Paid Summer Programs for High School Students
EC Finder currently lists 38 paid summer programs for high school students. Of these, 4 offer virtual participation. Examples include AFA CyberCamps, Alonzo King LINES Ballet Summer Program, and American Legion Auxiliary CA Girls State.
- 38
- listed
- 4
- virtual
- 38
- with a listed deadline
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are paid summer programs for high school students?
- Paid Summer Programs for High School Students are curated extracurricular listings for high school students. Each listing includes eligibility, cost, and deadline details where known, so you can compare options and find the right fit for your college application profile.
- Are these summer programs paid?
- Yes, this page only shows paid opportunities. EC Finder also lists both free and paid options if you want to compare.
- Can I participate virtually?
- Yes — 4 of the 38 summer programs listed here offer virtual or online participation.
Related Categories
38 activities found·Browse by category
AFA CyberCamps
Summer cybersecurity camps run by the Air & Space Forces Association at sites nationwide. Standard and Advanced camps introduce networking, operating-system security, and hands-on defense skills, often used as an on-ramp to CyberPatriot.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet Summer Program
Ballet/contemporary dancers train intensively in technique and improvisation under company faculty and guest choreographers, culminating in a public showcase.
American Legion Auxiliary CA Girls State
Female-identifying juniors sponsored by local Auxiliary units spend a week building and running a mock state government.
American Legion CA Boys & Girls State (coed)
Coed week-long simulation of CA state government at Sacramento State; students campaign, legislate, and run mock judicial/executive branches.
California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA)
Month-long residential intensive across 8 arts disciplines; admitted students earn "California Arts Scholar" status and Governor's Medallion; some win Herb Alpert Foundation scholarships.
Diablo Ballet Summer Intensive
Intermediate/advanced ballet students train daily in technique, pointe, variations, and contemporary styles over a 4-week audition-based intensive.
Emory Pre-College Neuroscience Program
A two-week program on the science of the brain, memory/cognition techniques, neurological disease, prosthetics, and brain-machine topics.
Foundation for Teaching Economics – Advanced Economics for Leaders
Week-long residential program for students who've completed HS/AP economics, covering college-level micro/macroeconomic theory alongside leadership development.
Foundation for Teaching Economics – Economics for Leaders
Selective residential/live-online summer program where sophomores/juniors learn to integrate economic reasoning into leadership decisions using FTE's Five Economic Reasoning Principles.
Foundation for Teaching Economics – Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy
Week-long FTE summer program where students explore how economic systems support innovation, developing their own business idea, pitch, and funding plan.
HOBY California – Northern California Leadership Seminar
HS sophomores attend a multi-day leadership seminar on ethical leadership, civic responsibility, and service.
HudsonAlpha Biotech Academy
A four-week summer program for teacher-nominated high schoolers focused on genetics, genomics, and biotechnology.
Juniper Institute for Young Writers (UMass Amherst)
A residential and online summer creative-writing program at UMass Amherst for motivated high schoolers, offering experimentation across genres in a pre-college setting.
Marin Shakespeare Company Teen Camp/Touring Company
Teen actors attend a conservatory-style summer intensive culminating in a fully produced Shakespeare play, or tour a Shakespeare production to schools/community venues.
Marine Science Careers + Internship Academy
Weeklong (and multi-week) academy where teens explore intertidal ecology, animal husbandry, lab investigations, and shipboard research aboard Ocean Institute vessels.
National Student Leadership Conference – Business & Entrepreneurship
9-day residential program where students run business simulations, build and pitch a startup to investors, and study industry analysis at university campuses including UC Berkeley.
NatureBridge Summer Teen Program (Yosemite)
Teens ages 15-18 backpack and camp in Yosemite National Park while studying ecology and building leadership skills through NatureBridge's environmental education curriculum.
New York Math Circle High School Summer Program
A three-week program of deep mathematical thinking and problem solving beyond the standard curriculum, including applied mini-camps and contest prep.
Reagan Foundation – Great American Leadership Program
Residential leadership program studying presidential leadership through workshops, crisis simulations, and Reagan Library access.
Research Mentorship Program (RMP)
Six-week university-level summer research program pairing top HS students with UCSB faculty/grad mentors across disciplines, including environmental science and environmental policy.
Sewanee Young Writers' Conference (University of the South)
A highly selective two-week residential summer conference admitting a small fraction of applicants, with small workshops in fiction, poetry, songwriting, literary nonfiction, and fantasy.
SFFILM Youth Filmmaker Camp
Teens learn storyboarding, screenwriting, cinematography, sound, and post-production from pros, creating and screening a short film by camp's end.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes – Capital Markets and Investments
Two-week live-online Stanford course covering how capital markets function and how investors evaluate securities, combining lectures with applied problem sets.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes – Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Two-week live-online Stanford course where students study how entrepreneurs identify opportunities and build business models, in intensive daily sessions.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes (Topics in Psychology)
Online, non-credit course on methodological/theoretical foundations of psychology as part of Stanford's Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes.
Student Conservation Association (SCA)
The largest provider of hands-on youth conservation programs in the U.S. High schoolers can join short-term summer conservation crews doing trail building, habitat restoration, and wildlife protection in national parks and community green spaces.
Temecula Youth Entrepreneur Program (YEP)
Two-week summer program for Inland Southern California high schoolers to learn entrepreneurship fundamentals and develop a business concept.
The Nature Conservancy LEAF Program
Paid summer conservation internships for urban high school students, offering hands-on stewardship work and career exposure with The Nature Conservancy at sites across the country.
UC Berkeley ATDP Secondary Division (Social Psychology/American Culture & Society)
Six-week enrichment program offering courses like Social Psychology and American Culture & Society on campus or remotely.
UC Berkeley Haas Summer Entrepreneurship Residency
Two-week residential program where students develop an original idea into a full business plan through Haas faculty lectures and workshops, pitching to judges on the final day.
UC San Diego Future Leaders Summer Program
Three-week residential program with mock diplomacy simulations on global challenges, producing policy research reports for pre-collegiate credit.
University of Maryland Cyber Camp
A summer cyber camp for high school students run by the University of Maryland's cybersecurity center, offering hands-on introductions to cybersecurity concepts and hacking/defense skills.
University of Toledo Summer Biomedical Science Program in Bioinformatics
A summer bioinformatics program for high schoolers entering grades 10-12.
USC Marshall Pre-College – Exploring Entrepreneurship
Four-week USC program where students earn college credit studying entrepreneurship, take field trips to LA companies/VC firms, and pitch their own business concept.
USC Marshall Pre-College – Introduction to Business
Four-week USC Marshall program covering accounting, marketing, and strategy, including company visits and a final Capstone Case Competition pitching data-driven solutions.
USC Pre-College: Psychological Science and Society
Four-week residential course on cognitive, developmental, clinical, and social psychology with labs, guest lectures, and field trips; earns college credit.
USF CyberCamp
A University of South Florida summer cybersecurity camp for high schoolers delivered by USF Innovative Education, introducing core cyber concepts through hands-on activities.
WPI Bioinformatics & Computational Biology (BCB) Summer Research Experience
A program where high schoolers apply math and CS to biological/medical problems through lectures, journal clubs, and lab work.
ECFinder provides links to outside extracurricular opportunities for informational purposes only. Students and families should research each program before applying. ECFinder does not operate or control the listed organizations and is not responsible for their actions or policies.