Math Opportunities for High School Students
Browse 53 verified Math opportunities for high schoolers, matched by interest with real deadlines and eligibility.
USA Mathematical Talent Search
Free, proof-based math contest you complete from home over several weeks, with detailed written feedback on every solution you submit.
AMC 10/12
The nation's largest high school math competition, and the first step toward AIME, USAMO, and the IMO team. Register through your school's math department.
Regeneron Science Talent Search
The nation's oldest and most prestigious science research competition for seniors, judging original independent research. Top awards exceed $250,000.
PRIMES-USA
Year-long original research project in mathematics, pairing sophomores and juniors nationwide with an MIT researcher and completed remotely. No tuition or fee.
Research Science Institute
Six-week research program on MIT's campus pairing juniors with a mentor for original STEM research, capped by a formal presentation. Free, including room and board; seniors are not eligible.
F=ma Exam & USA Physics Olympiad
Take the F=ma exam at your school in February; top scorers advance to USAPhO and possibly the U.S. Physics Team camp. Your school registers, not you, and there's a school plus per-student fee.
CTY Summer Programs
In-person and online summer academic courses for students who qualify through above-grade-level testing. Tuition-based, with financial aid available.
USA Astronomy & Astrophysics Olympiad
Three-round astronomy competition starting with a proctored first round in February and a national round in April. Registration is $30 per student, discounted for groups, with financial aid available.
USA/North America AI Olympiad
Multi-round AI competition with a February first round of non-coding and Colab coding tasks, an invitational second round, and a June camp that selects Team USA. Exams are proctored at your school or a test site.
SHTEM Summer Internships
Eight-week in-person Stanford research internship on interdisciplinary projects spanning information theory, machine learning, and the humanities. Unpaid with a $95 application fee; you arrange your own housing and transport.
Simons Summer Research Program
Seven-week research fellowship for juniors, working in an active Stony Brook lab in science, math, or engineering under a faculty mentor. Tuition-free, with a $1,000 stipend on completion; commuting avoids the optional housing cost.
COSMOS
Four-week residential program at a UC campus. Students join a research cluster — robotics, AI, marine science, and more — alongside university faculty.
Davidson Fellows
Scholarship competition awarding $25,000 to $100,000 to students 18 or younger for a significant, original piece of work in science, technology, math, literature, music, or philosophy. No fee to apply.
MathWorks Math Modeling Challenge
Teams of three to five get a single 14-hour window to build and write up a mathematical model of a real-world problem, competing for over $100,000 in scholarships. Free, but a teacher must register the team.
Canada/USA Mathcamp
Five-week residential program teaching advanced, exploratory mathematics beyond the standard curriculum. Fully free for families earning under $100,000, with sliding-scale tuition above that.
PhysicsBowl
A 40-question, 45-minute multiple-choice physics exam given at participating schools each spring, split into first-year and second-year divisions and scored individually and by team. Enter through a teacher.
PROMYS
Six-week residential program where students work through open-ended number theory problem sets alongside counselors and visiting mathematicians. Tuition is fully covered for families earning under $80,000.
Ross Mathematics Program
Six-week residential number theory intensive built around discovery — students prove their own theorems instead of memorizing someone else's.
Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes
On-campus and online summer courses at Stanford open to any qualifying student, not just those enrolled at Stanford OHS. Tuition-based with need-based financial aid.
Academic Talent Development Program
Summer enrichment courses at UC Berkeley across the sciences, math, and humanities. Costs several hundred to about $1,250 per course, with a Pathway Scholarship for financial need.
AwesomeMath Summer Program
Three-week live online intensive built around olympiad and contest problem-solving, taught by experienced competition coaches.
Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair
The world's largest pre-college science fair. You qualify by winning at an affiliated regional or state fair, not by applying directly.
High School Terminal
Free, virtual, round-robin team coding competition where students build algorithms for finance and data-driven problems, with cash prizes and Citadel recruiting exposure.
Breakthrough Junior Challenge
Submit an original two-minute video explaining a concept in physics, life sciences, or math, competing for a $250,000 college scholarship. Finalists also peer-review at least five other entries.
√mathroots
Free residential summer math program at MIT for current high school students. There is no tuition or housing cost.
