10 Neuroscience and Neurobiology Internships for High School Students
- Stephen Turban
- Oct 1, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 23
Neuroscience is a diverse and fast-evolving field. Through an internship that focuses on the subject, you can explore its practical side and identify potential sub-fields to study at higher levels. Internships complement your theoretical knowledge by giving you experience in industry and application-based work. They also demonstrate your commitment to your field, a quality that can make your college application stand out to admissions officers!
Below, we’ve compiled a list of 10 neuroscience and neurobiology internships for high schoolers, from research opportunities to paid work at major hospitals. Note that the following information is based on the most recent program, with dates subject to change but generally similar from year to year.
Ladder Internships is a selective start-up internship program for ambitious high school students! In the program, you work with a high-growth start-up on an internship. Start-ups that offer internships range across a variety of industries, from tech/deep tech and AI/ML to health tech, marketing, journalism, consulting, and more. You can explore all the options here on their application form. Ladder’s start-ups are high-growth companies on average raising over a million dollars. In the program, interns work closely with their managers and a Ladder Coach on real-world projects and present their work to the company. The virtual internship is usually 8 weeks long.
Cost: Starting at $2,490 (financial aid available)
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Application Deadline: Deadlines vary depending on the cohort. Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September), and Winter (November).
Program Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year, including Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
Eligibility: Students who can work for 10-20 hours/week for 8-12 weeks. Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students!
JHIBS is an 8-week internship providing one-on-one mentorship, educational resources, and career guidance sessions in neuroscience and neurobiology. This selective program connects 6 talented students with mentors from the Hopkins faculty. The program aims to train a new generation of neuroscience researchers and clinical scientists. Selected interns get to shadow Johns Hopkins neurologists in the clinic, attend seminars on the neurological sciences, discuss their professional path in weekly career development sessions, develop their own research projects, and present their work at the final oral/poster presentation. To see the topics past interns have worked on, click here. To learn more about this program, check out our complete guide here.
Application Deadline: March 1
Eligibility: Juniors or seniors from Baltimore City high schools
Program Dates: June - August
Location: In-person at the East Baltimore Campus
Stipend: Unspecified hourly wage, transport funds covered
This National Institute of Health (NIH) funded opportunity is well-suited to students who want research experience in neuroscience, especially neurological injury and neurodegeneration. The program’s highlight is its focus on developing a professional foundation for college and beyond. During this internship, you will work alongside lab technicians and graduate students. You will get access to OSU’s facilities, join the Explorations in Neuroscience Journal Club, and learn how to analyze and author scientific literature, all while being paid!
Application Deadline: March 6
Eligibility: High school students, students from underrepresented communities are encouraged to apply.
Program Dates: June 19 - August 4
Location: On campus at Ohio State University’s College of Medicine Stipend: Paid, unspecified.
Through HS-SIP, you can develop your knowledge of neuroscience while exploring the healthcare industry. Field-specific research groups are placed across the NIH campuses, including the main one in Bethesda, MD. During your internship, you will attend development programs to sharpen your scientific foundations, receive expert advice on your academic trajectory, and present your research on Summer Poster Day.
Application Deadline: Feb 1
Eligibility: Open to high school students, students from underrepresented communities are encouraged to apply
Program Dates: July - August
Location: Multiple NIH Campuses Stipend: Paid, stipend annually re-evaluated
The MPFI internship offers a Neuroscience Internship Track featuring a practical curriculum. For 40 hours per week, you will participate in lab work, gaining experience in “wet lab” techniques like genetic engineering and microscopy. After six weeks under the guidance of MPFI mentors, you will have a solid foundation in the brain’s structure and function and advanced imaging techniques used by neuroscientists. You will receive an hourly wage and work on a final research project, which you will share with fellow researchers at the end of the program. In the past, interns have developed projects on neural circuits, real-time phase extraction, and futuristic technologies in neuroscience. To learn more about this program, check out our complete guide here.
Application Deadline: Feb 1
Eligibility: High school students from Palm Beach or Martin County
Program Dates: June 12 - July 21
Location: On-site Stipend: $12/hour
DUNE’s primary goal is to empower students interested in STEM from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Over eight weeks, you will work in a Duke neuroscience lab with advanced equipment. When not refining your research project with your mentor, you will attend lectures by experts and learn about careers in neuroscience. DUNE encourages scientific curiosity, allowing interns to experiment in their labs.
Application Deadline: Late March
Eligibility: Rising juniors, rising seniors, and students attending high school in the research area of North Carolina are encouraged to apply
Program Dates: June - Early August
Location: Duke University Campus Stipend: Unspecified stipend
Neuroscape is a great opportunity for those interested in medicinal technology. This program offers a student-centric model geared toward training for a professional research career. If selected, you will work with a team of mentors and attend group sessions that cover topics like neuroanatomy and machine learning. With a mix of cutting-edge innovation and traditional research training, this internship offers practical skill-building for students interested in neuroscience.
Application Deadline: Applications open in January/February and close after several weeks
Eligibility: High school students studying in SFUSD Schools
Program Dates: Decided as per student’s availability
Location: UC San Francisco (Mission Bay Campus) Stipend: No information mentioned
Mass General, one of Harvard Medical’s oldest and largest teaching hospitals, offers an opportunity for rising high school seniors and recent graduates. At the program’s onset, you will be paired with an undergraduate intern and matched with a mentor from the MGH Neurology faculty. Then, for six weeks, you will attend sessions by top neurologists, complete lab assignments, and attend lab meetings. For your final presentation, you will work with your partner. As a teaching hospital, MGH is well-equipped to provide support in career advising, funding, applications, and more.
Application Deadline: March 1
Eligibility: All interns must be living or studying in Massachusetts
Program Dates: July 5 - August 11
Location: In person at the Massachusetts General Hospital
Stipend: $3400
CNI-X brings neuroscience and society together. Its curriculum is a mix of niche topics in clinical neuroscience, including but not limited to Neurosurgery and Ethics, Interventional Psychiatry, and NeuroLaw and Forensic Psychiatry. Your daily itinerary on the Stanford campus will include lectures, group brainstorming sessions, and networking. In your assigned teams, you will work to ideate a solution to social issues that arise from neuroscientific problems. This interdisciplinary project will deepen your critical thinking and let you collaborate with other students. About 30% of applicants get a spot in this program.
Application Deadline: March 1
Eligibility: High school students
Program Dates: July 10 to July 21
Location: In-person at Stanford University Stipend: None. Program fee: $2590 (Scholarships available for students from low-income backgrounds)
This laboratory-centric experience offers collaboration with scientists and training in a research environment. If selected, you will spend seven weeks working on a research project with a mentor. You will work in Columbia’s neuroscience laboratories and engage with graduate students, postdocs, faculty, and past BRAINYAC members. Essential skills like data analysis, reading scientific literature, microscope use, and dissection are taught along the way.
Application Deadline: Open between September 26 and October 23
Eligibility: High school students nominated by partner programs from select schools in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx
Program Dates: June - August
Location: New York Stipend: No information available
One other option – Lumiere Research Scholar Program
If you are interested in conducting research in neuroscience or biology, you could also consider applying to the Lumiere Research Scholar Program, a selective online high school program for students that I founded with researchers at Harvard and Oxford. Last year, we had over 4000 students apply for 500 spots in the program! You can find the application form here.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a PhD student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.