8 Astrophysics Internships for High School Students
If the study of cosmic phenomena and celestial bodies is something that excites you, then pursuing an astrophysics internship while in high school should be on your list. While you will learn the basics of chemistry and physics that form the base of astrophysics in high school, you will not get to learn much about the day-to-day work-related aspects through your school curriculum.
Thus, pursuing an internship that provides you with hands-on experience will be a great way to build a strong base in this field. You will get to work with accomplished scientists and interact with experts in this field, who will be great mentors for you if you choose to pursue a career in this field.
With that being said, in this blog, we explore eight astrophysics internships for high school students.
NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) offers paid internships to high school and college-level students at its sites across the country. These internships offer training, mentorship, and career development to over 2,000 students yearly, along with the chance to learn from and work with leading experts in science, engineering, finance, IT, and business.
The internships are offered in a range of subjects and disciplines, including space science, astrophysics, engineering, aeronautics, aerospace engineering, space microbiology, computer science, and even outreach and communications. You will get to design experiments, analyze mission data, and develop innovative technologies. You can explore different internships that provide opportunities in astrophysics here by using the ‘Filter’ option to view the options open to high school students.
Location: These internships are offered across NASA facilities in the country. Some virtual options are also offered.
Cost/Stipend: No cost; Interns may receive a stipend based on academic level and session duration.
Dates: These internships are offered in 3 sessions –
Fall (16-week program, from late August or early September to mid-December)
Spring (16-week program, from mid-January to early May)
Summer (10-week program, from late May or early June to August).
Deadline: January (Fall session) | August (Spring session) | October (Summer session)
Eligibility: Open to high school students who are U.S. citizens and have a cumulative 3.0 GPA (on a 4.0 scale). Students should be at least 16 years of age at the time of application.
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, 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. Past founders have included YCombinator alumni, founders raising over 30 million dollars, or founders who previously worked at Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. In the program, interns work closely with their managers and a Ladder Coach on real-world projects and present their work to the company. Here is the application form.
Interns are offered one-on-one training in communication, time management and other such valuable skills and will also have the opportunity to attend group training sessions with other interns in their cohort. The virtual internship is usually 8 weeks long.
Location: Remote! You can work from anywhere in the world.
Cost/Stipend: Startup Internship Program: $2,490 | Research Internship Program: $5,900. Some financial aid is offered.
Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year – summer, fall, winter, and spring.
Application Deadline: August 4, 2024, for the Fall cohort
Eligibility: Open to high school students, undergraduates, and gap year students.
3. The Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP) @ the American Museum of Natural History
SRMP (Science Research Mentoring Program) is an immersive program organized by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) for high school students from the NYC area. You will get to conduct one year (August–June) of in-depth research on real-life projects with Museum scientists. The program consists of two cohorts, firstly, the four-week summer institute in August and then the year-long group project between September and June.
You will work with peers (groups of 2-3 students) and scientist mentors twice each week throughout the school year for a total of four hours a week on a project that has never been done before.
There are 20 projects available every year, and you will need to submit your top 5 choices and get matched with one mentor. There are projects from astrophysics and related fields available every year. These are some of the projects from the previous cohorts - Weighing Stars: How do we know how heavy stars are?, and Chondrite Chemistry: Unraveling the Origins of Our Solar System. You can check out the full list of research projects here.
Location: Varies, depending on the AMNH-affiliated project that you get assigned
Cost/Stipend: Free. Students receive a $2,500 stipend at the end of the program
Dates: Summer institute in August and One-year mentored research experience between September—June
Application Deadline: March 2025
Eligibility: Open to current 10th or 11th-grade students from high school students in partnership with the AMNH. If they are not from the relevant high school, you should have attended one of the high school or middle school programs conducted by the AMNH. You can check the eligibility here.
4. Summer Internship Program @ The Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy
The Summer Internship Program (SIP) offered by the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy (MIRA) is a 10-week internship for high school and college students interested in astronomy and astrophysics. You will get to work on individual projects, one-on-one, with MIRA's research astronomers on current research problems.
The current research areas include - star formation, gravitational lenses, earth-threatening asteroids, comets, stellar atmospheres of unusual stars, stellar flares, asteroseismology of evolved stars, polarimetry of stars and planets, and astronomical instrumentation.
The application consists of an essay describing your interest in the program, a copy of your transcripts, and a resume mailed to mira@mira.org. High school students are juniors or seniors with an interest in STEM and a strong academic background. Projects are assigned based on your qualifications and the availability of the research staff.
Location: Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy, Marina, CA
Cost/Stipend: $2,000 tuition fee, which is waived for Monterey County residents
Dates: 10 weeks in the summer
Application Deadline: April 2025
Eligibility: Open to current high school (juniors or seniors) and college students
5. Science Internship Program @ UCSC
The Science Internship Program is a 9-week program for high school students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, designed to give participants research experience in ongoing projects across various STEM and non-STEM fields, including astronomy and astrophysics. You will work in group or individual projects and get one-on-one mentoring by UCSC faculty, graduate students, and post-doctoral researchers.
