The term “research program” conjurers a wide variety of extracurricular (and co-curricular) experiences.
Some summer research programs for high school students are built around lectures, workshops, simulated experiments and career exploration. Others give students the chance to join cutting edge research projects in an active university laboratory research environment, build technical knowledge and research skills with some of the nation’s brightest scientific minds and contribute to independent research projects that are already underway. Both can be worthwhile — but they’re very different experiences.
For high school students interested in conducting research in Boston, it’s worth knowing the difference before you apply. Luckily, few cities in the U.S. offer the density of research institutions Boston does — MIT, Harvard University, Boston University, Tufts, Northeastern and a cluster of teaching hospitals and research nonprofits all sit within a few miles of each other.
Below is a guide to 16 of the strongest summer research programs for high school students in Boston, along with the criteria that separate a genuine research experience from a summer that just sounds like one.
The highest quality research programs for high school students fall into two categories:
The strongest programs tend to share two qualities: a high degree of student agency in shaping the research direction, and meaningful institutional oversight that ensures academic rigor. Programs run by universities, government bodies, and established non-profits typically possess these qualities, giving students the closest approximation to what college-level research actually looks like, making the experience valuable college preparation.
To read more about the different types of research programs available, and how they differ from popular “independent mentor-matching” services, read our comprehensive guide on choosing the best research opportunities.
The programs below were selected based on:
Research Science Institute pairs a week of intensive STEM coursework with a five-week individual research internship, placing students with scientist-mentors across MIT and Boston-area institutions. It is widely regarded as one of the most competitive summer research programs in the country and is best suited for rising seniors with an exceptional STEM record and likely future careers in STEM fields.
For a full breakdown of RSI’s cost, application, and acceptance rate, see our complete guide to RSI.
MIT PRIMES pairs local high school students with MIT graduate students and postdocs for a school year of mentored research in mathematics or computational biology, culminating in a written paper and conference presentation. It is one of the few programs on this list that runs across an academic year rather than a single summer, which makes it a strong fit for eligible students who want sustained, deep engagement with a single research question.
High school students outside commuting distance of Boston should look instead at Pioneer’s guide to MIT PRIMES-USA, the program’s remote, nationwide counterpart.
The Pioneer Research Institute offers fully virtual online programs where high school students complete an original, college-level research paper over 12 or 25 week term, with a faculty mentor guiding the process from topic selection through final write-up.
Because it’s online, it’s open to Boston-area students who want a rigorous research experience without a residential commitment or a competing summer schedule. Our comprehensive guide to Pioneer Academics covers program structure, cost and admissions in more depth.
The Broad Institute’s summer internship places high school students in a working lab at one of the country’s leading genomics research institutions, working alongside professional scientists in active research labs on projects in genomics, cancer biology or computational biology. It’s a strong option for Boston-area students specifically interested in life sciences research within a professional lab setting.
Read Pioneer’s full guide to the Broad Summer Scholars Program for application tips and program details.
BU RISE places talented high school students directly inside a Boston University research lab under a faculty, postdoc or graduate-student mentor, working full-time on an active academic research project. It offers both residential and commuter tracks, making it accessible to both local and out-of-state students.
For more on the application process and cost breakdown, see Pioneer’s complete guide to BU RISE.
PROMYS is a residential, discovery-based number theory program where students spend six weeks working through daily problem sets, forming conjectures and writing formal proofs rather than following a set curriculum. It’s best suited for students who already enjoy proof-based math and want sustained, collaborative work rather than a survey of topics.
Pioneer’s full breakdown of PROMYS admissions and cost is a useful next step for interested applicants.
The Wolfram High School Summer Research Program is an intensive, computation-focused research sprint in which students learn the Wolfram Language and use it to produce an original interdisciplinary technology research project that blends code, data and narrative into what the program calls a “computational essay.” It’s a distinctive option to prepare students drawn to computational thinking, data science or applied math rather than a traditional wet-lab setting.
Pioneer’s Wolfram admissions guide covers eligibility and the full application timeline.
MIT Beaver Works Summer Institute has high school students complete online technical coursework before moving to a team-based, in-person capstone project at MIT covering fields like autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity or medical device design. Its team-based format sets it apart from most of the individual-research programs on this list, making it a strong fit for students who want to build something alongside peers.
