runs four weeks and costs $8,950, which covers housing, meals, materials, and weekend field trips. The online program runs three weeks and costs $3,750. In 2026, the residential cohort had 40 students and the online cohorts had 64.

You’re eligible if you’re in 10th or 11th grade when you apply. The application includes a set of proof-based problems you complete at home, which makes SUMaC one of the few programs in this guide where you demonstrate ability directly in the application. Need-based financial aid is available to both domestic and international students and doesn’t affect admission. The 2026 deadline was February 2.

12. COSMOS at UC Santa Cruz

COSMOS, the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science, is a four-week residential program run by the University of California at several campuses, including Santa Cruz. Students join one of about 13 topic clusters, each combining coursework, labs, and a team project. The 2026 cost was $5,518, covering tuition, housing, meals, and field trips, and the statewide site lists $5,793 alongside its 2027 dates. Full and partial need-based aid is available and doesn’t affect admission.

COSMOS is open only to California residents, from rising 8th graders through rising 11th graders, and you can attend only once. There’s no GPA minimum, though the program’s FAQ reports an average unweighted GPA of about 3.8. The 2027 application runs January 6 to February 5, 2027.

Which programs focus on entrepreneurship and technology?

Several programs in the region draw on the local technology industry, with startup visits, investor pitches, and mentors from local companies. These programs are shorter than research-focused programs and generally cost more, but most of them accept international students.

13. Leangap

Leangap runs a four-week startup program in which students form companies, sell to real customers, and pitch to investors at the end. Leangap has already posted its 2027 schedule. The online program runs June 14 to July 9, 2027, and costs $6,450. The on-campus program, hosted at UC Berkeley, runs July 11 to August 7, 2027, and costs $14,950, including housing, meals, and airport transportation.

Need-based scholarships cover 10 to 80 percent of online tuition and 10 to 50 percent of on-campus tuition. Leangap doesn’t offer full scholarships. The online program is open to students worldwide, and there are no prerequisites.

14. UC Berkeley Business Academy for Youth (B-BAY)

The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley runs two residential summer options for teenagers. The Summer Entrepreneurship Residency brings about 50 students from around the world to campus for two weeks to build team business plans, attend lectures by Haas faculty, and pitch at the end. The Summer Founder Bootcamp, which launched in 2026, is a two-week “hacker house” accelerator for students who already have a product with traction, which the program defines as 250 or more active users or $1,000 or more in revenue. Earlier-stage founders are still encouraged to apply.

Berkeley will announce 2027 dates and tuition in fall 2026. The most recent figures on the Haas site are for 2024, when the Residency cost $6,292 for California residents and $7,332 for out-of-state students. International students are welcome and don’t need an English test. The program doesn’t issue I-20s, so international students attend on a B-2 visitor visa or through the Visa Waiver Program.

15. Wharton Global Youth: Innovation and Startup Culture in San Francisco

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania runs a two-week residential program at its San Francisco campus. Students develop business ideas, conduct market research, build business models, visit local startups, and pitch as teams. The 2026 sessions ran July 5 to 17 and July 19 to 31 and cost $8,959, covering tuition, housing, most meals, and excursions. Airfare isn’t included.

The program is open to students in grades 9 through 11, including international students, and no business background is required. Admission is need-blind, meaning your ability to pay doesn’t affect the admission decision, and partial scholarships typically go up to $5,000. Applications usually open in November, with a priority deadline in late January and a final deadline in mid-March. Wharton runs two other programs at the same San Francisco campus and price, one on AI leadership and one called Moneyball, on sports analytics.

16. BlueStamp Engineering

BlueStamp runs a six-week, half-day, hands-on engineering program in San José where each student chooses a personal project, usually involving hardware, and builds it from start to finish. You’ll document your progress and present your finished build at a Demo Night. The 2026 high school program ran June 22 to July 31, with a morning or afternoon session, and cost $5,200, which covers all parts and tools.

BlueStamp is open to incoming 9th through 12th graders, and no prior engineering coursework is required. Admission is rolling until seats fill, with decisions within seven to ten business days, and need-based aid is available. BlueStamp also runs a remote version for students who live elsewhere.

17. Stanford AI4ALL

Stanford AI4ALL is a two-week program for 9th graders in which students attend lectures by Stanford computer science faculty and join small research groups in computer vision, medical AI, natural language processing, or robotics, led by graduate students and postdocs. In 2026, the online session cost $4,120 and the residential session cost $9,800.

You’re eligible if you’re in 9th grade when you apply and will be older than 14 and younger than 16 during the program. No AI or coding experience is required. International students may apply, and limited need-based aid is available to both domestic and international applicants. The 2026 deadline was February 6.

iD Tech also runs two-week overnight Teen Academies for ages 13 to 18 on the Stanford campus, in areas including AI and machine learning, robotics, data science, and game design. These are iD Tech programs held at Stanford, separate from Stanford’s own offerings. Prices start at about $5,200, and summer 2027 registration opens November 8, 2026.

