15 Online Pre-Med Courses for High School Students
- Stephen Turban
- 1 day ago
- 12 min read
If you want to become a doctor or work in healthcare, you do not have to wait until college to start learning about the field. Online pre-med courses allow you to explore topics that go beyond your school science classes, including anatomy, physiology, genetics, public health, medical ethics, and clinical medicine. Depending on the course, you may also examine patient case studies, learn how diseases are diagnosed and treated, or explore how medical research shapes healthcare.
Why should you do an online pre-med course in high school?
One of the biggest advantages of an online pre-med course is that you can study from anywhere while fitting the coursework around your school schedule. Many courses are self-paced, allowing you to spend more time on topics that interest you without conflicting with classes, extracurricular activities, or other commitments. These courses also help you understand what studying medicine actually involves before you apply to college. Along the way, you can build knowledge of medical concepts, become familiar with healthcare careers, and prepare for opportunities such as research programs, hospital volunteering, science competitions, and college-level coursework.
To help you get started, we've curated a list of 15 online pre-med courses for high school students.
If you’re looking for online summer research programs, check out our blog here.
Key takeaways
These 15 courses span anatomy, physiology, immunology, neuroscience, oncology, clinical medicine, public health, biomedical engineering, and AI in medicine, so students with a range of pre-med interests can find a relevant starting point.
Several courses are completely free, including University of Michigan's Sleep course, University of Pennsylvania's Vital Signs, Northwestern's Career 911, MIT's Clinical Approach to the Human Brain, Yale's Introduction to Breast Cancer, Rice University's Fundamentals of Immunology, and Harvard's Improving Global Health, making strong academic content accessible without any financial commitment.
Programs like Lumiere Research Scholar Program and Veritas AI go beyond passive learning by pairing students with mentors to produce independent research papers or AI healthcare projects, which can directly strengthen college applications.
Many courses are self-paced with open enrollment year-round, including all the free university options, making them easy to fit around school schedules without a fixed start date or application process.
Paid pre-college programs from Harvard Medical School, Northwestern, Wake Forest, University of Rochester, and Rice University offer more structured learning with mentor support, and most run on rolling enrollment, so students can start at any point in the year.
Location: Remote, you can participate in this program from anywhere in the world!
Cost: Varies depending on program type. Full financial aid available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Application Deadline: Varying deadlines based on cohort
Dates: Varies by cohort: summer, fall, winter, or spring. Options range from 12 weeks to 1 year
Eligibility: You must be currently enrolled in high school and demonstrate a high level of academic achievement
The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is designed for high school students who want to work on an independent research project. During the program, you are matched with a PhD mentor and work one-on-one to explore a topic of your choice. The structure focuses on guiding you through the research process, from formulating a question to developing and refining your ideas. Over the course of the 12-week program, you work toward completing an independent research paper. You can choose from a range of subject areas, including medicine, psychology, physics, economics, data science, computer science, engineering, chemistry, and international relations, depending on your interests. You can find more details about the application here, and check out students’ reviews of the program here and here.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,895–$2,195 per course (individual course fees); need‑based scholarships available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: Approximately 1 week before the start of each cohort
Dates: Multi‑length courses available throughout the year
Eligibility: Students ages 13 and up; high school students worldwide
The program is structured as a series of college‑level online medical‑science courses taught by Harvard Medical School faculty, using video lectures, interactive tools, and real‑world case material. It covers core topics such as medical research, immunology, pharmacology, and physiology, aimed at building foundational pre‑med knowledge. Each course is designed to take roughly 30 hours of instruction and activities, combining multimedia modules, simulations, quizzes, and curated assignments. The format is fully asynchronous, allowing students to progress at their own pace while juggling schoolwork. Mentors provide guidance and answer questions, and students can enroll in multiple courses to broaden their exposure to different medical disciplines.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Varies depending on program type. Full financial aid available
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective
Application deadline: Rolling. Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall(September), and Winter (November). You can apply to the program here.
