Finding a summer research program at a top university is hard enough. It gets more difficult when you’re not sure the program you’re interested is accepting applications.
First of all, you have the naming confusion: are you looking for Penn or Penn State? The two universities share most of a name. The Penn Research Experience for High School Students (PREHSS) belongs to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, not to Penn State in University Park.
It’s also one of several research programs for high school students in Pennsylvania. This guide clarifies the naming, then covers what PREHSS involves, who is eligible, how selective it is, what it costs, and whether it is worth a summer. It also explains why Penn suspended open applications for 2026 and what prospective applicants should know about 2027.
Not under that name. The program this search usually points to is PREHSS at the University of Pennsylvania, which is a separate institution from Penn State. Penn State does run its own research program for high school students, EnvironMentors, but it follows the school year rather than the summer. The table shows how these programs compare with two other research opportunities readers may encounter.
Sources: Penn Arts & Sciences, Penn Medicine OER, Penn State EnvironMentors, and Penn State Eberly College of Science.
PREHSS is a five-week, in-person research experience on Penn’s Philadelphia campus, offered through the Penn Arts & Sciences Office of Academic Excellence and Engagement. It provides academic enrichment through supervised research rather than regular university coursework. Each student is assigned to a lab, takes on a research project with a mentor, and finishes with a presentation at a concluding symposium. Students work alongside graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and research staff under the supervision of University of Pennsylvania faculty in university research labs.
This supervised format also reflects Penn’s policy for high school students in research laboratories. Students must have a principal investigator or sponsor responsible for their supervision, complete applicable laboratory safety training, and comply with university research requirements. In PREHSS, students are placed with research groups and mentors rather than having to arrange a laboratory supervisor on their own.
The program was known as Penn LENS (Laboratory Experiences in the Natural Sciences) until Penn changed the name, according to Penn Arts & Sciences. Although the program continued on a limited basis in 2026, Penn did not hold an open application process because of changes to research grant funding.
Days generally run from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Across the five weeks, students move from orientation to individualized, mentored lab work, supported by group activities, lab visits, and workshops on preparing their final presentations. These group activities also provide opportunities for community building among participants. The published schedule includes lab visits and group sessions, although it does not specifically promise faculty research talks.
This sequence reflects Penn’s published example schedule. Daily activities and hours may vary depending on the participating laboratory.
Labs in recent years have ranged from coral biology and decision-making to protein chemistry and astronomy. These examples illustrate the program’s breadth, but Penn does not guarantee placements in subjects such as data science, computer science, or environmental science in any given year. Penn also identifies psychology as a PREHSS research discipline, including projects examining how people make decisions. Depending on the project, students may encounter methods such as data analysis, although Penn does not specify a standard set of techniques for every placement.
Students interested in engineering may find related research-oriented experiences at other Philadelphia institutions, such as Drexel University. For context on how this kind of placement differs from other formats, see our overview of the three types of research opportunities for high school students.
For the 2025 cycle, according to Penn Arts & Sciences’ program listing at the time, students in 10th or 11th grade were eligible. Those attending School District of Philadelphia or charter schools qualified, and Penn also invited some additional schools. Applications from underserved schools received particular encouragement.
Penn Today adds that students typically arrive with an established interest in science, technology, engineering, or math. Penn has not confirmed whether an open application process will return in 2027 or whether the previous eligibility criteria will remain unchanged. Students should confirm eligibility on the PREHSS page if applications reopen.
Penn does not publish an acceptance rate for the Penn research experience for high schoolers, so any number you see elsewhere should not be treated as an official figure. Penn Today has described the program as “highly selective”, and it serves a small group of students in years when the program operates through its usual selection process. Penn suspended open applications in 2026, so there is no comparable public admissions rate for that cycle.
Three features stand out. Students work in faculty-led labs across the sciences and social sciences, including biology, chemistry, psychology, and astronomy. This gives high school participants a chance to experience research environments often associated with graduate and undergraduate students. Group activities, lab visits, and presentation preparation build their understanding of research alongside the research itself. And the program is fully funded, which reduces financial barriers for Philadelphia families.
If you are comparing formats, our guide to summer research opportunities explains how programs differ in structure and oversight.
Penn has not yet released application details for the 2027 Penn research experience for high schoolers. According to Penn Arts & Sciences, the program did not hold an open application process in 2026 because of changes to research grant funding. It continued on a small, limited basis while Penn reassessed resources in hopes of reopening applications in 2027. No application deadline or announcement date has been confirmed, so interested students should check the PREHSS website periodically.
Penn has not announced a deadline for the Penn research experience for high schoolers, and it has not confirmed that open applications will resume in 2027. The table below shows what is known so far.
PREHSS, the Penn research experience for high schoolers, costs students nothing, and those selected receive a $1,500 award once they successfully complete the program. Penn also provides a meal allowance and covers travel expenses, and students who need a device or Wi-Fi access are accommodated case by case, according to Penn Arts & Sciences.