If you can’t spend the summer in Northern California, the Venture & Tech Summer Program (VTSP) is a six-week virtual program that pairs students with internship projects at startups. It accepts students worldwide, and its invite-only round for 2027 closes October 15.

Which programs are best for students interested in medicine?

Stanford’s School of Medicine runs several programs for teenagers, and they vary widely in format and cost. SIMR, described above, is the research option. The two programs below focus on clinical exposure and on access to medicine for students from underrepresented backgrounds.

18. Stanford Clinical Summer Internship (CSI)

CSI introduces students to clinical medicine through case studies, practice with standardized patients (trained actors who simulate medical cases), time with physicians, and supervised patient contact. The 2026 on-campus session ran two weeks, July 13 to 24, and cost $6,580. A virtual session cost $4,580. CSI is commuter-only, so you’ll need your own housing in the Palo Alto area.

The program accepts rising high school juniors and seniors who are at least 16 by the start date. International students are welcome, though visa support for the on-campus session is limited. U.S. applicants must submit PSAT, SAT, or ACT scores. The 2026 application opened November 1, 2025, and closed February 9, 2026.

19. Stanford Medical Youth Science Program (SMYSP)

SMYSP is a free, five-week program on the Stanford campus for low-income, first-generation high school juniors who live in Northern California. The 2026 cohort had 24 students, who spent the summer on health science and medicine with mentorship from physicians, faculty, and Stanford undergraduates. The 2026 deadline was March 23.

Which programs pay students?

The Common App, the online application used by more than 1,000 U.S. colleges, includes paid work as a category in its activities section, and several local institutions hire teenagers into roles that involve teaching, science, and public service. Beyond the research programs above that pay (UCSF HIP at $4,500, UCSF SSRP at $3,000, and Berkeley Lab at $500 a week), these programs are the main paid options. All of them require U.S. work authorization, and most require local residency or school enrollment.

20. California Academy of Sciences Careers in Science Intern Program

Careers in Science (CiS) is a paid, multi-year internship at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. Students join in June as rising sophomores or juniors and stay through high school graduation. Interns do fieldwork, teach museum visitors, attend skills training twice a month, complete research projects, and present at conferences. The program received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2022.

You must attend an SFUSD school full-time, hold at least a 2.5 GPA with a C or better in science and math, and be able to get a work permit. The program pays above minimum wage. Applications reopen in February 2027.

21. Exploratorium High School Explainers

The Exploratorium, San Francisco’s science museum on Pier 15, hires more than 130 teenagers a year as Explainers, who run exhibits, lead demonstrations, and help visitors. The program has trained more than 3,500 teenagers since 1969. First-time applicants must be 15 to 18, and no science background is required. Training runs more than 60 hours, including 20 hours before your first shift. Summer applications usually open in March, and you’ll need a work permit.

22. Lawrence Hall of Science Teen Internship

UC Berkeley’s public science center pays teen interns a $3,500 stipend for ten weeks of full-time work helping run its summer science camps, leading activities, and supervising campers. In 2026, the internship ran June 1 to August 7 and was open to students entering 11th or 12th grade. Applications opened in mid-December and closed January 15, one of the earliest deadlines in this guide.

City youth employment programs

Students searching for summer programs in San Francisco itself will find several within city limits, including UCSF, the California Academy of Sciences, the Exploratorium, and the city’s own youth employment programs. San Francisco, Oakland, and San José each run paid summer work programs for local teenagers. San Francisco’s YouthWorks places rising 11th and 12th graders and graduating seniors who live or go to school in San Francisco in more than 35 city departments, including the Public Utilities Commission, the Public Library, and SFO. School-year interns earn $19.61 an hour, and summer 2027 applications open in February 2027. San Francisco’s broader Opportunities for All initiative placed more than 1,500 young people ages 13 to 24 in paid summer positions in 2026.

Oakland’s Mayor’s Summer Youth Employment Program serves Oakland residents ages 14 to 21 with up to 100 hours of paid summer work through partner organizations, each with its own deadline. San José Works offers paid work experience to San José residents ages 14 to 18 who face barriers to employment, along with training in job readiness and financial literacy.

When should you apply?

Most programs in this guide close between January and March, and a few open this fall. Use the calendar below to plan. Dates marked 2027 have been published; the others are from the 2026 cycle and are likely to be similar.