Dates: 25 hours over 10 weeks. Multiple cohorts throughout the year
Eligibility: High school students in grades 8–12. AI Fellowship applicants should either have completed the AI Scholars program or exhibit experience with AI concepts or Python.
Veritas AI is an AI program for ambitious high school students, founded and run by Harvard graduate students. In the AI + Medicine Deep Dive, students learn how AI is used in the healthcare and medical industry. You will get a chance to work on real-world projects using AI & ML models to diagnose diseases, sharpen medical scans, and explain their outcomes to aid doctors and patients. Here is the program brochure and the application form.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,895
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: Rolling / open year‑round; no fixed seasonal deadline stated
Dates: Medicine courses are available year‑round; specific dates are not published as a single block but as rolling enrollment windows
Eligibility: High school students ages 13 and older, worldwide
Northwestern's Pre-College Online Medicine Programs allow you to explore medicine through self-paced online courses developed by Northwestern faculty and healthcare experts. Depending on the course you choose, you might study topics such as human physiology, neuroscience, public health, clinical medicine, biomedical research, or healthcare innovation. Lessons are delivered through recorded lectures, readings, assignments, and interactive activities that introduce concepts commonly encountered in university-level medicine courses. Because the program is fully online and asynchronous, you can complete the coursework alongside your regular school schedule. Each course also includes mentor support, giving you someone to discuss ideas with and ask questions throughout the learning experience.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1595
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: Rolling; no fixed annual deadline published on the main page
Dates: Courses available throughout the year on rolling enrollment; 2–4 week options
Eligibility: High school students ages 13 and up
Wake Forest's Pre-College Online Medicine Courses give you an introduction to how doctors think through medical problems and patient care. Depending on the course you choose, you'll explore topics such as diagnosis, disease, healthcare systems, medical ethics, and clinical decision-making. Many lessons are built around real medical cases, allowing you to examine symptoms, interpret information, and think through possible outcomes. You'll also look at current healthcare challenges and how physicians approach complex situations. The courses are designed to help you understand what studying medicine involves before entering college.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1595
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: Rolling; no fixed annual deadline is published
Dates: Multiple 2- and 4-week sessions throughout the year
Eligibility: High school students ages 13 and up; open to international students
The University of Rochester's Pre-College Online Medicine Courses use medical cases and healthcare scenarios to introduce you to medicine. You'll examine symptoms, diseases, treatment options, and patient outcomes while learning how doctors connect scientific knowledge to clinical care. The courses cover both medical science and the reasoning that guides diagnosis and treatment. Throughout the programme, you'll encounter situations that require you to evaluate evidence and think through possible explanations for a patient's condition. The content is designed to reflect the kinds of questions explored in early university-level health science courses.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: None
Application Deadline: No deadline, open enrollment.
Dates: ~ 3 weeks at 7 hours a week, self-paced
Eligibility: Open to high school students.
