Internships for High School Students: How to Find One That Pays

If you want a paid internship next summer, the race already started. The Navy's SEAP program stops taking applications on November 30. Kaiser Permanente's $25-an-hour program closes January 8.

So by the time summer feels real, most of the big programs have picked their interns. That's the bad news.

The good news? There are more real options than you'd think, and plenty of them pay. The table below lists 17, sorted by deadline, so read the last column first.

An Internship Isn't the Same as a Summer Program

An internship is real work for a real organization. You get a supervisor, a schedule and a task somebody really needs done.

In high school, three other things wear the same costume. Mixing them up is how people end up paying for a "job."

All four can look good on a college application. Only one of them is a job, though, and that matters once you're comparing a stipend to a tuition bill.

The Money Test: Who's Paying Whom?

Before you fall for a program's website, find the money. It always lands in one of three places.

• They pay you. A wage or a stipend. SEAP pays new interns $4,000 for eight weeks, and the Hutton program pays $3,000.

• It's free. No pay, no tuition. RSI and SIMR at Stanford cost nothing to attend, which is a great deal for what you get.

• You pay them. Tuition, often with a fancy name attached. The Research Mentorship Program at UC Santa Barbara listed $5,600 for commuters and $13,274 if you live on campus.

That last group isn't a scam. Some of those programs are excellent. They're just classes, so don't let the word "internship" in an ad decide your summer.

Also, check the application fee. A small one is normal at selective programs, and Simons charges $75 but waives it for students with financial need. A big fee on top of tuition is a business model.

17 Programs That Take High School Students

Every program below accepts high schoolers, and they're sorted by deadline, soonest first. A missed date is the one mistake you can't fix later.

Dates shift a little each year. So use these as a guide, and confirm on the program's own page before you plan around one.

Federal Labs Pay Well and Take the Most Interns

If you want the best odds at real pay, start here. SEAP alone has about 300 spots across 38 Navy labs, and you'd earn $4,000 as a new intern.

AFRL Scholars works the same way for the Air Force, with a weekly stipend that depends on the site. For both, you'll need to be a U.S. citizen and at least 16.

The NIH program is the one with an age catch. You need to be 18, unless you're 17 and live within 40 miles of an NIH campus.

University Research Programs Are Free and Fiercely Competitive

These are the famous names, and they're famous for a reason. You'd spend the summer on a real research project, usually without paying a cent.

• RSI: about 100 juniors a summer at MIT, plus 50 new spots at Stanford starting next summer. It's free.

• Simons Summer Research: your school has to nominate you for this one at Stony Brook, and it can nominate only three students. Fewer than 5% get in.

• Clark Scholars: just 12 students a summer at Texas Tech, with a $750 stipend and room and board covered. You need to be 17.

• SIMR: free, eight weeks at Stanford Medicine, but the selection heavily favors students from the Bay Area.

• Broad Summer Scholars and SHIP: paid lab work for rising seniors, but only if you live near the Broad in Massachusetts or near Fred Hutch in Seattle.

So if you live far from all of these, don't panic. The field guides further down cover smaller and regional programs too.

Companies Hire Close to Their Own Buildings

Corporate internships for teens are real, but they're local. Lockheed Martin only takes you if you live within commuting distance of six sites, from Denver to Huntsville.

KP Launch is the standout for pay. It's $25 an hour, full time for seven weeks, but you need a home address in Kaiser Permanente's Northern California area.

Don't live near one? That's not a verdict on you. It's a commute rule.

Arts Internships Pay Too

If you're a rising senior at a public school, the Bloomberg Arts Internship can place you in a paid summer job at a cultural nonprofit. It runs in nine cities, including New York, Baltimore, Detroit and New Orleans.

Two That Now Want Graduates

You'll still see NASA and Bank of America on plenty of high school lists. Both changed their rules.

• NASA OSTEM: you now need to be 18 by the start date and a high school graduate, for the summer session only.

• Bank of America Student Leaders: you need to be 18 and to have finished high school within the last two years.

That makes both worth a bookmark for the summer after you graduate, not this one.

Pick Your Field

The table covers the national names. Every field also has its own smaller programs, and we've mapped them one guide at a time.

Science, tech and math

• Tech internships: the paid and fully funded programs, sorted by pay and how hard they are to get.

• Coding internships: free research programs, free coding camps and the paid ones.

• Data science programs: four tiers, from free research to pay-to-play.

• Aerospace engineering internships: NASA, the Air Force and what the big aerospace companies really offer teens.

• Biology summer internships: the regional labs, where your odds beat the famous names.

• Summer math programs: the free elite programs and the competition path.

Health and medicine

• Nursing internships: why real nursing internships don't exist for teens yet, and the CNA path that pays.

• Dermatology internships: the few skin-focused programs, plus local shadowing.

• Psychology internships: research labs versus clinical observation, and what each one costs you.

Business and money

• Business internships: programs that hire you, and how to spot pay-to-play.