Pioneer’s guide to Beaver Works Summer Institute has more on the online prerequisite courses and admissions process.
The Tufts Summer Research Experience groups students into small cohorts by research methodology — including lab-based, fieldwork, survey and case study, behavioral, prototyping and creative or ethnographic research — giving students outside the hard sciences a genuine research track as well.
A part of Tufts Pre College, students spend their mornings working with a Teaching Fellow on a cohort research project, while afternoons bring workshops on skills such as data visualization and research ethics, guest lectures, field trips and opportunities to shadow researchers at Tufts.
The six-week program culminates in a research poster final symposium where students present their work to faculty, researchers, peers and family. It’s one of the few programs on this list designed to accommodate humanities- and social-science-oriented researchers alongside STEM students.
The DF/HCC CURE Program places students in a mentored, full-time, paid cancer-research internship inside a lab affiliated with Dana-Farber, Harvard Medical School or one of DF/HCC’s partner institutions. Students take part in hands-on research while building scientific and technical skills through seminars, journal clubs and research training, then present findings at the end of the summer. The program also incorporates career exploration, professional development, networking with scientists and social events that connect students with peers and CURE alumni.
Its Massachusetts-residency requirement and requirement to commute to Boston’s Longwood Medical Area five days a week make it an especially strong fit for Boston-area students drawn to biomedical research.
The Northeastern Young Scholars Program places Massachusetts high schoolers directly in Northeastern research labs across engineering, science and health sciences for a full-time, six-week research experience. Students work alongside faculty and graduate-student mentors on hands-on projects, while also attending faculty-led seminars, exploring STEM careers, visiting local companies and government research sites, and getting guidance on college and career pathways.
The program also gives students a chance to experience life on a university campus and culminates in research presentations and a poster session. Its strict in-state residency requirement makes it one of the more geographically exclusive programs on this list, but it removes cost entirely for the students who qualify.
The MITES Semester combines two online STEM courses and a team-based final project during the summer with a fall college-readiness curriculum, making it more of a sustained academic experience than a single summer internship.
Designed with a particular focus on supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM, the program gives participants access to MIT-level coursework, collaborative project work and guidance on the college application and financial-aid process. Because the program is delivered online and comes at no cost to participants, it’s a strong option for high school juniors who want an MIT-affiliated academic experience without needing to be near Boston or pay a program fee.
GROW places young women from the Greater Boston area into individual research labs at Boston University for a six-week, full-time summer placement. Students work alongside researchers on cutting-edge projects, meet regularly with the program manager to set goals and discuss their progress, and hear from guest speakers about STEM research and careers.
The experience culminates in a summer symposium where students present their research, giving them a chance to develop both analytical skills and communication skills. With a stipend of up to $2,000 and a mission to broaden access for underrepresented students in STEM, GROW is one of the few programs on this list explicitly designed to open the door to lab research for a specific group of students.
TUBERS places students in Tufts biomedical engineering labs for hands-on exposure to areas such as device design, tissue engineering, biomaterials and related research. Participants work directly with faculty and researchers on laboratory projects while building practical skills and learning how biomedical engineering research can be applied to real-world medical challenges.
The program also introduces students to different career paths in the field and gives them an opportunity to experience research in a university lab environment. Because the program is sponsored by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, there is no cost to participants, making it a solid option for Massachusetts students who can commute to Tufts and have a specific interest in bioengineering.
The John Winthrop Student Fellowship gives one student or a small team the opportunity to conduct original research using the Massachusetts Historical Society’s extensive collection of manuscripts, letters, diaries and other primary sources, with guidance from a teacher advisor. Students develop a research question, work directly with archival materials, and use those sources to produce research writing for a substantial final research project.
The fellowship also introduces students to the methods historians use to evaluate and interpret primary sources, giving them an authentic look at what humanities research actually involves. It’s the only program on this list built specifically around archival and historical research, making it a strong alternative for students whose interests run toward the humanities rather than faculty labs.