When	What opens or closes
October 15	ASDRP summer applications open (2026 cycle date)
November	Wharton and Stanford CSI applications open; iD Tech registration opens November 8, 2026
December	SIMR opens December 18, 2026; SHTEM and UCSF SSRP open; Lawrence Hall teen internship opens
Early January	COSMOS opens January 6, 2027; UC Santa Cruz SIP opens January 15, 2027; Lawrence Hall internship closes mid-January
Late January	Wharton priority deadline; ASDRP first priority deadline February 1
February	SUMaC, Stanford AI4ALL, UCSF HIP, and Stanford CSI deadlines; COSMOS closes February 5, 2027; SIMR closes late February 2027; SIP closes February 26, 2027; SF YouthWorks and Cal Academy CiS applications open
March	Berkeley Pre-College residential and Berkeley Lab deadlines; Wharton final deadline; Exploratorium summer applications open
April and later	ASDRP final deadline April 15; Stanford Summer Session I-20 deadline April 30; Berkeley commuter and virtual tracks close June 1; BlueStamp admits on a rolling basis

If you want to apply to the research programs, start in October. Most of them require a teacher recommendation and an official transcript, which you usually request through your school counselor, and both take several weeks. Financial aid applications often close a week or more before the admission deadline, so check both dates for every program on your list.

FAQs

Do local tech companies offer internships for teenagers?

We checked the official career pages of Google, Genentech, Salesforce, and Adobe in September 2026, and none of them currently advertises a summer opportunity for high schoolers. Their internships are aimed at college students and recent graduates. Your most realistic routes to tech and biotech work in high school are the university research programs above, a startup program such as Leangap or VTSP, or a national lab. Sandia National Laboratories, which has a site in Livermore, lists full-time high schoolers as eligible for some paid internship postings.

Can high schoolers intern at NASA Ames?

NASA’s current internship eligibility page lists enrollment in college as a requirement, and the Ames Research Center describes its internships as college-level. Students who want NASA experience can apply to GeneLab for High Schools, a free, self-paced online program in space biology and bioinformatics run from Ames. It’s open to rising juniors and seniors who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and applications opened February 15 in 2026.

Which programs in this guide are free?

Stanford SIMR, Stanford SHTEM, the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program, and Lawrence Livermore’s Biotech Summer Experience charge no tuition, though SIMR and SHTEM charge application fees. UCSF HIP, UCSF SSRP, Berkeley Lab’s EinR program, and the Lawrence Hall of Science internship pay you. Most of these programs are limited to U.S. citizens and permanent residents or to students in specific cities or regions.

Do I need to live in the region to attend these programs?

It depends on housing. Stanford's program, Berkeley Pre-College Scholars, SUMaC, COSMOS, B-BAY, Wharton, Leangap’s on-campus program, Stanford AI4ALL, and UC Santa Cruz SIP provide housing. SIMR, SHTEM, the UCSF programs, and the Stanford CSI don’t, and SIMR requires you to live with a parent or guardian. The city job programs and the museum internships require local residency or school enrollment.

How competitive are these research programs?

Few programs publish acceptance rates, but the ones that do show how tight they are. UCSF HIP interviews about 50 students for 25 spots, Berkeley Lab reports accepting about 10 percent of applicants, SIMR admits about 50 students a year, and ASDRP’s acceptance rate fell from 31 percent at its first summer 2026 deadline to 3 percent at its last.

How are programs like SUMac, Stanford AI4ALL, etc. different from summer camps in the Bay Area?

Most programs in this guide admit students through a competitive application, with transcripts, essays, and recommendations, and many of them involve research, college coursework, or paid work. Bay Area summer camps generally enroll students on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration-based options such as iD Tech’s camps for ages 7 to 17 or the Lawrence Hall of Science’s week-long teen research sessions can still be worthwhile, particularly for younger students, but they don’t involve a selective admissions process. A summer camp is usually a better fit for exploring a subject, while the selective programs ask you to demonstrate ability or commitment before you’re admitted.

Can I do one of these programs online?

Yes. SUMaC, Stanford AI4ALL, Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes, Stanford’s CSI, Berkeley Pre-College Scholars, Leangap, and BlueStamp all offer online or virtual versions, and ASDRP allows some students outside the region to work remotely. Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes is now online only, with two-week courses for grades 8 through 11 at $3,200.

Where to start

Sort the list by the two filters at the top of this guide, residency and citizenship, and you’ll likely be left with six to ten programs. Open each official page, note the admission deadline and the financial aid deadline, and ask your recommenders this fall. Nearly every program on the list closes between January and March, so the work you do in October and November decides which of them you can still apply to.

Program details reflect what each organization published on its official website as of September 2026. Dates, tuition, and eligibility change every year, so verify on the program’s own site before you apply.

About the Authors

Written by the team behind the Venture & Tech Summer Program (VTSP), a six-week virtual innovation program that has brought together high school students from more than 85 countries. Each session pairs students with internship projects at startups in Silicon Valley and beyond, and brings in guest speakers working in technology, innovation, and venture capital.