Remote Opportunities for High School Students
Browse 89 verified remote opportunities for high schoolers — programs, competitions, and internships you can do from anywhere.
Congressional App Challenge
Build an original app for any platform and compete against peers in your congressional district. Winning apps are exhibited in the U.S. Capitol.
Conrad Challenge
Multi-stage innovation competition for teams of 2-5, judged on a lean canvas, innovation brief, video, and team site. The activation stage closes in October and the innovation stage in January; advancing teams pay a $499 team fee.
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.
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.
Cooke College Scholarship Program
Large college scholarship for high-achieving seniors with financial need. Each award covers much of tuition, living costs, books, and fees.
Elks Most Valuable Student Scholarship
College scholarship for U.S. citizen seniors, from $1,000 to $7,500 a year. The top 20 scholars receive $30,000.
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.
Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
The largest US recognition program for teen writing and visual art, with 28 categories judged regionally first. Entry is $15 per work with a fee waiver built into the portal; Bay Area regional deadlines fall in December.
Dream with Us High School Engineering Challenge
Teams of 3 to 7 students design a new cargo aircraft and write a proposal for it. Registration closes December 8, 2026, and the engineering notebook is due January 25, 2027.
World Series of Innovation
Free online challenge series where students submit solutions tied to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, solo or in small teams, for cash prizes up to $1,500.
MIT THINK Scholars Program
Propose a STEM research or engineering project you haven't built yet; finalists get up to $1,000 in funding, weekly MIT mentorship, and an all-expenses-paid trip to MIT. Free to apply, solo or in pairs.
High School Entrepreneurship and AI Video Pitch Competition
Pitch a business idea in a short video. Entries are individual, the registration fee is $25, and prizes are $500, $250, and $100. Register by January 8, 2027 and submit the video by January 15.
Diamond Challenge
Global venture pitch competition with business and social innovation tracks and a $100K prize pool. Teams of 2-4 students need one adult advisor; finalists compete at the Limitless World Summit.
StudentCam
C-SPAN's national video documentary contest. You make a short film about an issue that affects your community or the country.
Essentials of Finance
Two-week online introduction to corporate valuation, venture capital, and alternative investments, taught by Wharton faculty.
Financial Decision Making
Two-week online certificate covering the fundamentals of saving, borrowing, and investing through daily live lectures and recitations.
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.
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.
Blue Ocean Student Entrepreneur Competition
Complete a free online mini-course and submit a video pitch under five minutes for an original product idea, judged by entrepreneurs for cash prizes. Fully virtual, free, and no school sponsorship needed.
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.
Summer Mentorship Program
Fully online mentorship pairing you one-on-one with a working poet or prose writer in poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. Fee remission is reviewed separately from admission.
Kode With Klossy Summer Camp
Free two-week coding camp for girls and gender-expansive teens, covering web development, machine learning, or mobile app design. No experience required.
AwesomeMath Summer Program
Three-week live online intensive built around olympiad and contest problem-solving, taught by experienced competition coaches.
Pathways
Free, self-paced seven-week virtual program for girls and non-binary students exploring AI, cybersecurity, data science, game design, or web development, with mentor check-ins along the way. Replaced the flagship Summer Immersion Program, which ended after its 2025 cohort.
Genes in Space
Design a DNA-based biotechnology experiment addressing a real challenge of space exploration — the winning proposal is actually run by astronauts aboard the ISS. Free, solo or in teams of up to five.
Technovation Girls
Girls and gender-expansive students build a mobile app or AI project addressing a community problem with a volunteer mentor, then submit code, a demo, and a business pitch. Free, and you can register without a school program.
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.
Global High School Investment Competition
Free ten-week competition where teams of 4-6 build an investment strategy for a real client case and manage a virtual portfolio. A teacher at your school must register the team.
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.
YoungArts National Arts Competition
National competition for artists ages 15-18 across ten disciplines — writing, visual arts, film, theater, dance, voice, jazz, and more — with awards from $250 to $10,000 plus mentorship. The $35 fee is waivable.