The New England Aquarium’s Summer Teen Internship Program places students in visitor engagement, interpretation, or — after completing a prerequisite workshop — animal care roles, where they learn conservation research methods and data collection practices directly from Aquarium scientists and educators.
For those interested in marine science research, it is a distinctive option for gaining initial insights to discipline methodologies and trends, which can be applied to future research and interests in college and beyond.
Start with eligibility, not prestige. Several programs on this list, including Northeastern YSP, GROW, and DF/HCC CURE, restrict admission to Massachusetts residents within commuting distance, while others, including MIT PRIMES-USA, MITES Semester, Wolfram, and Pioneer Research Institute, are open to students well outside Boston, or entirely online. Ruling out programs you don’t qualify for first will save time before you start comparing rigor and cost.
From there, weigh cost against structure. Several of the strongest options here, including RSI, the Broad Institute internship, MIT PRIMES, and Northeastern YSP, are free. Others, like BU RISE, Tufts TSRE, PROMYS and Wolfram, charge tuition but offer meaningful need-based aid. The Pioneer Research Institute will meet 100% of demonstrated financial need. Cost alone shouldn’t be a proxy for quality: a free, university-affiliated lab placement can offer just as much research depth as a paid residential program, and sometimes more.
Finally, consider format. A residential, in-person placement puts a student inside someone else’s lab for the summer, working on a piece of a larger project. An online, individually mentored program like Pioneer Research Institute instead gives a student a full academic term to conceive and drive their own original research question from start to finish. Students weighing both should also look at Pioneer’s broader roundup of STEM programs across Massachusetts for options beyond Boston proper. If you’re a junior or senior looking for a rigorous, mentored research experience that doesn’t require relocating for the summer, Pioneer Research Institute is worth a close look.
Among the strongest options are Research Science Institute (RSI), MIT PRIMES, Pioneer Research Institute, the Broad Institute’s summer internship and BU RISE. Each offers a genuine research experience with meaningful faculty or professional mentorship, though they vary widely in selectivity, cost and eligibility, so the “best” option depends heavily on a high school student’s grade level, budget and residency status. Any of these five are a strong starting point for research programs for high school students in Boston looking for a rigorous, well-mentored experience.
A research internship, like BU RISE or the Broad Institute’s summer program, typically places a high school student inside an existing lab to contribute to a professional’s ongoing research project under close supervision. A research program, like Pioneer Research Institute or MIT PRIMES, more often has the student conceive and drive their own original research question from start to finish, with a mentor guiding rather than directing the work. Both can produce a rigorous experience, but they involve different degrees of student ownership over the final project.
It varies significantly by program. RSI states it accepts fewer than 2.5% of applicants, making it one of the most selective summer programs in the country, while programs like MIT PRIMES and PROMYS don’t publish official rates but are widely understood to be highly selective given their small cohort sizes. Other programs, including several free, Massachusetts-residency-restricted options like Northeastern YSP and GROW, are less nationally competitive simply because their applicant pool is limited to local students.
No, though several programs on this list do require Massachusetts residency or commuting distance, including Northeastern YSP, GROW, DF/HCC CURE and TUBERS. Others are open nationally or internationally regardless of where a high school student lives, including RSI, Broad Institute’s internship, PROMYS, Wolfram, MITES Semester and Pioneer Research Institute, which is fully online and requires no relocation at all.
Costs range from free to over $11,000. Programs like RSI, MIT PRIMES, Broad Institute’s internship, Northeastern YSP, MITES Semester, GROW and TUBERS charge no tuition, some with stipends attached. Others, including BU RISE, Tufts TSRE, PROMYS, Wolfram, and Pioneer Research Institute, charge tuition but generally offer need-based financial aid, so sticker price alone shouldn’t rule a program out before checking what aid is available.
Boston’s density of universities and research institutions means high school students here have more genuine research options than almost anywhere else in the country, but more options also means more due diligence. The strongest choice isn’t necessarily the most selective or the most expensive one. It’s the program that matches a student’s academic interests, eligibility, and appetite for independent work. If you’re a high school junior or senior looking for that kind of rigorous, mentored research experience without needing to relocate for the summer, consider joining a Pioneer information session to learn more about the Pioneer Research Institute.
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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