The 6 Best Medicine & Health Programs for High Schoolers (2026)
On this page
- 1. HOSA – Future Health Professionals
- 2. The USA and International Brain Bee
- 3. The NIH Summer Internship Program
- 4. The Penn Medicine Summer Program
- 5. The Perry Outreach Program
- 6. Stanford's Clinical Anatomy Summer Program (CASP)
- Free-and-competitive vs. paid: how to tell substance from tourism
- How to build toward these programs
- Frequently asked questions
The best medicine and health programs for high schoolers fall into three buckets: skills competitions like HOSA and the Brain Bee; selective, usually free research and clinical-exposure programs; and paid hands-on camps. The competitive and free options carry the most weight, but many strong programs are also region-specific or hard to get into. For our full verified list, see the medicine and health section of our competitions directory.
Here are the 6 best medicine and health programs for high schoolers, what each one is, who qualifies, and how to approach them.
1. HOSA – Future Health Professionals
Type: School-based competition · Best for: An accessible on-ramp
HOSA – Future Health Professionals is the largest on-ramp for health-interested students. It runs as a school-based organization with regional, state, and international conferences, and offers dozens of competitive events spanning clinical skills, health science knowledge, and leadership. A student can compete in areas like medical terminology, nutrition, or emergency preparedness, and the structure rewards sustained involvement over a single event. If your school has a chapter, this is one of the most accessible ways to start.
2. The USA and International Brain Bee
Type: Competition · Best for: Neuroscience-minded students
The USA and International Brain Bee is a neuroscience competition for high schoolers. Students study how the brain works — memory, emotion, neurological disease, brain imaging — and compete through local, national, and international rounds. It is narrower than HOSA but goes deep, and it pairs naturally with a genuine interest in the brain and behavior.
3. The NIH Summer Internship Program
Type: Research internship · Best for: Real lab research · Eligibility: Varies by year and location
The NIH Summer Internship Program places students in research labs at the National Institutes of Health. It is a genuine research experience, typically paid, and highly selective. Availability for high schoolers varies by year and location, so check the official NIH page for current eligibility before planning around it. Selective research programs like this are the closest a high schooler gets to real medicine, and most are free or paid stipends rather than tuition, which is part of why admission is hard.
4. The Penn Medicine Summer Program
Type: University summer program · Best for: Structured, supervised exposure
The Penn Medicine Summer Program is a university-run summer experience introducing students to medicine and health careers through the University of Pennsylvania's medical system. University-hosted programs like this give supervised, structured exposure that is hard to find on your own.
5. The Perry Outreach Program
Type: Hands-on outreach day · Best for: Surgery and bioengineering exposure · Eligibility: Women and nonbinary students
The Perry Outreach Program, run by the Perry Initiative, introduces women and nonbinary students to careers in orthopaedic surgery and bioengineering through hands-on, day-long sessions — suturing, mock surgeries, and engineering activities. It is free, focused, and designed to widen who sees themselves in these fields. If you fit its audience and are curious about surgery or biomedical engineering, it is worth seeking out.
6. Stanford's Clinical Anatomy Summer Program (CASP)
Type: Paid summer camp · Best for: Hands-on clinical anatomy
Stanford's Clinical Anatomy Summer Program (CASP) is a paid, hands-on option that lets high schoolers work with anatomical material and learn clinical anatomy in a structured university setting. It is substantive, but it is tuition-based, and that is the honest tradeoff with most pre-med camps: you pay for access and structure rather than earning a selective spot.
Free-and-competitive vs. paid: how to tell substance from tourism
Why competitions matter first. They are usually free or low-cost, they build real knowledge rather than just exposure, and they give a student something concrete to point to. Sustained involvement in one competition reads better than a scattered list of one-time events.
Paid does not mean bad, and free does not always mean better — but the distinction matters. A free, selective research placement signals that someone chose you. A paid camp signals that you and your family invested in learning. Both can be worthwhile; just be clear-eyed about which is which when you describe them later.
The line that matters is not price. It is whether the program gives you real skills, real work, or real supervised exposure — versus a curated tour dressed up as an experience.
| Signal | Substantive program | "Medical tourism" |
|---|---|---|
| What you do | Research, skills practice, supervised clinical exposure | Observing, photo ops, shadowing with no role |
| Selectivity | Application, essays, or qualifying scores | Pay and you're in, no screening |
| Output | A project, a competition result, a real skill | A certificate of attendance |
| Who runs it | University, hospital, government lab, established nonprofit | Vague third-party operator |
A quick test: ask what a participant actually produces or learns, and who supervises it. If the honest answer is "you watch and get a certificate," treat it as exposure, not achievement. Overseas "shadowing" trips that let students do things they legally could not do at home are a particular red flag.
How to build toward these programs
Start with your school and your region. Join a HOSA chapter if one exists. Look up which selective programs are open to students in your state — many of the strongest are region-specific — and note their deadlines a year ahead, because the best ones close early.
Build the academic base they assume. Nearly every serious pre-med path rewards strong biology and chemistry and solid test scores. Take the hardest science courses your school offers and do well in them; our guide to AP courses explains how AP Biology and AP Chemistry fit a pre-med track. Strong SAT scores keep selective summer and college doors open.
Show a through-line, not a checklist. Admissions readers and program directors respond to a coherent story — a competition, then a related research or exposure program, then a project — far more than to a long list of unconnected activities.
This is where IvyStrides can help. Pre-med paths reward strong biology and chemistry and reliable test scores, and that base is exactly what our AP courses in Biology and Chemistry and our SAT prep are built to develop. If you want a second read on which programs fit your student, book a free consultation.
Frequently asked questions
Which medicine program is best for a high schooler? There is no single best one. HOSA is the most accessible entry point, the Brain Bee suits neuroscience-minded students, and selective research programs like the NIH internship carry the most weight but are the hardest to get. Start with what is open to you and build from there. Our full list is at /academic-competitions/#medicine-health.
Are the free programs better than the paid ones? Not automatically, but free-and-selective programs signal that you were chosen, while paid camps signal investment. Judge each by what you actually do and learn, not by price alone.
Can a freshman or sophomore start? Yes. HOSA and the Brain Bee are open to younger high schoolers, and starting early lets you build a genuine track record. Many selective research programs are aimed at juniors, so use the early years to build knowledge and grades.
Do I need great grades and test scores? For the selective and research programs, strong biology, chemistry, and test scores help a great deal, and they matter even more for college. Building that base early is the highest-leverage thing most students can do.
Are these programs available everywhere? No. Many are region-specific, competitive, or tuition-based, and availability changes each year. Always confirm current eligibility, dates, and cost on the official program site, and check our competitions directory for verified options.