7 Best STEM Programs for High School Students in Massachusetts
If you are a high school student in Massachusetts who is interested in any STEM subject, chances are that you are looking for summer programs in your area as a valuable addition to your application.
In this post, we have curated a list of 7 STEM programs in Massachusetts that will enable you to gain hands-on experience, and will make for an excellent learning opportunity. The programs range from free to paid and have different levels of selectivity.
1. MIT’s Research Science Institute
The Research Science Institute (RSI) is a research-based summer program sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) and hosted by MIT every summer. RSI invites 80 highly talented high school juniors from all over the world to attend this program. Throughout the 6-week, fully-funded program, you can conduct independent research in computer science (or other STEM subjects) and take college-level coursework. However, RSI is an extremely selective program, with an acceptance rate of under 5%.
Within the first week, you will have the opportunity to experience extensive STEM Classes by accomplished faculty. However, the main section of RSI is the 5-week research internship, where you can choose to pursue projects in computer science under the mentorship of experienced scientists and researchers. The program culminates with delivering your research in conference-stye oral and written reports.
If you are interested in learning about the types of research conducted by RSI students, you can look at the projects from 2022 here! An example for robotics enthusiasts is Michelle Hua’s 3D Acoustic Simulation and Optimization for Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Delivered with Stereotactic Robotics.
Location: MIT Campus, Cambridge MA
Application Deadline (based on previous year’s dates): January 15th, 2024 (U.S. Citizens) & March 15th, 2024 (International Students)
Program Dates: June 25th to August 5th, 2024 (based on previous year’s dates)
Eligibility:
- Students who are rising seniors (you will have to apply in the middle of your junior year). High school seniors are not eligible to apply.
- It is recommended that PSAT Math Scores be at least 740 (or higher) and Evidence-Based Reading/ Writing Scores be 700 (or higher). ACT math scores should be at least 33, and verbal scores should be at least 34. However, you can offset lower scores through recommendations, high school grades, and science activities.
Note: There are different application processes for U.S. Citizens/Permanent Residents and International Applicants. You can look here for specific details!
Veritas AI is founded and run by Harvard graduate students and our programs are geared towards high school students who want to build their foundations in computer science and AI. In the program, students learn various concepts in data science and artificial intelligence like neural networks, image classification, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, coding using python, and more.
Veritas AI offers up to 100% financial aid for the 10-week AI Scholars program. Through the program students build real-world, hands-on projects in groups of 3-5 students to showcase their interests and skills. You can also apply for the AI Fellowship where you work 1-1 with mentors from top universities to build unique machine learning projects for a period of 12-15 weeks. These programs are a great option for you if you like engaging in hands-on learning and are a beginner!
Location: Remote - you can participate in this program from anywhere in the world!
Cost: $1790 for AI Scholars & $4900 for AI Fellowship. Financial aid available.
Application Deadline: Upcoming cohorts - Winter 2023: December 3, 2023 & Spring 2024: January 14, 2024. You can apply here!
Program Dates: Upcoming - December 16
Eligibility: You must be currently enrolled in high school or plan to enroll as a freshman in college in the fall of 2023. No previous knowledge is required for AI Scholars!
Note: The financial aid is available for students from households earning less than $60,000 annually (for a typical household of 4) with minimum assets.
3. Lumiere Research Scholar Program
Founded by Harvard and Oxford PhDs, Lumiere is a selective research program for high school students, where students work one-to-one with a PhD mentor to develop an independent research paper. The program offers an array of disciplines that you can choose from - computer science, math, engineering fields, and more.
Due to its one-to-one nature, you can expect to learn the most recent developments in any field and also expand your practical skill set. If you’re interested in doing interdisciplinary research, this would be a good option!
Location: Virtual
Cost:
- Lumiere Individual Research Program - $2,800
- Lumiere Premium Research and Publication Program $4,800
- Lumiere Research Fellowship - $8,400
Application deadline: Rolling, cohort based. Applications for the winter cohort are open now. You can apply here!
Program dates: Upcoming - December 18
Eligibility: High school students
4. Horizon Academic Research Program
Location: Virtual
Application Date: May 21, 2024 for the summer cohort, and September 25, 2024 for the fall cohort
Program Dates:
Summer seminar - June 24, 2024 - September 2, 2024
Fall seminar - October 23, 2024 - February 19, 2025
Lab dates are flexible, but you must apply 4 weeks in advance.
Eligibility: High school students with good academic standing (>3.67/4.0 GPA) can apply. Most accepted students are 10th/11th graders! Only a couple of tracks require formal prerequisites, more details of which can be found here.
Horizon offers trimester-long research programs for high school students across subject areas such as data science, machine learning, political theory, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, and more! It is one of the very few research programs for high school students that offers a choice between quantitative and qualitative research!
Once you select a particular subject track and type of research you’ll be paired with a professor or Ph.D. scholar (from a top university) who will mentor you throughout your research journey. You’ll work to create a 20-page, university-level research paper that you can send to prestigious journals for publication as a high school student.
