25 Coding (Computer Science) Internships for High School Students in 2025
- Estelle Reardon
- Aug 1
- 11 min read
Topics We Cover:
Why Do Internships in High School?
Before diving into top computer science internships for high schoolers, it’s worth understanding their impact. According to PRISM, 70% of students at U.S. News top 50 universities completed at least one high school internship. High school internships help you stand out in admissions, clarify your career interests, and make it easier to land a job you love after graduation.
How to Find Computer Science Internships for High School Students
The easiest way to find official internship programs is through online databases and curated lists. The StandOutSearch Database offers one of the largest free collections of high school internships. It’s searchable by a number of filters, such as interest area, format, and location. Other helpful resources include a list of summer programs and internships from MIT Admissions and the CollegeVine blog.
That said, official programs can be highly competitive—there are more high schoolers interested in internships than available positions. If you’re serious about landing a coding internship, you’ll want to develop a cold outreach strategy—reaching out to people you don’t know about internship opportunities. At the end of this article, you'll find tips and email templates to help you get started.
25 Coding Internships for High School Students
Due to high demand, most of the internships below have acceptance rates under 20%. We recommend applying to at least five opportunities to increase your odds of securing an internship. If you find a position exciting, mark the deadline on your calendar!
Ages: 15-19
Location: Virtual
Timeline: Summer, Spring, Fall, or Winter
Deadline: Various Deadlines
StandOut Connect matches high-achieving high school students with virtual internships in fields like STEM, finance, medicine, law, and the arts. Powered by StandOutSearch—the largest free database of high school internships—the program has been featured in Forbes and is backed by The University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Ages: 16-18
Location: Locations Across the U.S.
Timeline: Summer or School Year
Deadline: Various Deadlines
NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) offers paid internships for high school and college-level students, allowing them to contribute to agency projects under the guidance of a NASA mentor. Applicants for this internship must be U.S. Citizens and meet a minimum 3.0 GPA requirement. There is also a program for international students.
Check out our ultimate guide to the NASA High School internship to get details and deadlines, as well as learn about some similar opportunities.
Ages: 15-16
Location: California
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: February 14
Meta Summer Academy (formerly known as Facebook Summer Academy) students have the chance to get a firsthand look at the day-to-day operations of one of the world’s leading social media networks while exploring career paths, developing soft skills, and building a network of like-minded peers. Applicants must be sophomores in high school and full-year residents of East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, North Fair Oaks, or Redwood City.
Want to learn more about this exciting opportunity? Our definitive guide to the Facebook high school internship covers everything you need to know about Meta Summer Academy.
Ages: 16-18
Location: Locations Across the U.S.
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: January 10
Paid summer internship opportunities are open to upper-level high school students through the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Scholars Program. Interns work full-time with professional scientists and engineers on leading-edge research and technology, contribute to research-based projects, and build valuable hands-on experience.
Ages: 16-18
Location: Locations Across the U.S.
Timeline: School Year or Summer
Deadline: Various Deadlines
What do cutting-edge research, state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, and unparalleled access to professional scientists and engineers have in common? The Pathways Internship Program. Spend your summer in a university research lab or one of the U.S. Army Research Laboratories and Centers through this unique apprenticeship opportunity. All participants must be current high school students who are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents. Additional eligibility requirements vary by location.
Ages: 17-18
Location: Locations Across the U.S.
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: Early January
Students interested in careers as producers, journalists, web developers, engineers, business executives, PR agents, sales representatives, along with other roles in media or tech, will want to look into the EBF Internship. Interns immerse themselves in their field of interest—learning, growing, building real-world experience, and accelerating their path to career success.
Ages: 17-18
Location: Locations Across the U.S.
Timeline: School Year
Deadline: October 31
This program gives high school students the chance to learn more about the NSA, explore careers in the field, and earn a paycheck or scholarship. It’s designed for students participating in a school-sponsored work experience program during their senior year. Internships are offered in two tracks—office assistant and computer aide—with positions varying by site needs.
Ages: 15-18
Location: Locations Across the U.S.
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: August 24
The TECH360 Summer Bootcamp is a free program that teaches high school juniors and seniors about artificial intelligence (AI). Participants in the program explore how AI is disrupting the workforce and develop the skills, knowledge, and mindset necessary to understand AI while discovering how to use this innovative tool confidently and effectively.
Ages: 16-18
Location: Locations Across the U.S.
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: November 1
The Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP) places high school students in Department of Navy (DoN) laboratories where they participate in actual Naval research for eight weeks during the summer. SEAP gives academically talented sophomores, juniors, and seniors interested in STEM the opportunity to learn about Naval research and technology while receiving first-class mentoring by top scientists and engineers.
