Nichable guide

Paid Internships for High School Students

Nichable lists 214 paid internships for high school students right now, out of 265 in all. Each one is checked against the organization's own page. More figures

A paid internship pays you an hourly wage or a stipend for real work: assisting in a lab, building exhibits at a museum, helping a city department or a nonprofit run its programs. For many students, pay is what makes an internship possible at all, since it replaces the summer job they'd otherwise need.

Paid high school internships are more competitive than unpaid ones, and most are local: run by a hospital, university, museum or city that hires students who live or go to school nearby. Many open applications in winter for the following summer, so the students who land them are usually the ones who start looking in December or January.

What counts

• · Internships that pay an hourly wage
• · Internships with a fixed stipend for the whole program
• · City and county summer internship programs that place students with local employers
• · Paid lab, museum, hospital and nonprofit internships built for high schoolers

Real paid internships right now

29 upcoming deadlines for internships, by month, with a calendar you can subscribe to.

How to actually get one

• · Look locally first. Most paid high school internships hire students from a specific city, county or school district, so a search near you turns up far more real options than a national one.
• · Apply early. Paid programs fill first, and many close their applications between January and March for a summer start.
• · Read the eligibility line closely. Many paid programs set a minimum age (often 16), require residency in the city or county, or are reserved for students from lower-income families.
• · Treat the application like a job application: a short, specific answer about why you want that role, and a teacher or supervisor who can vouch for you, matter more than a long list of activities.

Common questions