5 Tips to Help High School Students Land Computer Science Internships

Are you a high school student interested in studying computer science? Are you looking to develop coding skills to boost your college applications? Are you curious about how to apply computer science to your other interests or to conduct a project that demonstrates your scholarly potential?

Computer science is an ever-growing field with wide-ranging applications that is also growing increasingly accessible, so that you can make an impact in the field as early as high school! Though it may be difficult to land an internship as a high school student, there are several ways that you can increase your competitiveness for both top computer science programs and universities, such as Stanford or MIT, with leading computer science departments.

1. Be curious (discover a field where you can apply computer science)

It is not uncommon for high school students to believe that the key to college admissions or to locking down a prized computer science internship is to accumulate a long list of skills that are seen as “useful.” Certainly, there is merit to this philosophy, but what students sometimes sacrifice when their focus singularly on accumulating qualifications is the opportunity to be curious and identify an area of study that truly excites them.

This process of discovery can occur in parallel with the development of your computer science skills and is often just as important as learning how to code. By staying curious as you learn, you are likely to discover a field in which computer science is underutilized and where your skills can thus be used to make an impact.

Additionally, popular computer science internships and college admissions departments are interested in high school students’ trajectories, so they often look for direction and enthusiasm, which are easiest to detect in students who are genuinely excited about their work. For more ideas on how computer science can be applied to your field of interest, check out Inspirit AI’s AI for Social Good Project Program.

2. Conduct informational interviews

As is the case with the hidden job market, several computer science internships for high school students may not be widely advertised or even advertised at all. The reason for this phenomenon is that most institutions that offer computer science internships are geared toward college or postgraduate students. But do not fear! There are still ways to secure a computer science internship as a high schooler.

An effective strategy that you can try is to conduct informational interviews with people whose work interests you. An informational interview is a meeting whose main purpose is not to solicit internship opportunities but to learn more about the person with whom you are speaking and their work. However, often these conversations will lead you to other contacts who will know of someone open to working with high school students for a computer science internship.

By tracking down an internship in this way, you are demonstrating initiative to college admissions officers as well as to future internship evaluators. People are impressed by students who are unafraid to reach out and learn about their work. You will be surprised about the kinds of opportunities that arise for high school students who are curious and persistent!

3. Develop a relationship with a mentor

A dedicated mentor can be an invaluable resource for high school students interested in pursuing a computer science internship. Whether a professional in the industry or a graduate student familiar with the ins and outs of the application process, a mentor can provide students with great perspective and helpful advice for their professional development. 

For high school students in particular, a mentor who is an expert in their field can expedite a student’s learning process and continually foster a student’s developing interests. At Inspirit AI, we offer students the opportunity to connect one-on-one with a graduate student from a top university such as Stanford, Harvard, or MIT to work on a self-designed AI research project. Mentors are carefully selected to match the interests of their students and to maximize the students’ learning potential. 

Besides possessing expertise in computer science, a good mentor will also have various connections in a high school student’s field of interest which can be of enormous use in the search process for computer science internships.

4. Start a Passion Project

Once you have decided on a topic that you are excited about, you can consider conducting a project that seeks to address an issue that is important to you. Be it detecting fake news or exploring the ethics of artificial intelligence or even creating an automated referee for fencing, there is a space for you to carry out socially impactful work that will showcase both your abilities in computer science and your commitment to advancing research in a specific field. 

Popular computer science internship programs and college admissions departments alike will take note of how you harness your coding abilities to complete a project of your own design. Furthermore, in the process, you will learn more about your topic of interest and about the coding techniques that are best suited for your project’s field.

5. Build Your Portfolio

A passion project can be just the start to a growing portfolio of computer science projects for a motivated high school student. There is no limit to the number of projects that a student may pursue in which computer science can be a useful tool to enhance a study’s capacity. 

Moreover, high school students are encouraged to submit their projects to showcase events such as science fairs and hackathons, where they will gain experience in presentation and public speaking. In preparation for these events, students will also produce scientific papers and posters that will appeal to hiring managers for computer science research internships. 

By attending research showcases and investing time into their personal projects, high school students will expand their portfolios and have a strong track record of research to display by the time they submit their college applications. Here, Inspirit AI can provide students with a clean, ready-made project portfolio to exhibit their hard work in addition to the skills they have cultivated during their research efforts. 

Ultimately, when high school students concentrate their efforts on projects which fuel their curiosity, they are likely to develop a body of work that allows them to stand out from other candidates for computer science internships.