American Regions Mathematics League
Team mathematics competition where regional teams of fifteen compete across individual, relay, and team rounds. Students join through a regional or school team rather than registering alone.
American Rocketry Challenge
The world's largest student rocket contest: teams of three to twenty-five design, build, and launch a model rocket meeting a specific altitude and flight-time target for a chance to compete nationally.
Berkeley Math Tournament
Student-run math tournament at UC Berkeley with individual and team rounds, including a novice division for students newer to competition mathematics.
Breakthrough Teaching Fellowship
Paid summer teaching internship where high school and college students teach middle school classes through a Breakthrough affiliate site, receiving training and classroom coaching.
Clark Scholar Program
Seven-week summer research program pairing high school students with Texas Tech faculty for a mentored original project across the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. No tuition, and a stipend is provided for housing.
eCYBERMISSION
Free virtual STEM competition for teams in grades 6–9. Teams identify a problem in their own community, work through the scientific or engineering method, and compete for state, regional and national awards.
Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM)
Intensive residential summer math program. The 2026 session cost $7,208.
Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament
Two competitions a year — one at Harvard in November and one at MIT in February — with individual and team rounds across algebra, geometry, and combinatorics.
Lumiere Research Scholar Program
Paid, fully online 1-on-1 research mentorship pairing a student with a PhD mentor over about 12 weeks to produce an independent research paper in a topic of their choosing. Need-based aid is available.
MathILy
Intensive residential summer math program for strong math students. Tuition is charged.
MITES Summer
Six-week residential academic enrichment program at MIT for rising seniors, with rigorous coursework in engineering, science, and humanities. Free of charge, including housing and meals.
Mu Alpha Theta Membership & Competitions
National high school and two-year-college mathematics honor society that hosts conventions and competitions and recognizes student research and community outreach in math.
National Economics Challenge
Team economics competition testing students on economic reasoning, current events, microeconomics, macroeconomics, and international economics.
National Science Bowl
Fast-paced buzzer competition covering math and all sciences, run by the U.S. Department of Energy from regional events through a national finals in Washington, D.C. Teams register through their school.
picoCTF
Free cybersecurity capture-the-flag competition and year-round practice platform built by Carnegie Mellon for middle and high school students, covering cryptography, forensics, and web exploitation.
Polygence Core Program
Paid, online 1-on-1 mentorship pairing a student with an expert to complete a self-chosen research project, paper, or app over roughly 10 sessions. Need-based aid is available.
Pre-College Scholars
Enroll in real UC Berkeley lower-division courses for college credit over a 6- or 8-week summer session, as a commuter or in the residential track.
Princeton University Mathematics Competition (PUMaC)
Student-run math contest at Princeton. Teams come from high schools or well-defined regions.
Project Euler
Free archive of several hundred mathematics and programming problems of increasing difficulty, solved by writing code. Progress is tracked through a free account.
Purple Comet! Math Meet
Free online team mathematics contest held each spring, with a high school division and problems designed for collaboration. An adult coach registers the team.
Stanford Math Tournament
Student-run math competition on the Stanford campus with individual, team, and relay rounds, plus a novice division and practice problems published online.
Summer Academy for Math and Science
Residential summer academy at Carnegie Mellon for rising seniors from groups historically underrepresented in STEM, building calculus, physics, and programming foundations with college application support. No tuition.
Summer Science Program
Five-week residential program where small teams carry out a genuine original research project in astrophysics, biochemistry, genomics, or synthetic chemistry. Need-based financial aid is available.
The Stock Market Game
Ten-week online investing simulation where teams manage a virtual portfolio and compete against other schools. Participants learn research, diversification, and risk through a teacher-registered session.
USACO Guide
Free, community-maintained practice curriculum for competitive programming, organized by topic and difficulty with curated practice problems and an online judge for submitting and checking answers.
Wharton High School Data Science Competition
Free sports analytics contest from Wharton. You use real data to answer a sports question.
Wharton Moneyball Academy
Summer program at Wharton where rising juniors and seniors study sports analytics. Tuition is charged.
Women's Technology Program
Four-week summer program at MIT for rising 11th-grade students who are girls or gender-expansive, combining computer science, electrical engineering, or mechanical engineering classes with hands-on labs. No tuition.