Microsoft, Meta, Amazon: Do Big-Tech Internships Accept High Schoolers? | RISE Research

When students talk about big-tech internships, they usually mean the kind where you write production code, sit in engineering standups, and leave with a return offer. That version is almost entirely reserved for college students. What exists for high schoolers is more structured, more educational, and far more geographically and demographically restricted than the blog posts written about these programs tend to mention.

Here is what each company actually offers, who can access it, and what it is realistically worth.

Microsoft: The Discovery Program

Microsoft runs the most accessible big-tech program for high school students. It is called the Discovery Program, and it is a paid four-week summer internship only for graduating high school seniors.

What is it?

The participants, also called the "Discoverers," will be working in small groups to contribute to a project that is in the design phase of a real product team at Microsoft. It is not a software engineering internship where you ship code. It is a program that is centered around career discovery, mentorship with Microsoft employees, and learning how big tech companies build products.

Eligibility: 

You must be a graduating high school senior with a planned start to college the following fall. You must have completed a pre-calculus or equivalent math course. While a STEM major is not required, an interest in technology is. And, of course, you must live within 50 miles of Redmond, Washington, or attend a high school in the Atlanta area. There is no remote program available. There are no exceptions. For the Redmond area, eligibility also includes members of Microsoft-sponsored organizations. For Atlanta, students must attend a school within participating districts.

Application: 

The application window is usually around early February, and it is recommended to apply as early as possible. The application process requires a resume, a list of colleges you have applied to or been accepted into, a brief description of your extracurricular activities, and a 500-word essay on a time when you worked on a project with someone else in a field outside your own.

The Discovery Program is a strong credential for students who get it, but the geographic restriction eliminates nearly all international students and most US students immediately. If you are in the Seattle metro area or certain Atlanta school districts, it is worth pursuing seriously. If you are not, it is not available to you regardless of your qualifications.

Meta: The Summer Academy

Meta's program for high school students is called the Meta Summer Academy. It has been running since 2012 and has served just over 200 students total in that time which gives you a sense of its scale.

What is it?

A six-week paid summer program where students work roughly 30 hours per week at Meta's Menlo Park campus. Participants work on real projects, are matched with Meta employee mentors, attend professional development workshops, and receive a stipend. The 2026 program runs June 15 to July 24. No prior coding experience is required.

Eligibility: 

This is the most restrictive program on this list. You must be a current high school sophomore at the time of application. You must live full-time in one of these specific locations: East Palo Alto, Belle Haven, North Fair Oaks, or Redwood City, California. That is it. There are no exceptions and no remote participation. The program was explicitly designed to serve students from underrepresented communities in the immediate vicinity of Meta's headquarters.

Application: 

Opens in December, closes in February. Requires a current transcript, one letter of recommendation from a teacher, counselor, or community leader, and an application form covering your interest in tech, background, and goals. For 2025, the application opened December 1 and closed February 14.

If you live in one of the four eligible zip code areas and are a sophomore, applying to Meta Summer Academy is an obvious choice. For everyone else, including students from elsewhere in the US, and all international students, this is not available. The program's community focus is intentional and worth respecting, but it means the vast majority of students reading about it cannot access it.

Amazon: Future Engineer

Amazon's most prominent high school program is the Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship and Internship. It works differently from the others as the internship is not the primary offering for high school students, but rather a downstream benefit for scholarship winners.

What is it?

Amazon Future Engineer awards 400 high school seniors per year a scholarship of up to $10,000 per year (for four years, total up to $40,000) plus a paid summer internship at Amazon following their freshman year of college. The internship itself is a college-level placement, not a high school program. The high school component is the scholarship application and selection.

Eligibility: 

US citizens, permanent residents, or employment-authorized individuals only. Must be a high school senior currently enrolled in or who has completed a computer science course. Students who have not taken a CS course can opt in to take an Amazon-administered assessment instead. Must plan to pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field. Minimum 2.3 GPA. Must demonstrate financial need — the program was designed to support students who would not otherwise have access to CS education and careers.

Application: 

Rolling, with a priority deadline typically in late fall. Awards are announced in spring.

Amazon Future Engineer has one of the biggest monetary offers that you can find on this list. $40,000 over four years is a lot of money. However, it is a scholarship program with an internship, not a high school internship per se. It is an internship that occurs after freshman year of college, not during high school. It is also a program that is targeted towards students who need it most due to a financial need requirement.

The Geographic and Demographic Reality

Set side by side, the access picture looks like this:

Two of them are specifically designed for the underrepresented and underserved: Meta Summer Academy and Amazon Future Engineer. 

What These Programs Are Actually Worth for College Admissions

The point of a credential is that it must represent something specific and verifiable. These programs have brand recognition, and admissions readers at selective schools have seen enough applications to understand exactly what each program is.

Microsoft Discovery is a truly competitive program with actual project work involved. Being accepted is a big deal. Meta Summer Academy has accepted a little over 200 students since 2012. It is one of the rarest tech qualifications you will encounter in any applicant’s background – if you’re eligible and accepted, it’s a big deal.

Amazon Future Engineer appears to be a scholarship opportunity, not a technical internship at the high school level. The value of the Amazon opportunity, like the others, is the context of need and the commitment to CS, not the engineering.

If you are a high school student curious about academic research, summer research programs for high school students offer students a structured way of exploring research with the support of expert mentors. Over the course of this 8 -10 week program, students work one-on-one under the guidance of PhD researchers to create an independent project, which by the end of the program is developed into a final paper with opportunities for publication. The process is designed to help students acquire hands-on experience in research, critical analysis, writing, and presenting their ideas in a clear manner.

FAQs

Q: Can international students apply to any of these programs? 

A: The Google program is open to students planning to attend US or Canadian universities and is not explicitly open to international students studying abroad. The Microsoft Discovery program and the other two programs require US residency/enrollment and are not accessible to international students outside the US.

Q: Is the Microsoft Discovery Program a real internship? 

A: It is a paid program and is real work, but it is not a college-level software engineering internship. It is not production engineering work; it is design phase/exploratory work. It is an accurate description to refer to it as an internship on an application to the program, but it is not a college SWE internship.

Q: What if I want big-tech experience but am not eligible for any of these? 

A: Build things. Enter USACO or hackathons. Find an open-source project to contribute to. Do research. The students who end up working at these companies are not primarily the ones who attended a summer program there in high school. They are the ones who developed deep technical skills and can demonstrate them clearly.

Author: Written by Shana Saiesh

Shana Saiesh is a sophomore at Ashoka University pursuing a BA (Hons.) in English with minors in International Relations and Psychology. She works with education-focused initiatives and mentorship-driven programs, contributing to operations, research and editorial work. Alongside her academics, she is involved in student-facing reports that combine research, strategy, and communication.