Frequently Asked Questions

At the beginning of the program, we ask each student to provide a detailed account of their interests and skills. We then help them build a college-level resume showcasing their accomplishments and share it with companies in our network that are a match for the interests and skills they have selected. Companies choose which students to interview based on their resumes and which students to extend offers to based on their interview performance. Our team helps coordinate interviews for each student until they find a match they are excited about. In the rare event that a student is unhappy with their match, we will continue to search or issue a full tuition refund, according to their preference.

We do our best to make sure that students match with companies relating to one of their interest areas. However, we will only place students in learning environments where they are qualified to make a real contribution they can articulate on their resume and college application based on their education level and skills. For example, we might help match a student interested in law with a legal tech company as opposed to a law firm, which would only be able to give meaningful projects to law school interns. We might help match a student interested in medicine with a company spearheading innovations in health insurance data. A student interested in finance could match with a financial technology company working on personal money transfer for emerging markets. We will send students' resumes to the companies that most reflect their interests until they receive an internship offer.

We have over 500 partner companies representing a myriad of interest areas, including Science, Business, Marketing, Finance, Consumer Products, Real Estate/Construction, Psychology, Medicine, Skincare, Law/Advocacy, Global Studies/International Events, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Video Game Design, Engineering, Environment, Government, Education, Arts, Music, Fashion, Culinary Arts/Food Sustainability, Languages, Writing/Journalism, Athletics, and Pet Care. See example companies in each interest area on our Internships page.

Our company partners do not provide academic research internships. However, students may perform non-academic research.

Yes! We are "legit" when we say that each student who graduates our training program receives an internship offer from one of the companies they interviewed with. This is why we carefully vet the students we admit to make sure that they will be a good fit for our partner companies and also provide comprehensive training to ensure that students are prepared for the resume-building and interview process. We continue helping set up interviews for each of our students until they receive an offer. Every student who graduates our training program is guaranteed an internship they are happy with or a full tuition refund, according to their preference.

Students who successfully graduate from StandOut Connect will receive an internship offer. Students who perform well during their internships receive college recommendation letters from the professionals in our partner company network. We look for mentors who came from top universities and Fortune 500 companies. 80% of students also receive optional return offers to continue their internships beyond two months. In a survey of our 2024-2025 alumni, 44% were accepted to an Ivy League or US News top 20 National University, 6.8 times the general acceptance rate at those schools. Our students have also gone on to receive full scholarships from local universities. 97% of our students say they felt better prepared to pursue their career interests during college after completing the StandOut program.

Students have the opportunity to complete a meaningful internship project they can describe on their college applications and earn a recommendation letter from their internship mentor. Our training covers how to pitch yourself with a compelling story and build a college-level resume, and live Q&As with recent graduates of top universities show students how they prepared for admissions and recruiting. In a survey of our 2024-2025 alumni, 44% were accepted to an Ivy League or US News top 20 National University. That is 6.8 times the general acceptance rate at those schools.

Of course! We will provide the emails of students from previous cohorts who serve on our Alumni Board should you gain admission to our program. In the meantime, you are welcome to view StandOut Connect review videos previous students volunteered to make here. We also encourage you to read about StandOut Connect in news outlets such as Forbes and New York Weekly.

StandOutSearch is the largest existing database of legitimate high school opportunities. You can read more about the history of StandOutSearch and how StandOut Connect was created on our About page.

Please refer to the program pages of our website for the exact dates that correspond with each of our seasonal programs (Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring). All of our programs start with five weeks of remote weekend workshops. During this period, students will interview with companies until they receive an offer for a two-month remote internship, which will start following the fifth workshop, when students graduate from our training program.

The first week will cover internship and college application strategy (how to pitch yourself with a compelling story, build a college-level resume and LinkedIn presence). The second week will cover interview and networking best practices. The third week will cover general professionalism and how to succeed during an internship. Students will learn appropriate etiquette for digital communications and meetings, how to approach problems independently, and when to ask for help. The fourth week will cover the software stack used by most innovative companies today and how to integrate tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, and HubSpot into your workflows. The fifth and final week of training will cover how to approach specific tasks students will be given during their internships, such as web design or lead generation. The last four workshops will feature guest speakers who have graduated from top universities into fields such as business, medicine, law, and technology. Students must attend interviews, submit assignments by the deadline, and respond to communications from us in a timely manner in order to graduate from our training program.