• Finance internships: paid finance programs and Wall Street's free insight days.

• Marketing internships: 14 programs, from paid internships to free certifications.

Creative fields

• Art internships: where the paid programs are, city by city.

• Fashion internships: pre-college programs and local boutique work.

• Journalism internships: the free programs that cover your costs.

By format or place

• Online summer internships: remote programs, if you'd rather work from home.

• Internships in NYC: how New York teens stack paid programs in one summer.

• Summer volunteer programs: service programs sorted by pay, from free local work to paid tracks.

Your City Might Run the Biggest Paid Internship Around

The largest paid summer program for teens usually isn't a lab. It's city hall.

New York's Summer Youth Employment Program offered about 100,000 spots last summer. Teens 16 and up earned $17 an hour for 25 hours a week, and 14 and 15 year olds could earn up to $700.

Chicago runs the same idea, now called Chicago Youth Works. It put 27,793 young people to work in a single summer.

Most big cities have something like it. Search your city's name plus "summer youth employment program," and ask your counselor about it in January. Spots often go by lottery, so applying early won't win you one, but missing the deadline will lose you one.

No Program Said Yes? Build Your Own

Plenty of high school internships never get posted. Somebody just asked.

1. List 10 places near you. A vet clinic, a city council office, a small business, a lab at a nearby college, a local newspaper.

2. Start with people you know. Parents' coworkers, teachers, coaches and family friends. A warm intro usually beats a cold email.

3. Write a short email. Five or six sentences: who you are, why them, what you can do and how many hours you have.

4. Follow up once. Give it a week or two, send one polite nudge, then move on.

5. Ask for a project, not a title. "Can I help with this for six weeks?" is a lot easier to say yes to than "Can I intern?"

A template you can steal and change:

Hi Dr. Lee, I'm a junior at Lincoln High School, and I've been reading about your lab's work on water quality in local rivers. I'm free about 15 hours a week this summer, and I'm comfortable with Excel and basic Python. Could I help with data entry or sample prep for a few weeks? I'd be glad to stop by for a short chat first. Thanks for reading, [Your name]

Expect some no's. Plenty of labs and companies can't take anyone under 18, and that's a rule, not a review of you.

When somebody says yes and asks for a resume, our guide to landing an internship walks through the resume, the interview and the follow-up.

The Rules When You're Under 18

Working at 15 comes with federal rules, and they're stricter than most teens expect.

• At 14 and 15: no more than 3 hours on a school day and 18 in a school week. Up to 8 hours on a day off, and 40 in a week with no school. Only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., stretched to 9 p.m. from June 1 to Labor Day.

• At 16 and 17: no federal limit on hours. Hazardous work, like roofing or demolition, is still off limits.

• Work permits: federal law doesn't require one, but many states do. Your school counselor can tell you what your state wants.

If your state's rule is stricter than the federal one, the stricter rule wins.

Unpaid internships have rules too. At a nonprofit or a government office, unpaid is generally allowed. At a for-profit company, the Department of Labor uses a seven-part test that asks who benefits more, you or the company.

In plain English, an unpaid internship should feel like school, not free labor. If you're doing the same work as a paid employee, just without the paycheck, that's a red flag.

Where an Internship Goes on Your College Application

An internship goes in the Common App's activities section, next to your clubs, sports and jobs. You get up to ten activities and 150 characters to describe each one.

So keep notes while you work. Write down what you did and one thing you can count, like samples prepped or posts written.

Our list of accomplishments for students shows how to turn that into a line that reads well. And the Common App walkthrough covers the rest of that section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a 14 or 15 year old get an internship?

Yes, but your best bets are city programs. New York and Chicago both take teens from age 14, while most national programs on this page start at 16. Federal rules also cap how many hours you can work at 14 and 15.

Do high school internships pay?

Many do. Kaiser Permanente pays $25 an hour, the Navy's SEAP pays $4,000 for the summer, and New York's city program pays teens 16 and up $17 an hour. Free research programs don't pay, and programs that charge tuition are classes.

When should I apply for a summer internship?

In the fall and winter before. SEAP closes November 30, most national programs close between December and February, and city programs usually close in spring.

Can I do an internship online?

Yes. Some research, writing and business programs run fully remote, and our guide to online summer internships lists them.

Is it legal to do an unpaid internship in high school?

Usually, at a nonprofit or a government office. At a for-profit company, the Department of Labor applies a seven-part test, and the short version is that the internship has to benefit you more than the company.

Do internships help with college admissions?

They can, like any activity you stick with. On the Common App you get 150 characters to describe it, so be ready to say what you did, not just where you did it.

The Short Version

An internship is a job. A research program is a lab without a paycheck, and a summer program usually sends you a bill. Know which one you're looking at.

Apply in the fall and winter, check your city's youth employment program, and if nobody calls back, write your own email. Ten short emails will do more than one perfect application you never send.