This program is a solid opportunity for you to pursue a research program in highly specialized fields, under the guidance of a top scholar. The program also provides a letter of recommendation for each student, as well as detailed project feedback that you can use to work on future projects and on college applications. Apply here!
5. Harvard’s Pre-College Summer School Program for High School Students (CS Programs)
Harvard University’s Pre-College Program is an intensive 2-week summer program where you will take college-level course work, and experience the life of a university student. There are many courses you can take if you’re interested in STEM from “Molecular Oncology: Unravelling Molecular Biology Techniques” to Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: From Schrodinger's Equation to Quantum Computers!
Note that you will not get credit for this 2-week course. If you are interested in getting credits from a summer course, you can look at Harvard’s Secondary School Program where you will have to take a 4-7 week course for credits!
Location: Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) and online option for the Secondary School Program.
Cost: $5,550 (pre-college program), $3,600–$13,750 (secondary school program, depending on the number of courses selected)
Application deadline:
- Early Application and Priority Financial Aid Deadline — January 10, 2024
- Regular Application and Financial Aid Deadline — February 14, 2024
- Late Application Deadline — April 10, 2024
Program dates: There are multiple sessions of the pre-college program from June - August 2024.
Eligibility: Applicants must be expected to graduate from high school and enter college in 2025 or 2025. Be at least 16 years old by June 22nd, 2024 and must not turn 19 years old before July 31, 2024.
Another program by MIT, MITES Semester, is a 6-month hybrid STEM program where you can deep dive into science and engineering disciplines. In this program, you will choose one project-based course, followed by a supplemental core course, which can either be in computer science, calculus, physics, science writing, or communication!
Through this program, you can delve into interdisciplinary subjects that involve computer science. For instance, past projects have included computational biology, embedded systems, machine learning, robotics, thermodynamics, climate change, and more!
Note: At the end of the MITES program, you will receive a written evaluation from your instructor outlining your strengths and growth areas and highlighting your contributions to the class. This is a valuable supplement for any college application!
Location: Remote
Application Deadline: February 1st (based on previous year’s dates)
Program Dates: June - December (based on previous year’s dates)
Eligibility:
- All high school juniors who are U.S. Citizens or permanent residents.
- Strong academic record (While they have not specified a cutoff, you can expect similar expectations of RSI - PSAT Math Scores to be at least 740 (or higher) and Evidence-Based Reading/ Writing Scores to be 700 (or higher). ACT math scores should be at least 33, and verbal scores should be at least 34.)
- Passion for science, technology, engineering, and math - which is demonstrated through extracurricular activities, essays, and letters of recommendation.
Note: MIT strongly encourages students from these backgrounds to apply:
- underrepresented backgrounds
- undeserving students (defined as those from low socioeconomic means)
- families with an absence of science and engineering degrees
- students who are potentially the first family member to attend college
- students from high schools with low admittance rates to top-tier colleges (especially from rural or predominantly minority high schools).
7. Smith College’s Summer Pre-College Programs
Smith Pre-college offers 1-4 week in-person summer courses at their campus. While they offer many courses like college readiness and creative writing, if you’re interested in STEM, we recommend the Summer Science & Engineering Program or the Sustainable Futures Program.
In the Summer Science and Engineering Program, you can engage in hands-on research with the Smith’s faculty (in either life or physical sciences). You can cover courses like chemistry of herbal medicine, designing intelligent robots, global young women’s health, novel bacteriophage discovery and more. You can read more about the individual modules here!
In the Sustainable Future Program, it will be a mix of STEM and public policy and you investigate the current environmental challenges through hands-on fieldwork and create ideas for a sustainable future that you can implement in your community.
Location: Smith College Campus
Cost: TBA for 2024
Application deadline: Rolling Admission
Program dates: TBA but expect it to be between June to August.
Eligibility: Open to any high school student who identifies as female or gender-nonconforming.
8. Stonehill College’s GirlsGetMath
GirlsGetMath is a 5-day, non-residential mathematics program for highschoolers near Easton, Massachusetts. In the program, 20-25 students explore mathematical sciences through hands-on activities, interactive lectures and daily computer labs by teaching faculty at Stonehill college.
While there is not much information on the curriculum, GirlsGetMath aims to emphasize the strategic role mathematics plays in STEM careers, provide you with guidance from expert mentors in the STEM workforce, and build mathematical confidence through engaging and expert instruction. You can expect to cover areas such as cryptography, prime numbers, factoring and mathematical modeling!
Location: Stonehill University Campus - Easton, Massachusetts
Cost: $100 for tuition (full and partial scholarships available)
Application deadline: June 2nd, 2024 (based on previous years dates)
Program dates: July 10-July 14, 2023 (based on previous years dates)
Eligibility: Open to rising sophomores and juniors.
If you’re looking for a competitive mentored research program in subjects like data science, machine learning, political theory, biology, and chemistry, consider applying to Horizon’s Research Seminars and Labs!
This is a selective virtual research program that lets you engage in advanced research and develop a research paper in a subject of your choosing. Horizon has worked with 1000+ high school students so far, and offers 600+ research specializations for you to choose from.
You can find the application link here
Image Source: MIT Research Science Institute Logo