Workshops are non-mandatory and will be recorded for students that cannot attend. They take place on Sundays for up to two hours: a presentation of course material followed by activities and discussion, with the last half-hour as optional office hours where instructors answer individualized questions.

During the five weeks of training, students spend at most 5 hours per week on the program, including the Sunday workshop, at most two hours of homework, and interviews with companies. Once internships begin, students are generally expected to contribute at most 10 hours per week on average during our Fall, Winter, and Spring programs, and at most 30 hours per week on average during our Summer program. Students work out the exact schedule with their mentor based on their availability.

Workshops are taught by our Program Directors, Estelle Reardon and Elizabeth Chen, both University of Chicago alums, and include live Q&As with recent graduates of top universities. Each student will also be offered an internship by a mentor who is the founder or an early team member at an innovative company. We look for mentors who came from somewhere our students want to end up: a top university, a Vault-ranked firm like McKinsey or Goldman Sachs, a Fortune 500 company, or an accelerator like Y Combinator. You can read more about our Program Directors on our About page.

All our partner companies offer remote internships.

The specifics of each internship, including compensation, are independently negotiated between the student and a potential company. StandOut Connect has no involvement with the compensation arrangement between students and companies. Both students and companies are advised to review applicable State and Federal labor laws for information pertaining to proper pay practices.

Students must reach out to their school about receiving academic credit for their internship.

Any student who will be 15+ by the start of the program can apply. International students must have demonstrated English fluency and be willing to adapt to a US time zone.

International students should plan to be available during US business hours for about three hours a week, mainly for interviews during training and a weekly check-in with their mentor once the internship begins. Meetings are scheduled around student availability and most project work is done asynchronously, so international students generally adapt to our timeline without difficulty. Weekend workshops are also recorded for anyone who cannot attend live.

We are highly selective when choosing the students to connect with our partner companies. Of all the applicants we have received since 2023, only 6% on average have been selected to complete our training program and have received internship acceptances from our partner companies.

Students are evaluated based on their grades, short answer responses, skills, and their overall fit for the partner companies that have selected to participate in a given cohort. Please be patient as we process applications as we receive thousands of applicants per year and need time to duly consider each student. If you do not receive communication from us, this means we were unable to admit you for the upcoming cohort. We will continue to consider all student applications for the next two cohorts after you initially apply. Some students may be admitted multiple times. Feel free to update your application by submitting an additional response.

Please find the deadlines for each of our seasonal programs on their dedicated program pages on our website (Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring). All deadlines are 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

Please refer to the program pages of our website for the tuition amount that corresponds to each of our seasonal programs (Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring). Tuition covers the cost of our training program, including instructors, company sourcing & vetting, as well as our scholarship program for low-income students. We will be extending as many scholarships as possible and highly encourage you to apply regardless of your financial status! Please indicate in your application if you will need financial assistance to participate.

United States students are eligible to apply for scholarships if their family's annual income is $50,000 or less. Students must indicate in their initial application if they will need financial assistance to participate. Students who select their need for financial assistance on their application will also be separately considered for StandOut Scholars, our full scholarship program for low-income students.

Tuition is due within a week of a student receiving an acceptance.

If, within one week of successfully completing our program as per the dates on our website, you are not satisfied with your experience, we will issue a full tuition refund. Please note that students must submit weekly updates communicating with us about their experience throughout the program. Students must consistently fill out our weekly update forms and communicate any issues to us in their weekly updates within a week of their cohort's end date in order to receive either help finding a new company match or a full tuition refund, depending on their preference. Should a student who has confirmed their place in our program choose not to participate, they will have up until the day before our syllabus is sent out, as specified in our admissions email, to request a refund.