The University of Michigan's Sleep: Neurobiology, Medicine, and Society explores one of the most overlooked areas of medicine: sleep. You'll study how the brain regulates sleep, what happens when sleep patterns are disrupted, and how sleep affects immunity, metabolism, learning, and long-term health. The course also examines conditions such as insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness, along with the biological mechanisms behind them. As you progress, you'll see how sleep connects to neuroscience, preventive medicine, and public health. The course offers a focused look at a medical topic that influences nearly every system in the body. It works particularly well for students interested in neuroscience and medicine.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free enrollment. With certification, the course costs $49
Acceptance rate/cohort size: None
Application Deadline: No deadline, open enrollment
Dates: 6 weeks at 3–5 hours a week, self-paced
Eligibility: Open to high school students
The University of Pennsylvania’s online course Vital Signs introduces you to the basic anatomy and physiology behind key indicators of human health, including heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration rate, and pain. Across six modules, you learn how these measurements relate to the body’s cardiovascular and respiratory systems and what changes in them can indicate physiological state. The course also explains typical ranges for vital signs and why these values can vary between individuals and situations. You are also shown how each vital sign is measured correctly, with demonstrations of standard clinical techniques used in healthcare settings. By the end of the course, you will have gained a clearer understanding of how vital signs are used in everyday medical practice to assess patient condition.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free enrollment; certificate costs $49
Acceptance rate/cohort size: None
Application Deadline: No deadline, open enrollment
Dates: 3 weeks at 6 hours a week, self-paced
Eligibility: Open to high school students
Northwestern's Career 911 helps you explore what a career in medicine actually looks like beyond the title of "doctor." You'll learn about different healthcare professions, the education pathways behind them, and the day-to-day responsibilities that come with each role. Faculty members and healthcare professionals share their experiences and discuss how they entered the field. The course also covers topics such as networking, mentorship, professional development, and career planning within healthcare. If you're still deciding whether medicine is the right path, it provides a broad view of the opportunities available across the healthcare system. You'll finish with a clearer understanding of where your interests might fit.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free to download
Acceptance rate/cohort size: None
Application Deadline: No deadline, open enrollment
Dates: Self-paced
Eligibility: Open to high school students
MIT’s course A Clinical Approach to the Human Brain introduces you to how the brain functions in both healthy and disease states, with applications across neuroscience, psychology, and medicine. You begin by studying the basic regional anatomy of the brain and the roles of different structures in regulating behavior and bodily function. The course also covers cellular neuroscience, including how neurons communicate and how neurotransmitters influence brain activity. You then examine how drugs can affect brain function and how these mechanisms relate to clinical outcomes. Throughout the course, you work through clinical case studies presented by Dr. Byrne and review selected scientific literature to connect theory with real-world medical situations. This approach helps you interpret neurological conditions in a structured way and understand how brain function is evaluated in clinical and research settings.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free. With certification, the course costs $29
Acceptance rate/cohort size: None
Application Deadline: No deadline, open enrollment
Dates: 3 weeks long at 4 hours a week, although the course is self-paced
Eligibility: Open to high school students
Yale's Introduction to Breast Cancer explores one of the most studied diseases in modern medicine through the perspective of oncology. You'll learn how breast cancer develops, how risk factors influence disease progression, and how doctors approach prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment. The course also examines surgery, survivorship, and long-term patient care. Throughout the program, you'll see how clinical decisions are supported by medical research and evidence gathered over decades. Discussions connect biology, patient care, and public health, giving you a broader understanding of how complex diseases are managed. The course is taught by a Yale surgical oncologist who works directly in the field.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free
Acceptance rate/cohort size: None
Application Deadline: No deadline, open enrollment
Dates: 4 weeks long at 6–7 hours a week, although the course is self-paced
Eligibility: Open to high school students
Rice University's Fundamentals of Immunology introduces you to the system responsible for protecting the body from disease. You'll learn how immune cells communicate, how antibodies are produced, and how the body identifies threats such as viruses and bacteria. The course also explores autoimmune diseases, allergies, inflammation, transplant rejection, and immune tolerance. As you move through the material, you'll see how small changes in immune function can affect the entire body. Immunology plays a major role in infectious disease, cancer treatment, vaccine development, and many areas of modern medicine, making it a valuable subject for aspiring pre-med students. The course provides a solid foundation for understanding how the body's defense systems work.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,595
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: Rolling; no fixed annual deadline, but tied to course start windows
Dates: Approximately 20–25 hours of instruction delivered online over several weeks; multiple two- and four-week sessions
Eligibility: High school students ages 13 and up; no formal prerequisites beyond basic science coursework
Case Western Reserve's Pre-College Biomedical Engineering Course explores how engineering and medicine come together to solve healthcare problems. You'll examine how medical devices, diagnostic tools, imaging technologies, and treatment systems are designed and used in clinical settings. The course introduces the process of identifying a health problem, developing a solution, testing it, and bringing it into practice. Along the way, you'll see how engineers contribute to areas such as prosthetics, diagnostics, medical technology, and patient care. The program offers a useful introduction to one of the fastest-growing fields connecting healthcare and technology.