Ages: 16-18
Location: New York
Timeline: School Year
Deadline: Various Deadlines
The Biorocket Research Internship Program is a 6-month science research internship for New York City public and charter high school students aged 16 and up. Participants work with like-minded peers and scientist mentors to gain lab experience using biology and genetic engineering techniques, bolster science communication skills, and engage in a research project. Students will also receive career guidance and tour research labs and biotech companies. A summer session of the program is also held.
Ages: 15-18
Location: New York
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: January 8
The Hk Maker Lab is an intensive six-week summer program that teaches 10th- and 11th-graders the foundations of design. Participants will design, prototype, and test a biomedical device and develop an associated business plan focused on addressing a health problem. The program culminates with a presentation to leading executives from the biomedical community. The Hk Maker Lab projects might then be incubated using the state-of-the-art facilities at Harlem Biospace.
This program is open to NYC students from public and charter high schools from low-resource backgrounds.
Ages: 16-18
Location: New Jersey
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: March 15
The Laboratory Learning Program is a free full-time research experience in the sciences or engineering for high school students. Students are included in ongoing research programs where they are closely supervised by Princeton faculty and research staff. The participation dates are customized according to the schedules of the research personnel and the specifics of the project.
Ages: 16-19
Location: California and New Mexico
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: Various Deadlines
Sandia National Laboratories—a research and development laboratory that applies science to help detect, repel, defeat, or mitigate national threats—welcomes student interns. Positions are available for students ranging from those in their final years of high school to undergraduates to researchers obtaining PhDs. Interns work on real-world, challenging projects that contribute to Sandia’s mission.
Ages: 16-17
Location: Massachusetts
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: February 1
The MITES Summer Program is a six-week, on-campus program that immerses U.S. high school juniors in rigorous and rewarding mathematics, science, and humanities courses. Participants have access to lab tours, social events, and college admissions counseling while developing the academic and personal skills essential for success. Students will engage with STEM professionals in seminars and tours of MIT labs and local companies employing MITES alumni.
Ages: 14-18
Location: Remote
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: TBD
Students gain the computer science skills they need to make an impact and prepare for tech careers through this free, virtual summer program. There are two available tracks:
The Summer Immersion Program is a two-week virtual course diving into tech and game design.
Pathways is a six-week self-paced class focused on coding languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python.
Program participants in both tracks get exposure to tech jobs, meet leaders in tech careers, and find community in a supportive sisterhood.
Ages: 15-17
Location: New York
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: February 21
This 10-week program includes a 4-week training focused on lab safety, research skills, and college writing, followed by a 6-week research experience in participating NYU faculty labs. Participants are mentored by graduate or postdoctoral students and receive a stipend of $1,000 for completing the program. Participants also gain experience showing off their work—they’ll present their research to the NYU community as well as at a poster symposium at the American Museum of Natural History.
Ages: 16-18
Location: Massachusetts
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: March 12
The Lincoln Laboratory Radar Introduction for Student Engineers program (LLRISE) is a two-week summer workshop for rising high school seniors. LLRISE offers students an in-depth experience in building small radar systems by using creative problem-solving strategies.
Participants work with highly talented scientists and engineers to develop the skills needed to build a Doppler and range radar. The program is held on both the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA, and Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, MA.
Ages: 16-17
Location: Massachusetts
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: April 16
The MIT Women’s Technology Program (WTP) is a rigorous four-week summer academic experience that introduces high school students to engineering. Participants engage in classes, labs, and team-based projects in the summer after 11th grade.
WTP is aimed at students who are passionate about learning, have excelled in math and science classes, and have no prior background (or very little) in engineering. WTP is a women-focused, collaborative community focused on empowering students from groups historically underrepresented and underserved in engineering.
Ages: 15-17
Location: Illinois
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: January 12
The Data Science Institute Summer Lab program (launched in 2018 as the Data & Computing Summer Lab) is an immersive 8-week paid summer research program at the University of Chicago. In the program, high school and undergraduate students are paired with a data science mentor in various domains, including computer science, data science, social science, climate and energy policy, public policy, materials science, and biomedical research.
Ages: 14-18
Location: Denver
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: TBD
While not an internship strictly speaking, the GenCyber Summer Camp at the University of Denver is a weeklong program covering a variety of cybersecurity topics, including:
Cyber threats
Computer and operating systems
Social engineering
Internet of Things (IoT)
Computer and digital forensics
Ethics in cybersecurity
Online safety
This is a free program, and college credit is awarded to those who complete the course.