The program is 9 weeks long and is divided into two phases: the initial 2 weeks of online research preparation work, followed by 7 weeks of in-person active research. You can check out the detailed research projects that were available for the 2024 internship programs and the number of internship slots available per project here.
If you are from the Bay Area, you can commute to the assigned research lab every day but if you are from outside the area, you will need to either opt for the accommodation provided at the UCSC dorms or make arrangements with guardians/relatives in the Bay Area.
Location: University of California, Santa Cruz campus, Santa Cruz, CA
Cost/Stipend: $60 Application fee (non-refundable), $4,750 tuition, and $900 housing fee. Financial aid packages covering 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of their program fees are available
Dates: June to August 2025
Application Deadline: May 2025
Eligibility: Open to current high school students who are at least 14 years of age and can commit to a full seven weeks of the internship.
6. Research Experiences in Astronomy @ CIERA
Research Experiences in Astronomy at CIERA, Northwestern University, is a three-week research-oriented mentorship program for students interested in astronomy and related fields. The initial three weeks are the CORE program, which consists of an introduction to necessary research skills, including learning the Python programming language and gaining a background in astronomy.
Students who complete this program are then eligible to apply for the option REACH further program, under which you will conduct an independent research project under the supervision of a CIERA mentor. Together, these two programs will provide an internship-equivalent experience for students interested in astrophysics.
The program engages students from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields, and full or partial tuition assistance is available thanks to The Brinson Foundation and additional supporters of CIERA. Please note that this is a day program, and no housing is included in the program fee.
There are no grade requirements or prerequisites for the program and the application process requires you to write a 1-page essay on a recent science article that interested you and a short essay on your interest to attend the CIERA.
Location: Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), Northwestern University
Cost/Stipend: $2,500 for the CORE three-week program and an additional $1,500 for the three-week REACH further program
Dates: Session 1 in June and Session 2 in July
Application Deadline: March 2025
Eligibility: Open to all high school students, including international students
7. High school internship @ Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA)
Internships are offered around the year at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) for high school and university students interested in astrophysics. This is a highly competitive program, and not every applicant will be provided an internship project due to the limited number of supervisors.
You will mostly be working on theoretical problems related to astrophysics, which will require good computing skills and some experience with programming languages. If selected, you will have to commit for a minimum of 4 weeks to the selected research project. One of the research areas in which you can pursue an internship is the High Energy Astrophysics, which deals largely with the interaction of matter with radiation under extreme physical conditions.
There is no defined application process, but you need to send a detailed email explaining your expectations and whether you are interested in a special field of research alongside a cover letter and a CV to info@mpa-garching.mpg.de.
Location: Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany
Cost/Stipend: Travel costs might be covered depending on the project, no application fee as such
Dates: No specific date and varies with the projects
Application Deadline: Nothing as such. You can apply for summer internship opportunities 2-3 months before June
Eligibility: Open to all high school students who can obtain permits to work in Germany and have good academic standing
8. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Internships
The Summer High School Intern Program (SHIP) by NIST is ideal for students who have completed their junior or senior year of high school (by the start of the program) and have a strong interest in scientific research. During this internship, you can participate in cutting-edge research at NIST and work closely with NIST staff scientists and engineers on a specific research topic. Students can choose to intern at one of these 6 NIST laboratories:
Communications Technology Lab
Engineering Lab
Information Technology Lab
Material Measurement Lab
NIST Center for Neutron Research
Physical Measurement Lab
If you are interested in astrophysics, we recommend opting for the Physical Measurement Laboratory, where your areas of focus will be astrophysics, quantum optics, ultraviolet optics, and optical properties. Your examples of research projects can include applications in areas such as communication, defense, electronics, energy, environment, health, lighting, manufacturing, microelectronics, radiation, remote sensing, and space.
Location: NIST - Physical Measurement Laboratory, Gaithersburg, MD
Cost/Stipend: No cost (but students must cover housing and transportation costs); Unpaid.
Dates: June to August 2025
Application Deadline: Applications typically close in February.
Eligibility: Applicants must be U.S. citizens, and students should be in their Junior and Senior year of high school, though recent graduates are also considered. Students need to have a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
Looking for an immersive internship experience?
Check out Ladder Internships!
Ladder Internships is a selective, virtual internship program where students work with startups and nonprofits from around the world! The startups range across a variety of industries. As part of their internship, each student will work on a real-world project that is of genuine need to the startup they are working with, and present their work at the end of their internship. In addition to working closely with their manager from the startup, each intern will also work with a Ladder Coach throughout their internship. Apply now!
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