AFSA National High School Essay Contest
Essay contest asking students to analyze a question about diplomacy, international affairs, and the work of the U.S. Foreign Service.
AFSA Opportunities for High School Students
Directory of public diplomacy, exchange, essay, and international-affairs opportunities maintained by the professional association for U.S. diplomats.
AI Foundations & CS Discoveries
Free, self-paced computer science and AI courses with no application or deadline. Code.org rebranded to CodeAI in 2026 as it shifted focus from coding toward AI literacy.
AI Scholars & AI Fellowship
Online AI courses over Zoom — a 25-hour group program in Python, neural networks, and AI ethics, or a mentored individual research fellowship. Both charge significant tuition, with need-based aid up to 100%.
AI Scholars Program
Ten-session live online AI course taught by graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and similar schools, ending in a social-impact project. Tuition is $1,400 with payment plans; admission is rolling year-round.
AI4ALL Open Learning
Free, self-paced online curriculum introducing artificial intelligence through projects on topics like computer vision and data bias. AI4ALL has paused all of its high school programming, so this is kept for reference only.
Amazon Future Engineer
Collection of free computer science courses, virtual field trips, and career-exploration content for students and teachers, including introductory coding and cloud computing material.
American Youth Policy Forum Events
Public policy learning and youth voice resources connecting students and educators with discussions about education, equity, and youth policy.
Aspirations in Computing Award
Recognition program for students who are women, genderqueer, or non-binary with an interest in computing, awarded on the basis of technical projects, leadership, and community. Winners join a national community with internship and scholarship connections.
Ayn Rand Essay Contests
Open essay competitions on literature, ethics, politics, and individual rights, with prompts and awards listed by contest cycle.
Bennington Young Writers Awards
Free writing contest for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, now part of the Bennington Young Creators Awards.
Blue Planet Awareness Contest
Annual creative contest (formerly the Ocean Awareness Contest) asking students to explore an ocean and climate theme through visual art, writing, film, music, or interactive media. Free to enter, with cash awards across divisions.
Civics Essay Contest
Annual essay competition asking high school students to respond to a current civics topic, with scholarships for selected essays.
Civics Unplugged
Civic leadership community and fellowship opportunities for young people developing projects that strengthen democracy and public participation.
Coca-Cola Scholars Program
Achievement-based scholarship for high school seniors recognizing leadership and service, awarding 150 scholarships each year. Applications are free and open in the fall.
Code in Place
Free online course that teaches the first half of Stanford's intro Python class (CS106A) to beginners. Each group of 10 students gets a volunteer teacher. Sessions run in cohorts, so check the site for the next one.
College Prep Scholars Program
Free program for high-achieving juniors from low-income backgrounds, providing a college campus visit, essay coaching, and a head start on the QuestBridge National College Match scholarship application.
Coolidge Scholarship
Full-ride, four-year college scholarship awarded to high school juniors based on academic excellence, interest in public policy, and service. There is no application fee.
CS50x: Introduction to Computer Science
Harvard's free, self-paced introduction to computer science, covering abstraction, algorithms, data structures, and web development in C, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. No formal application and no cost for the online course.
Dell Scholars Program
Scholarship and support program for seniors who have overcome significant obstacles, combining funding with a college-readiness curriculum and a personal coach. No application fee.
DoSomething.org Campaigns
Free national campaigns — voter registration, food drives, mental-health awareness, and more — that students can run in their own community. Some campaigns offer scholarships or prizes.
EarthEcho Youth Programs
Free environmental action programs and youth councils where students lead water-quality monitoring, coastal restoration, and advocacy projects in their own communities.
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.
Elements of AI
Free online introduction to artificial intelligence that needs no coding experience. It covers what AI can and can't do and how to start building simple AI methods. Start any time.
ExploraVision
Team competition in which students pick a current technology, research how it works, and project how it could look twenty years from now — submitting a written description and a set of web pages.
