Penn Medicine Internships for Students: A Comprehensive Guide

The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Medicine offers a variety of internships for students at different stages of their education, from high school to medical school. These internships provide invaluable opportunities to gain hands-on experience, explore different career paths in medicine, and network with leading healthcare professionals. Penn Medicine, with its legacy of innovation, research, and patient care, provides a dynamic and collaborative environment for both personal and professional development.

Internships for High School Students

For rising high school juniors and seniors interested in medicine, Penn Medicine offers an immersive summer program modeled after first-year Penn Med classes. This program provides a unique opportunity to:

Gain hands-on experience through simulations and demonstrations.
Potentially observe a live surgery.
Live on campus and attend engaging sessions with top doctors.
Explore the diverse paths of medicine.

Many students from around the world join this program each summer, creating a diverse and enriching learning environment. Weekend trips to regional destinations such as New York City, The Jersey Shore, Washington, DC, Hershey Park, or Six Flags are offered every Saturday, while Sundays are for relaxing and exploring the Philadelphia area.

"These 4 weeks at Penn Medicine Summer Program have been an inspiring and captivating experience; not only do we have access to the Penn Medicine and Medical School resources, but also we get to hear lectures given by Penn Medicine professors and doctors, who are all passionate about their work and willing to provide guidance and mentorship."

The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania was the nation’s first medical school. The high-tech, jaw-dropping learning spaces at Penn Medicine are every student’s dream. You’ll learn from the highly accredited Penn Medicine doctors and faculty, who are involved throughout the program.

Internships for Medical Students

Penn Medicine provides several internship opportunities for medical students, designed to enhance their clinical skills, explore different specialties, and prepare them for future careers in medicine.

Neurosurgery Sub-Internship

The neurosurgery sub-internships allow fourth-year medical students to spend a four-week rotation with the department across Penn Medicine's major locations:

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP)
Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH)
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC)
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

These hospitals are all easily accessible as they are located within a 3-mile radius of each other in the heart of Philadelphia. During this rotation, students spend one week at each of the four different hospitals. While at HUP and PPMC, they take call every 4 to 5 nights. This unique opportunity exposes students to different sub-specializations and allows them to interact with clinical faculty and residents within the department. Students gain extensive clinical experience on the hospital floor and in surgery suites and attend conferences and grand rounds. Rotations typically run from July through October, but accommodations may be made for select people needing to complete their sub-internship outside of this time frame.

Internal Medicine Sub-Internship

The Internal Medicine sub-internship is a four-week inpatient rotation that fulfills the School of Medicine Module Five sub-internship requirement. Students rotate on a general medicine service at one of the following hospitals: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC), Philadelphia VA Medical Center (VAMC), or Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH). During this rotation, students assume the role of an intern with primary responsibility for four to six patients. The goals of the rotation are to help students hone their history, physical exam, and clinical problem-solving skills and focus on patient evaluation and management.

Berkman Summer Internship in Palliative Care

The Berkman Summer Internship in Palliative Care is an innovative program designed to provide a structured, experiential, and career-oriented opportunity in palliative care for medical students. This program may be beneficial for those students who lack access to palliative care opportunities in their home institutions. The goal is to increase early exposure to hospice and palliative medicine for students across the nation to enrich and expand the palliative care workforce in the future. Medical students from any accredited medical school in the US are eligible to apply.

Students spend an immersive eight weeks on-site in Philadelphia, PA with the Palliative Care Program. To support students in affording this experience, the program offers students a $5,500 living stipend for the eight weeks. The internship is open to any student who will have completed their first year of medical school (rising MS2) in their first year of medical school at an accredited medical school in the United States. The application process includes brief personal essays and a CV. For 2025, the program has funding for three students. Students are selected based on their interest in palliative care, and the program seeks students with broad skills, perspective, and experience to participate.

Penn HealthX Medical Student Internship Award

The Penn HealthX Medical Student Internship Award provides University of Pennsylvania medical students with funding to pursue summer opportunities in the fields of healthcare management, entrepreneurship, and technology. The objective of this grant is to enrich the medical education experience by financially supporting projects that students would not otherwise encounter or be able to fund, for example unpaid or underpaid summer internships at startup companies. Recipients are eligible for up to $1,500 in funding and recipients of the award will be required to present their work in the fall at the annual HealthX conference.

Only University of Pennsylvania medical students are eligible to apply. Students applying for an award may not be on the founding team of the startup. Preference will be given to students with more independence in their work and projects outside of research labs (though innovative lab-based projects can still receive awards).

Internships for Undergraduate Students

The University of Pennsylvania Summer Undergraduate Internship Program (SUIP) is a prestigious 10-week immersive research experience for undergraduate students aspiring to pursue doctoral studies (PhD or MD-PhD) in the biomedical sciences. The program offers a rigorous, hands-on research training opportunity, pairing interns with a Principal Investigator (PI) based on shared research interests. Under the mentorship of PIs and lab members, interns gain critical laboratory and analytical skills essential for graduate school and future careers in biomedical research.

In addition to laboratory work, interns engage in cutting-edge scientific seminars, professional development workshops, and graduate school preparation sessions, designed to enhance their research acumen and academic readiness. The 2026 program dates are Monday, June 1, 2026 to Friday, August 7, 2026 (tentative move-in dates: Saturday, May 30, 2026 and Sunday, May 31, 2026).