Ages: 14-17
Location: New York
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: April 14
This program at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering instills the fundamentals of computer science and cybersecurity in participants. Students are empowered to tackle current and future cybersecurity challenges while exploring topics like:
White-hat hacking
Digital forensics
Steganography
Cryptography
The goal of the program is to break down the barriers that have historically excluded women and minorities from STEM fields like cybersecurity—a fast-growing, high-demand professional field that requires specialized computer science skills.
Ages: 14-18
Location: New York
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: TBD
Students gain an understanding of the fundamental concepts of cellular and molecular biology, genomic science, and computer programming in this hybrid summer program. Participants take online courses, engage in in-person learning, and complete a project on bioinformatics using open-access genomic data during this intensive program.
Ages: 16-18
Location: New Jersey
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: January 10
The Governor’s School of New Jersey was established in 1983. It is a tuition-free, residential summer program for high-achieving high school juniors with an interest in STEM subjects. Participants take four academic courses, engage in a research and design project, and tour local corporations to learn about potential career paths.
The program is extremely competitive—admission is offered to fewer than 100 students annually.
Ages: 14-18
Location: New York
Timeline: School Year, Summer
Deadline: TBD
Learn to code in a supportive, all-girl environment! Explore how women across the spectrum of race, class, and sexuality have exercised power and effected change. Be a digital changemaker and create your own websites to share powerful stories about women in history.
Ages: 17-18
Location: Georgia and Washington
Timeline: Summer
Deadline: TBD
This program for graduating high school seniors introduces students to career opportunities in technology. Participants gain real-world experience, develop professional skills, and receive mentoring from Microsoft employees while learning how technology can change people’s lives.
Learn more about this exciting opportunity and other programs like it in our ultimate guide to the Microsoft High School Internship.
Cold Outreach Strategy for Computer Science High School Internships
If the opportunities above aren’t the right fit, the next step to finding a coding internship for high school students is to launch a cold outreach strategy—that is, a plan for contacting potential internship opportunities with whom you have no prior relationship. This can be intimidating at first, but the guide below should make it much simpler. It’s important to exercise caution when reaching out to professionals you don’t know. It‘s always safest to interview or meet virtually.
How to Find Companies to Reach Out to for a High School Internship
LinkedIn is a great tool for finding small technology companies that interest you. Smaller companies are great targets for internships—they’re often shorthanded, making them more likely to hire high-school-aged students to code for them. Try to find personal connections with the professionals you reach out to, such as being from the same state, attending the same high school, or sharing an interest, such as liking the same sports team.
How to Find Professors to Reach Out to for a High School Research Position
University directories are a tried-and-true resource for discovering professors to reach out to for research positions. These professors will likely have you help with computational research for a coding internship, which generally requires introductory knowledge of Python or R to parse large datasets. You should be able to learn Python or R on your own for free within a few months using resources such as Coursera’s R Programming Course or Python for Everybody.
How to Structure and Send Outreach Emails
The more people you contact about possible internships, the better your odds of success. Aim to send at least 50 emails to potential internship providers. Include a Google Drive link to your resume when reaching out—limit your resume’s length to a single page, and make sure the share settings allow anyone to view it. If possible, include samples of your coding skills by including a GitHub profile or a link to a website you designed.
If you need to craft a resume, our high school resume template and tips are a great jumping-off point. The University of Chicago’s free resume template and guide is another useful resource.
Email Template for Finding a High School Internship
If you are unsure how to structure your outreach emails to potential internship providers, here are some basic templates you can customize to your needs.
Template for Finding a Coding Internship
Subject: Student Reaching Out
Dear Mr./Ms.____,
I hope you are having a great day! My name is [your name], and I am a rising [grade] at [your school]. I read about your company on LinkedIn and found the concept quite interesting. For context, [briefly state how the company relates to your interests or experience].
I was wondering if you might be looking for technical interns. I know I would have a great deal to learn from working with you, and I would love to contribute in any way I can. I have included my resume here. Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Template for Finding a Computational Research Position
Subject: Student Reaching Out
Dear Professor/Dr. ____,
I hope you are having a great day! My name is [your name], and I am a rising [grade] at [your school]. I recently read your paper on [restate the abstract] in [name of publication] and was quite intrigued by [part you found interesting]. I was wondering if I might be able to intern for you over this summer in a technical role. [Elaborate on your relevant skills and experience and why you are passionate about the field].
I have included my resume here. Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Conclusion
Whether pursuing formal programs or cold outreach, securing high school internships requires persistence. While challenging to obtain, these opportunities provide invaluable career development that most students find worthwhile. Save this guide as a reference or share it with peers also interested in landing a high school internship. Good luck on your internship journey!
