Hi, My daughter is studying Junior year 2026, I am looking for Internship program. she id interested in medicine and science line. I am new to this process and she is my first kid.can you please guide me ? Thanks
Internship program for this summer 2025- 2026.
Just to clarify, your daughter is a Junior attending UC Davis currently?
Has she tried talking to her professors and classmates about some leads? There is also the UC Davis Career Center which can help with Internships and also check Handshake.
https://careercenter.ucdavis.edu/
It is great you want to help her, but she needs to be taking the lead to find these opportunities.
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Thanks for the link.
No, she is Junior in school. I am looking for Summer internship program and also i want to know if she do Internship program in summer, will it be helpful for her college admission? What kind of internship will be helpful ?
If you are looking for opportunities at UC Davis specifically, they do have a summer research program for high school students: YSP About - UC Davis School of Education
Other summer opportunities at Davis:
COSMOS: Welcome to COSMOS - COSMOS Platform
Pre-College summer programs: https://cpe.ucdavis.edu/subject-areas/pre-college-on-campus
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She’s a junior in high school? Does your local hospital have a volunteer program?
She doesn’t need to show that she has medical experience. Working with and communicating with others are valuable skills for healthcare. She could learn that by working as a camp counselor or volunteering at a local museum, aquarium, library. The key is to have a position where she is engaging with and communicating with others, not just doing busy or desk work.
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I moved your post from the Class of 2030 since that discussion thread is for Fall 2026 Freshman applicants.
There is no specific Internship or Summer program for a HS student that will guarantee admission. What is helpful would be any program that can give her experience in her field of interest and which can be used as a possible topic for one of the UC Personal Insight essays when she applies for Fall 2027. Both @lkg4answers and @tamagotchi have given you some options.
If you want more general summer program information, you might want to post in this forum. Summer Programs - College Confidential Forums
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I’ve moved
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I love College Essay Guy, this might be a good resource.
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Does she want to do a summer program?
Don’t do it for college admission purposes - better to get a job, etc.
Do it because she has an interest. You’re only a high schooler once.
Check your local colleges for ideas and hospitals or city/state parks departments, etc.
If you’re willing to pay, lots of colleges have high school/pre college pay to play programs….again, do if interested, not to get her into college.
Good luck
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@WayOutWestMom might have some suggestions.
Unfortunately the NSF’s summer internship program for HS students was defunded by the current administration.
You should probably check with the closest medical school near where you live to see of they offer any exploratory programs for high school students.
Harvard Medical School has an online internship program for high schoolers.
Georgetown School of Medicine offers a summer program (in-person and hands-on) for high school students.
National Children’s Hospital in DC and the Magee-Women Research Institute at University of Pittsburgh SOM both have in-person summer internships for HS students.
In California, UCSF School of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine and UC-Irvine SOM all offer summer internship programs for high school students.
The California programs are more lab-based biomedical research than direct patient exposure type programs.
I strongly suggest that you avoid the pay-to-play internships. while your child may get some interesting experiences at one, college adcomms know these are indicative of family affluence and they don’t really translate into giving any advantage in college admissions.
The SOM ones are more prestigious, but how adcomms interpret their value will be highly variable.
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Thank you i will check.
My Daughter is doing volunteer in my local hospital more than 100 hours past 2 years and she is shadowing doctors as well. For this summer she is looking any summer program. She is thinking it will added advantage in her college application process. i don’t have any idea regarding that, I don’t want any pay for the summer program and paid summer program as well. Just we are trying and helping her to get in to good college in future as her wish come true.
There are a zillion “good” colleges - so don’t put that stress on yourself. Her college choice will likely come down to budget (unless you have $95K a year to spend), location, major, or otherwise.
If she wants to become a doctor, you can do that from anywhere.
It’s great she wants a program and I hope she finds one. If she can’t, having a paid job - yep, scooping ice cream or bringing in shopping carts from the parking lot - is wonderful on a resume - teamwork, responsibility, and more.
It sounds like she’s off to a great start learning about healthcare - so she’ll know more - and volunteering is always good, regardless of what you are volunteering for.
In the end, grades and test (SAT, ACT - where applicable) are what matters most.
But whether she goes to Harvard or Hofstra, her dreams of becoming whatever it is - a doctor I presume - won’t be chnaged.
But your budget will be the deciding factor - because not only is undergrad - at this point up to $100K a year, then you have another $100K for med school.
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So would getting a summer job.
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