Read also: Penn State Admission: Average ACT

SUIP-CCI (Center for Cell and Immunotherapies), SUIP-CFAR (Center for AIDS Research), and SUIP-PERFORM-KUH (Scholars Kidney, Urology, and Hematology) are affiliated programs with SUIP. Students are selected to the affiliated programs based on their research interests. Applicants do not need to complete a separate application to be considered for these programs. All compensation is the same as the general SUIP. If you would like to be considered for an affiliate program, please indicate which one in your personal statement.

SUIP-CCI (Center for Cell and Immunotherapies)

The Center for Cellular Immunotherapies hosts a Summer Undergraduate Internship Program in cancer and cellular immunotherapies. Participating laboratories have the general goal of understanding how the immune system interacts with cancer and developing interventions to improve anti-tumor immunity.

SUIP-CFAR (Center For AIDS Research)

SUIP-CFAR Scholars will engage in mentored HIV/AIDS research. Research topics include HIV basic/translational science, clinical/behavioral science, implementation science, and HIV prevention research.

Application Process for SUIP

Applications for SUIP 2026 open on October 1st, 2025 via the Penn application. All applications are due on February 1st, 2026 by 11:59 pm Eastern Time. All components of the application, including letters of recommendation, must be received by the deadline. Applicants can submit an application through Penn’s portal or via the Leadership Alliance.

The holistic evaluation process considers all components of the application. The research and personal statement should describe your meaningful research experiences and career goals, highlighting how your personal history and experiences have shaped your motivation to pursue a PhD, as well as the challenges you have overcome in accessing research opportunities.

The letters of recommendation should include at least one from a research mentor, preferably the most recent one.

Required application materials:

Completed online application form via Penn’s application, or via the Leadership Alliance.
In the “Recommendations” section, please provide the contact information for two (2) recommenders.
Applicants will be asked to select a graduate group of interest. If applicants are interested in an affiliate program, applicants can indicate their choice in this section. For those applicants interested in PERFORM-KUH the best spot to indicate this is where it asks for your major scientific interests.
In a 2-page document (8.5”x11”) with a minimum of 0.5’ margins and at least 11 pt font, describe your meaningful research experiences and career goals, highlighting how your personal history and experiences have shaped your motivation to pursue a PhD, as well as the challenges you have overcome in accessing research opportunities.
Your transcript must include all semesters/terms attended at your primary institution. Please also include any study abroad transcripts.
Two letters of recommendation are required. Letters from academic faculty who know you personally and can comment on your academic abilities and your aptitude for research are highly encouraged.

Successful applicants will have the opportunity to preference mentors based on their research interests. The Office of Research Trainee Affairs Fellows, who are current graduate students or postdoctoral fellows, will serve as mentors for summer interns. Fellows will lead programming, team-building activities, and excursions to explore Philadelphia.

SUIP sponsors the Summer Seminar Series, a sequence of talks about timely issues in biomedical sciences presented by distinguished Biomedical Graduate Studies faculty. Interns enjoy a variety of events including concerts and performances, trips to local museums, visits to historical sites, and social events with current graduate students and program staff. The University of Pennsylvania has several summer programs and there are many free events on campus that are open to our interns.

LSM Summer Internships

All LSM students are strongly encouraged to get involved in research by the start of their sophomore year. Doing so not only enhances the LSM educational experience, but also strengthens students’ preparation for pursuing a summer research internship outside Penn, possibly at a biotech or pharmaceutical company. The LSM program provides key support to students in seeking summer internships after their sophomore and junior years. Students are also encouraged to investigate internships beyond the ones offered through LSM. Penn’s Career Services office can help students with the process of researching different industries and reaching out to employers.

It's not necessary for the science internship to be through a specific program; so long as there is a scientist prepared to sponsor, supervise and evaluate your work you can work independently of a formal program. Several LSM students have had transformative summer internship experiences in India through the internships offered by CASI, Penn's Center for Advanced Study of India.

General Benefits of Penn Medicine Internships

Penn Medicine internships offer a myriad of benefits to students, including:

Hands-on experience: Interns gain practical experience in clinical settings, research labs, and healthcare administration.
Mentorship: Interns work closely with experienced physicians, researchers, and healthcare professionals who provide guidance and support.
Networking: Interns have the opportunity to connect with peers, mentors, and leaders in the healthcare field.
Career exploration: Internships allow students to explore different career paths in medicine and determine their areas of interest.
Professional development: Interns develop essential skills in communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

"The program is truly fantastic because it provides a great exposure to all the career fields in medicine. It does a great job in teaching students theoretical knowledge as well as gives practical experience."

"My son absolutely loved every moment of this program. The hands-on experience and getting to meet doctors from different fields made him even more sure he wanted to go into medicine. He made so many friends and had a great time every weekend on the excursions. Highly recommend this to any High Schooler."

"I would definitely recommend this experience to other students as it gives students the opportunity to be open to different specialities in medicine. You will be able to interact with medical students and doctors that work at UPenn. This program also allows you to be interactive with other students who are international and engage in fun activities during the evening, and take trips on the weekend as well."

"I was scared to let my daughter go away for so long away from home, but the staff were amazing and very comforting. From the application process, all the way through returning home after 4 weeks, everyone was super helpful!"

tags: #penn #medicine #internships #for #students