Hack Club
Free network of student-run coding clubs plus open online programs, workshops, and community events. Students can join an existing club or start their own with Hack Club's tools.
Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest
Academic writing competition for high school students addressing international affairs, global policy, and contemporary world issues.
IBM SkillsBuild for High School Students
Free self-paced online courses on AI literacy, ethics of generative AI, and other tech skills for students ages 13 to 18. Start any time.
InvestWrite
National essay contest about investing. It is open only to students in The Stock Market Game, so your teacher must run it.
John Locke Institute Essay Competition
Essay competition with prompts in politics, economics, law, philosophy, history, and related humanities subjects.
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.
NASA Internships (STEM Gateway)
NASA's official internship portal lists paid and unpaid opportunities at NASA centers and in virtual projects, with high school eligibility varying by session. Students apply through the portal and must be U.S. citizens.
National Cyber League
Seasonal cybersecurity competition with individual and team games, plus a practice gym, where players solve challenges in open-source intelligence, cryptography, and network traffic analysis.
National Economics Challenge
Team economics competition testing students on economic reasoning, current events, microeconomics, macroeconomics, and international economics.
National Youth Leadership Council Service-Learning
Service-learning and civic engagement resources that help students connect community projects with public issues, reflection, and action.
Neuroscience High School Scholars Program
Free virtual summer neuroscience program from UCLA for rising juniors and seniors, with a focus on students at schools with limited access to neuroscience courses. Dates and the application deadline will be posted in December 2026.
New York Times Student Editorial Contest
Student editorial contest asking writers to make a concise, evidence-based argument about an issue that matters to them.
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.
Polyphony Lit
Online literary magazine for high school writers. Submit your writing, or join the student editorial staff to review other teens' work.
President's Environmental Youth Award (PEYA)
National EPA award for a student-led environmental project you have already done in your community. Grades 6-12 compete in one category.
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.
QuestBridge National College Match
College admission and scholarship process that matches high-achieving seniors from low-income backgrounds with full four-year scholarships at 55 partner colleges.
Ron Brown Scholar Program
$40,000 college scholarships for African American seniors with strong academics, leadership, and community service. The 2027 application is open.
Student Press Law Center Resources
Free legal and civic education resources for student journalists, including training on press freedom, media law, and newsroom rights.
Student Reporting Labs
Free youth journalism program with lesson plans, editing support, and publication opportunities for student-produced video and audio stories on national broadcasts and the PBS NewsHour site.
The Concord Review
Historical research publication opportunity for strong high school essays, including work on political, constitutional, diplomatic, and social history.
The Congressional Award
Non-competitive, self-paced program where students set personal goals across voluntary public service, personal development, physical fitness, and expedition. Participants log hours toward Bronze, Silver, and Gold certificates and medals.
The Gates Scholarship
Last-dollar scholarship covering the full cost of attendance for highly motivated, low-income high school seniors from minority groups underrepresented in higher education. No application fee.
The Junior Academy
Free online program where you join an international team and work with STEM experts on real-world challenges.
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.
USA Computing Olympiad
Four free online programming contests per season, open to any pre-college student and split into four divisions from Bronze to Platinum. Registration is free and rolling.
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.
USC Unruh Institute High School Summer Internship
Online summer internship researching and writing a legislative policy memo on a climate or sustainability bill, with mentorship and guest-speaker sessions from USC's Center for the Political Future. Open to rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors with a 3.5+ unweighted GPA; graduating seniors not eligible. 2027 dates not yet announced — sign up for the program newsletter.
VFW Voice of Democracy
Audio essay contest on a patriotic theme. You record your essay and enter through a local VFW post, with scholarships at each level.
We the Students Essay Contest
National essay contest inviting students to connect constitutional principles with a current issue in American civic life.
Wharton High School Data Science Competition
Free sports analytics contest from Wharton. You use real data to answer a sports question.
Youth Service America
Youth civic engagement and service opportunities supporting student-led community projects and participation in national service campaigns.