Location: Virtual
Cost: $1,795
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: Rolling; deadlines align with course start dates rather than one annual cutoff
Dates: Approximately 20–30 hours of instruction delivered online over roughly four weeks; multi-length courses available throughout the year
Eligibility: High school students ages 13 and up; some prior biology exposure is recommended but not strictly required
Rice University's Foundations of Medicine focuses on human physiology, the subject that sits at the core of medical education. You'll study how organ systems function together to maintain health and how the body responds when disease, injury, or stress disrupts those systems. Topics often connect cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, and other major body systems to real medical conditions. The course encourages you to think about why symptoms occur and what they reveal about underlying biological processes. You'll also complete a final project that brings together ideas from across the program. For students considering medicine, it provides a strong introduction to one of the most important subjects encountered in pre-med and medical school training.
Location: Virtual
Cost: Free. With certification, the course costs $149
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Unspecified
Application Deadline: No deadline, open enrollment
Dates: 8-weeks long, although the course is self-paced
Eligibility: Open to high school students, but note that this is an intermediate-level course for anyone passionate about public healthcare
Harvard’s edX course on improving healthcare access and quality is an eight-week, self-paced program that introduces you to how healthcare quality is defined, measured, and improved across different systems. You explore how patient care can be evaluated in practical terms, including what “quality” means in clinical settings and how it can vary depending on resources, processes, and patient needs. The course is relevant if you are interested in medicine, public health, health policy, or healthcare delivery. You also look at how healthcare systems identify gaps in access and care delivery, and how different approaches are used to address those gaps. The learning format includes applied activities where you practice framing problems and considering possible improvements in healthcare settings. You are introduced to perspectives from professionals with experience in hospitals, healthcare organizations, and health ministries, which helps connect the concepts to real-world systems and decision-making.
Frequently asked questions
What online pre-med courses are available for high school students?
Options include free self-paced university courses, such as MIT's Clinical Approach to the Human Brain, Yale's Introduction to Breast Cancer, and UPenn's Vital Signs; structured paid programs, such as Harvard Medical School Pre-College, Northwestern Pre-College Medicine, and Rice Foundations of Medicine; AI in medicine programs, such as Veritas AI; and mentored research programs, such as Lumiere Research Scholar Program.
Are there free online pre-med courses for high school students?
Yes, the University of Michigan's Sleep course, UPenn's Vital Signs, Northwestern's Career 911, MIT OpenCourseWare's Clinical Approach to the Human Brain, Yale's Introduction to Breast Cancer, Rice University's Fundamentals of Immunology, and Harvard's Improving Global Health are all free to access and audit.
Which online pre-med courses are best for students with no prior medical knowledge?
Northwestern's Career 911, UPenn's Vital Signs, and Yale's Introduction to Breast Cancer are all accessible to beginners and do not require prior medical or science coursework beyond a standard high school curriculum.
Do any pre-med courses for high school students lead to research outputs or publications?
Yes, Lumiere Research Scholar Program guides students through producing an independent research paper with a PhD mentor, and Veritas AI supports students in developing and publishing AI healthcare projects through its in-house publication team.
Which pre-med courses cover AI and technology in medicine?
Veritas AI's AI and Medicine Deep Dive focuses specifically on how machine learning models are used in disease diagnosis and medical imaging, and Case Western Reserve's Biomedical Engineering course covers how engineering and technology are applied to solve healthcare problems.
When should I apply to structured online pre-med programs for high school students?
Harvard Medical School Pre-College, Northwestern, Wake Forest, and University of Rochester all use rolling enrollment with deadlines approximately one week before each course start date, while Lumiere and Veritas AI accept rolling applications with cohort deadlines throughout the year, so students can begin at almost any point.
Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a graduate of Harvard College, where he earned an A.B. in Statistics. 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.