Penn has not posted 2027 materials, so these steps are preparation rather than requirements. They are based on the program’s previous structure and research opportunities, not a confirmed 2027 application process.
For eligible Philadelphia students, it offers a five-week, fully funded research experience in a Penn laboratory, with faculty and research mentors providing guidance and a $1,500 award upon completion.
The trade-offs are limited eligibility and a short five-week window. Students outside Philadelphia public and charter schools may not qualify, and five weeks leaves less room for a long-term project. The more immediate limitation is availability: Penn did not hold an open application process in 2026, and a return in 2027 has not been confirmed.
If you arrived searching for a Penn State program, here is what we found: PREHSS belongs to Penn, and we did not find a Penn State summer program with the same name or format. EnvironMentors, which runs during the school year, is one relevant Penn State alternative, and the programs below may help as well.
Students in the Philadelphia area can also explore our guide to research programs for high school students in Philadelphia. A few comparable programs include, although some require students to live elsewhere or meet additional eligibility criteria. Students interested in biomedical research, biomedical science, or cancer research may find the laboratory-focused options particularly relevant:
Philadelphia students can also explore opportunities at both Penn and Drexel, although the experiences differ. Penn’s PREHSS centers on a mentored research placement, while Drexel’s BIOMED Summer Academy is a competitive, one-week introduction to biomedical engineering with laboratory activities and research-skills training, rather than an extended independent research internship.
For students who want a virtual option with college credit, Pioneer Academics describes two pathways: the Pioneer Research Institute, whose academic standards are overseen in collaboration with Oberlin College, and the Global Problem-Solving Institute, developed with UNC-Chapel Hill.
According to Pioneer’s published credit requirements, students earning a C-minus or higher receive four Oberlin College credits through the Research Institute or two UNC-Chapel Hill credits through the Global Problem-Solving Institute. Those credits are distinct from PREHSS, which does not advertise college credit; acceptance of transfer credit depends on the receiving institution.
Penn State offers EnvironMentors, a program that helps underserved and underrepresented high school students prepare for college, and its students carry out research projects with faculty, staff, and undergraduate mentors over the school year.
EnvironMentors is not a summer internship, and it operates through Penn State’s University Park and participating Commonwealth campuses. We did not find a Penn State summer program that matches PREHSS in name or format. Penn State’s SURE program is aimed at Eberly College of Science undergraduates, and high school students are not eligible.
PREHSS is run by the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences through its Office of Academic Excellence and Engagement, not Penn State. It takes place on Penn’s campus in Philadelphia; Penn State is a separate public university with a flagship campus in University Park.
Penn LENS, short for Penn Laboratory Experiences in the Natural Sciences, is the program’s former name, making them references to the same program. Penn updated the name to better reflect the program’s broader range of research disciplines, and you may still see the earlier name on older pages.
PREHSS has offered a $1,500 award, although it did not hold open applications in 2026 and has not confirmed whether they will resume in 2027. Wistar’s high school program awards a $1,500 stipend. CHOP-RISES provides stipends and travel and meal subsidies, and Penn Medicine’s OER internship is also paid. The OER internship requires students to have completed one of Penn Medicine’s preparatory programs, so it is not open to all high school applicants. Our guide to research programs in Philadelphia covers more options.
Pennsylvania’s research programs for high school students include PREHSS at Penn, the Wistar Institute and CHOP-RISES in Philadelphia, and Penn State EnvironMentors, which serves students across the state. Availability and eligibility vary, and PREHSS has not confirmed whether open applications will resume in 2027. Our guide to research programs for high school students in Pennsylvania compares 15 of them, including options outside Philadelphia.
A research program is best judged by what students do in it: who guides the work, how much independence the student has, and whether the structure supports real inquiry.
Students who are not eligible have many other options, including biology programs for high school students and college-based research programs for high school students.
Because Penn requires formal supervision, safety training, and approval for high school laboratory participation, established programs such as PREHSS generally offer a clearer route into campus research than approaching a lab for an informal volunteer placement.
PREHSS has offered Philadelphia students funded lab work with university mentors and a clear endpoint in a final presentation. Its future availability remains uncertain, but its structure illustrates what students should look for in a research experience. For any student, the strongest programs are the ones that give real responsibility for the work and real oversight of it.
If you’re interested in conducting the highest level of research for high school students, consider joining a Pioneer information session to learn more about the Pioneer Research Institute.
Based on a recent survey, 71 percent of Pioneer Research scholars’ acceptances were to the top 20 US colleges and universities. Additionally, our alumni report acceptances to highly-selective institutions at a rate five times higher than the school’s published acceptance rate.
If you are a 9th or 10th grader, we encourage you to also check out the Global Problem-Solving Institute. You’ll have the rare opportunity to take an interdisciplinary approach to complex world programs, while earning college credits from UNC-Chapel Hill.
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