15 Machine Learning Internships for High School Students in New York
Machine learning internships allow high school students to explore how artificial intelligence is applied to solve problems. By working with datasets, coding models, and learning from mentors, you can develop logical thinking and an understanding of how algorithms shape fields like healthcare, finance, media, and climate science. These experiences help you clarify whether you want to pursue computer science, data science, or related STEM pathways. This practical training strengthens your college applications by showing relevant skills and commitment to machine learning.
What machine learning internships are available for high school students in New York?
Prestigious institutions such as Columbia University, New York University, and the City University of New York host machine learning internships for high schoolers. You can collaborate with mentors on data-driven projects ranging from medical research to smart city infrastructure. Internships in New York offer professional networking opportunities. You may meet a mentor who can help you explore the machine learning industry and even write a recommendation letter for your college applications.
In this blog, we’ve compiled 15 machine learning internships for high school students in New York.
1. NYU’s ARISE Program
Location: NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY
Stipend: $1,000 stipend
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; ~60 students
Dates: June 1 – August 14
Application Deadline: February 21
Eligibility: NYC high school students in 10th or 11th grade
The ARISE (Applied Research Innovations in Science and Engineering) program offers a free, immersive summer research experience for NYC high school students passionate about STEM. For the first part of the program, you will participate in remote workshops covering lab safety, research methods, and academic writing before transitioning to lab placements at NYU Tandon. Under mentorship from graduate students and researchers, you’ll contribute to real research projects across fields including engineering, computer science, machine learning, and data science, gaining valuable hands-on experience.
2. Ladder Internship Program
Location: Virtual
Cost/Stipend: Cost varies depending on the program type; financial aid is available / No stipend
Acceptance rate/cohort size: 10–25%; 70–100 students
Dates: Multiple cohorts throughout the year, including Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
Application Deadline: Varies depending on the cohort; Spring (January), Summer (May), Fall (September), and Winter (November)
Eligibility: High school students, undergraduates, and gap year students who can work for 10–20 hours/week, for 8–12 weeks
Ladder Internships is a competitive program that places motivated high school students in internships with fast-growing start-ups. Opportunities span a wide range of fields, including tech and deep tech, AI and machine learning, health tech, marketing, journalism, consulting, and more. Many of the partner start-ups are well-funded, with average raises exceeding $1 million. As an intern, you’ll collaborate closely with your start-up manager and a dedicated Ladder Coach on real, impact-driven projects, and you’ll wrap up the experience by presenting your work to the company. Here is the application form.
3. America on Tech: Tech Flex Leaders Program
Location: Hybrid: Virtual + in-person in Manhattan, NY
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly competitive; approximately 280 students
Dates: September – May
Application Deadline: August 3
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors and seniors currently enrolled in schools in NYC
The Tech Flex Leaders (TFL) program by America On Tech is an immersive tech leadership initiative designed for high school juniors and seniors passionate about technology and innovation. Over nine months, you will engage in weekly technical training sessions led by industry experts, covering topics such as web development, data science, UX design, product management, and foundational AI concepts. Alongside technical learning, the program includes professional development workshops, mentorship opportunities, and career days that help you build essential workplace skills and connections in the tech industry. By the end of the program, you’ll have gained a broader understanding of career pathways and professional expectations in computing and related fields.
4. Stony Brook University – Simons Summer Research Program
Location: Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY
Cost/Stipend: Estimated residential costs: $2,450 + $120 additional meal costs / Stipend paid, amount not disclosed
Acceptance rate/cohort size: <5%; approximately 40 students
Dates: June 29 – August 7
Application Deadline: February 5
Eligibility: Current high school juniors; 16 or older by program start; U.S. citizens or permanent residents
In this program, you will explore machine learning by working directly as an apprentice under a faculty mentor in fields like Computer Science, Biomedical Informatics, or Applied Mathematics. You will contribute to research by training algorithms to analyze medical data, modeling complex systems, or developing code for autonomous projects. You will also attend weekly faculty research talks, write a professional-grade research abstract, and present a scientific poster at a closing symposium. By the end, you will have developed real-world research methodologies, advanced your technical computing skills, and learned how to communicate complex AI concepts to a scientific audience.
5. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Internship
Location: NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY
Stipend: Approximately $2,400
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Extremely competitive; ~10-15 high school students
Dates: Late June – Mid-August (6-8 weeks)
Application Deadline: February 27
Eligibility: U.S. citizens only; 16+ years old at start; must reside within 50 miles of NYC
In this program, you will work directly as a junior associate researcher on a vertically integrated team led by NASA scientists and graduate fellows. You will use satellite data and climate models to solve urgent environmental problems, such as mapping urban heat islands in New York City or tracking West African monsoon rainfall. You will work on tasks such as writing code in Python or MATLAB to process raw Earth observation data, testing machine learning algorithms to detect climate anomalies, and visualizing your results for publication. The program concludes with a scientific symposium where you must defend your research to the GISS community.
6. Brookhaven National Laboratory – High School Research Program (HSRP)
Location: Upton, New York (Long Island)
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly competitive; ~10–15 students per specialized track
Dates: July 6 – August 14
Application Deadline: March 20
Eligibility: Rising juniors/seniors (16+); U.S. citizen/Permanent Resident; must reside within 50 miles of Upton, NY
In this program, you will step into the role of a computational researcher within the Scientific Computing & Data Science directorate to tackle federal-level challenges. You are paired directly with a DOE scientist to apply machine learning algorithms to massive datasets generated by world-class facilities like the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Your daily work will involve writing Python scripts to clean complex experimental data, training neural networks to recognize particle collision patterns, or modeling climate shifts using atmospheric readings. This program grants you clearance to access government supercomputing resources that are usually restricted to professional staff. By the end of the summer, you will present your models at a formal scientific poster session.
7. American Museum of Natural History – Science Research Mentoring Program (SRMP)
Location: American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY
Stipend: $2,500
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; ~40 students
Dates: August – June
Application deadline: March 1
Eligibility: 10th and 11th-grade high school students who live and attend school in New York and are passing classes for the last three or more semesters; taking or completed a course in any one of the programs listed here
In this program, you will use advanced computational tools to answer questions about the natural world. Through the program's increasing focus on data science, specifically the "SRMPmachine" initiative, you will learn to apply machine learning algorithms like decision trees, neural networks, and k-means clustering to real scientific datasets. Your year begins with a four-week Summer Institute where you are trained in Python and R, followed by a placement in a museum lab where you might use computer vision to classify galaxy shapes or analyze DNA barcodes to track species evolution. The program culminates in a formal symposium where you present your data-driven discoveries to museum curators and peers.
8. Rockefeller University Summer Science Research Program
Location: Rockefeller University, New York, NY
Stipend: Need-based travel stipends are given
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Extremely selective; 32 students
Dates: June 22 – August 6
Application Deadline: January 2
Eligibility: Current high school juniors or seniors who are 16 years old by program start
The Rockefeller Summer Science Research Program offers a highly immersive research experience focused on the intersection of science, computation, and technology. You will work on projects in areas such as bioinformatics, computational biology, and biomedical engineering, fields that increasingly rely on AI and machine learning to address research questions. Working closely with Rockefeller University scientists, you will apply data science methods, use coding languages like Python or R, and employ analytical tools to support ongoing investigations. The program also encourages interdisciplinary collaboration and connects you with a network of peers who share similar academic interests.
9. Columbia DBMI Summer Research Program
Location: Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY (Washington Heights)
Stipend: Paid, amount not disclosed
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; ~10–15 students
Dates: June 29 – August 14
Application Deadline: February 20
Eligibility: Rising high school seniors; 17+ by the program’s start date; available to be in the NYC area for the duration of the program
In this program, you will explore how machine learning can fundamentally change patient care and medical discovery. The curriculum focuses on "Health Data Science," covering core topics like neural networks, natural language processing for clinical notes, and predictive modeling for disease outbreaks. You will clean hospital datasets, train algorithms to recognize patterns in medical images, and collaborate with faculty on research projects. The program provides direct exposure to the OHDSI (Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics) network, allowing you to see how AI works on a global scale. By the end of the summer, you will have gained professional skills in Python and SQL.
10. CUNY CREST HIRES Program
Location: The City College of New York, Steinman Hall, Manhattan, NY
Stipend: $1,000
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Competitive; ~25–35 students
Dates: 7 weeks between late June and mid-August
Application deadline: Mid-to-late March
Eligibility: Current NYC public or charter high school students entering 10th, 11th, or 12th grade, GPA 80+, math average 80+, enrolled in or completed Algebra 2 or Trigonometry or higher
In this program, you will learn how machine learning is used to process massive datasets from satellites and sensors. Your summer will consist of training in Python and MATLAB, followed by a research project where you might use algorithms to track urban heat islands in the Bronx or model flood risks using historical weather data. You will clean messy real-world data, train models to recognize environmental patterns, and ultimately present your findings at a professional symposium. By the end, you will have earned college credit and mastered the specific computational tools used by agencies like NOAA and NASA to monitor our planet's health.
11. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Scholars Program
Location: AFRL Information Directorate, Rome, NY
Stipend: $501.60/week
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly competitive; ~30–50 interns
Dates: Fall: 16 weeks between late August/early September and mid-December; Spring: 16 weeks between mid-January and early May; Summer: 10 weeks between late May/early June and August
Application Deadline: Varies as per cohort and sites
Eligibility: Upper-level high school students at least 16 years of age with a grade point average of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale
The AFRL Scholars Program is a paid summer internship for advanced high school students interested in aerospace and applied engineering research. If selected, you’ll work under the mentorship of full-time scientists and engineers at Air Force Research Laboratory facilities, gaining exposure to professional research environments and emerging technologies. While many projects focus on aerospace systems, some research areas, such as robotic control systems or AI-driven space simulations, incorporate machine learning and data processing. In these projects, you may use programming languages like Python or C++ to analyze data, develop models, and design technical solutions.
12. Baruch College Now – STEM Research Academy
Location: Baruch College, New York, NY
Stipend: $1,575
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; 25 students
Dates: Mid-July to mid-August
Application deadline: Typically December
Eligibility: NYC public high school students in 10th or 11th grade with an overall 80+ average
This program is an applied data research apprenticeship where machine learning acts as the hidden engine behind social and natural science. This academy pairs you with faculty in fields like Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology and Environmental Science. You start with a spring college-credit course on research methods, where you learn to structure inquiries and handle data. If selected for the summer match, you will work on projects like using statistical software to model workplace efficiency trends or analyzing benthic ecological data from New York Harbor. It is a perfect fit if you want to see how data science and algorithms are actually used to solve problems in the social and life sciences rather than just writing abstract code.
13. Wave Hill – Woodland Ecology Research Mentorship (WERM)
Location: Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
Stipend: Approximately $3,500
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; ~10–15 students
Dates: July – August (14-month commitment)
Application Deadline: February 27
Eligibility: NYC residents only; must be 15+ years old by July 1; enrolled in high school
In this program, you will master Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the software used to capture, store, and analyze the spatial data that powers modern environmental AI models. Over the course of 14 months, you will work with restoration scientists to collect complex ecological datasets in the field, map urban "green" infrastructure, and statistically analyze trends in biodiversity or soil health. This program spans more than a year, giving you the rare opportunity to see a research project through from raw data collection to final publication. By the end, you will possess the data skills that every machine learning engineer needs to build accurate predictive models for climate change and urban planning.
14. BRAINYAC (Brain Research Apprenticeships in New York at Columbia)
Location: New York City, NY (in-person at Columbia University laboratories)
Stipend: Paid, amount not specified
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly competitive; ~20 students per year
Dates: 5 weeks during the summer (June – August)
Application Deadline: October 31
Eligibility: NYC residents in grades 10–11 who are enrolled in partner programs (S-PREP, BioBus, Lang Youth Medical, Columbia Secondary School, or Double Discovery Center)
In this program, you will step into the shoes of a computational neuroscientist to decode the inner workings of the brain. You might use machine learning algorithms to classify animal behaviors from video feeds or write Python scripts to analyze massive datasets of neuronal activity. You participate in Saturday training sessions on laboratory techniques and scientific ethics before you transition into a full-time, seven-week paid research job within a Columbia lab. You contribute to active discovery, culminating in a professional poster symposium where you must defend your findings to actual scientists.
15. EDIT ML Summer Internship Program
Location: Virtual
Stipend: None
Acceptance rate/cohort size: Highly selective; typically small cohort sizes
Dates: June 13 – August 31
Application Deadline: April 15
Eligibility: High school students with a strong foundation in computer science and some exposure to machine learning/deep learning concepts
The EDIT ML Summer Internship lets you use artificial intelligence to work with real medical data alongside researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. During the program, you might contribute to projects such as studying electronic health records, analyzing genomic information, or building deep learning models for cancer detection and medical imaging. You’ll develop practical skills in Python and R, work with large and complex datasets, and learn how to apply advanced computing tools to improve algorithm performance. The internship also includes seminars on pathology, research ethics, and machine learning workflows. As part of the research process, you’ll practice writing about your work, presenting results, and potentially contributing to scientific publications.
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