Virtual & Online STEM Programs for High School Students

These stem programs are fully online, so students in any town — not just near a major university — can participate.

Online stem removes geography from the equation; selectivity and follow-through are all that separate you from applicants in Boston or the Bay Area.

164 verified programs match this page; 27 of the featured listings are completely free.

Featured programs

Browse 30+ curated programs for high school students:

• Presidential AI Challenge — White House Office of Science and Technology Policy: National K-12 AI competition where students build real-world AI solutions for community challenges, with finals at the White House.
• Kaggle Data Science Competitions — Kaggle/Google: Join exciting online data science competitions for high school students! Build Python coding skills, explore AI, and strengthen your college applicati
• MIT Global AI Hackathon — MIT RAISE & App Inventor Foundation: Join a free virtual AI hackathon for high schoolers to develop apps tackling global challenges. Gain hands-on STEM experience and boost your college a
• Microsoft AI for Good Challenge — Microsoft: Empower global impact by joining this free AI competition for high schoolers. Develop machine learning skills, boost college applications, and tackle
• World Artificial Intelligence Competition for Youth (WAICY) — Ready AI: Join a global AI competition for grades 6-12 to solve real-world problems using artificial intelligence. Build STEM skills, boost college applications
• Mathematical Olympiad for Girls — Mathematical Olympiad Foundation: Elite math competition for high school girls to tackle USAMO-level problems. Boosts problem-solving skills, stands out on college applications, and in
• Hertz Foundation Fellowship Application Prep — Hertz Foundation: Prepare for the elite Hertz Foundation Fellowship and boost STEM skills. Perfect for high school seniors aiming for competitive grad school applicatio
• James Dyson Award — James Dyson Foundation: International STEM competition challenging high school innovators in Grades 11-12 to design groundbreaking solutions. Win $40k and boost college appli
• Meta Hacker Cup — Meta: Global programming competition for high school students to master algorithms and coding. Build problem-solving skills and boost college applications.
• Davidson Fellows — Davidson Institute: Win $50k, $25k, or $10k scholarships in this elite STEM competition for high-achieving high school students. Boost college applications with hands-on
• International Youth Math Challenge — IYMC: Join a global math competition for high schoolers to enhance problem-solving skills, boost college applications, and compete for $40k+ in prizes. Free
• The Knowledge Society — TKS: Join a 10-month online STEM accelerator for high schoolers in grades 9-11. Build AI, biotech, and quantum computing projects to boost college apps and
• Caltech Signature Award for Innovation — California Institute of Technology: Earn recognition for your groundbreaking ideas in science with this free high school research award. Boost your college applications and showcase your
• Summit STEM Fellowship (SSF) — Summit Education: The Summit STEM Fellowship (SSF) is a virtual summer program for top STEM students around the world. Students learn from mentors at Harvard, Stanford,
• Underline Space Roundtable — Space Minds Center: The Space Minds Center was created to inspire interest and proactive thinking about space policy in emerging political science and international relat
• NSBE Pre-College Scholarship — National Society of Black Engineers: NSBE's pre-college scholarships support Black high school students pursuing STEM education. Awards ranging from $500–$15,000 recognize academic excell
• AISES Scholarship Program — American Indian Science and Engineering Society: AISES offers $2,000–$10,000 scholarships to Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and First Nations STEM students. One of
• Barry Goldwater Excellence in Education — Goldwater Foundation: Recognition program leading to Goldwater Scholarship eligibility in college.
• New York Times STEM Writing Contest — The New York Times: Essay contest explaining the importance of STEM topics.
• Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) Distinguished Honor Roll — Art of Problem Solving: Recognition for top performance in AoPS advanced math courses
• USAMO Qualifier — Mathematical Association of America: Qualification to take the USA Mathematical Olympiad. Top ~250 AMC/AIME performers invited. Gateway to MOSP and IMO team.
• Global STEM Alliance Virtual STEM Academy — New York Academy of Sciences: Free virtual STEM challenges and mentorship from industry experts
• Amazon Women in Innovation Scholarship — Amazon: $10,000 scholarship for women pursuing computer science.
• Physics Unlimited Premier Competition — Physics Unlimited: Challenging physics competition testing conceptual understanding and problem-solving
• MIT PRIMES-USA Math Research Program — Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT's online math research program for students outside Boston. Year-long mentorship conducting original mathematics research.
• Intel oneAPI Developer Challenge — Intel Corporation: Global coding challenge using Intel's oneAPI toolkit; cash prizes
• PicoCTF Cybersecurity Competition — Carnegie Mellon University: Largest cybersecurity CTF for high schoolers. Challenges in cryptography, forensics, etc.
• Polygence Research Program — Polygence: 1-on-1 research mentorship program; opportunity to publish or present research
• NASA App Development Challenge — NASA: Build apps for NASA missions. Winners present at NASA center.
• Lumiere Research Scholar Program — Lumiere Education: 1-on-1 research mentorship with Harvard/Oxford PhD researchers; publication opportunity

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