If you’re thinking seriously about becoming a doctor someday, shadowing can be one of the most rewarding experiences you have during high school. Reading about medicine and actually observing healthcare professionals at work feels completely different. Doctor shadowing opportunities for high school students give you early exposure to hospitals, clinics, patient care, teamwork, and the daily decisions doctors make before college.

Imagine spending your summer observing physicians during rounds, sitting in on consultations, or learning how different hospital departments function together. You might shadow doctors in emergency medicine, pediatrics, cardiology, surgery, or family medicine, depending on the program. Some experiences are highly structured and include workshops or mentorship, while others focus mainly on observation and understanding how healthcare settings operate in real life.

How do you find the right doctor shadowing opportunity as a high school student?

One of the most important things to consider is the kind of medical environment you want exposure to. Large hospitals often provide broader experiences across multiple specialties, while smaller clinics can sometimes offer more direct interaction and clearer observation opportunities.

Many doctor shadowing opportunities are hosted through hospitals, universities, healthcare organisations, or medical outreach programs specifically designed for students. Some students also arrange shadowing independently through local doctors or personal connections within healthcare systems.

These experiences can also help you make more informed decisions about future academic and career paths in medicine. Along the way, students develop stronger professionalism, confidence, and understanding of healthcare environments before entering college.

To make your search easier, here is a list of 15 doctor shadowing opportunities for high school students!

For adjacent opportunities, consider the online medicine program and the biology program.

15 Doctor Shadowing Opportunities for High School Students

1. Apollo: Youth in Medicine

Location: Statewide, Delaware
Cost: Free
Program Dates: Fall, Spring, and Summer sessions
Deadline: Applications open in September
Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors attending any high school in Delaware

Apollo: Youth in Medicine is a student-founded, statewide physician shadowing program. You’ll have access to dozens of physicians across primary care and 16 specialties, with multiple shadowing sessions offered throughout the year. Before you shadow, you’ll attend a mandatory fall education session covering different medical specialties and the academic pathway to becoming a doctor.

You’ll also receive HIPAA training, so you’re fully prepared to conduct yourself appropriately in a clinical setting. Juniors admitted into the program are automatically re-enrolled as seniors, giving you two full years of shadowing access.

Why it stands out: This is the first statewide high school physician shadowing program in the US, free, multi-specialty, and built with access and equity at its core.

2. Immerse Education’s Medicine Summer School

Location: New York, London, Cambridge, Sydney, and Singapore
Cost: Varies; summer school scholarship available through our bursary programme
Application Deadline: Multiple summer cohorts; rolling admissions
Program Dates: 2 weeks during the summer
Eligibility: Students worldwide aged 13-18 currently enrolled in middle or high school

Immerse’s Medicine Career Insights Program lets high school students explore careers in major global industry hubs. You’ll participate in hands-on medical simulations, attend engaging classes, and participate in critical discussions. You’ll receive guidance from experienced medical professionals and gain both clinical and critical thinking skills. You’ll not only gain theoretical knowledge about a medical career but also understand the development of treatment plans.  

Participants engage in project-based learning with established companies, attend interactive workshops, and visit offices, factories, and headquarters. The program also includes in-person weekly 1:1 career coaching sessions and sessions where you will receive personalized feedback on your resume and overall profile. You’ll also present your findings to industry experts at the end of the program. At the conclusion of the program, you’ll receive a certificate. You can find more details about the application here!

Why it stands out: You’ll study under expert academics, be guided daily by a university student mentor, complete a project you can show in future applications, and experience genuine university college life ,  with other campuses worldwide as alternatives.

3. Johns Hopkins Medicine Observership Program

Location: The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Howard County General Hospital, Sibley Memorial Hospital, Suburban Hospital, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, and Johns Hopkins Community Physicians
Cost: Free
Program Dates: Flexible; up to 100 hours over 12 months
Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Age 16 or older; international students are welcome to apply

This is one of the more flexible doctor shadowing opportunities for high school students interested in medicine and healthcare careers. Johns Hopkins allows you to shadow healthcare professionals across multiple hospitals and clinical sites while observing how medical teams work inside real patient-care environments. The observership is educational only, so you do not assist with patient care or clinical procedures, but you closely observe day-to-day workflows, communication, and hospital operations alongside your sponsor.

Opportunities may include exposure to patient care, visitor services, administrative healthcare roles, and other hospital-based careers, depending on your placement. The program is open to students aged 16 and older, and placements can take place across several Johns Hopkins-affiliated hospitals and medical centers. 

Why it stands out: Seven facility locations, 100 hours of access, and the Johns Hopkins name. This is one of the most substantive and prestigious physician observership programs available to high school students in the US.

4. Cleveland Clinic Student Shadowing Program

Location: Northeast Ohio, multiple Cleveland Clinic facilities
Cost: Free
Program Dates: Year-round; up to 20 hours of shadowing per calendar year across up to three departments
Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: High school students around the world aged 15 and over

Cleveland Clinic’s Student Shadowing Program gives you direct exposure to healthcare careers by placing you alongside professionals inside one of the country’s largest hospital systems. The program is designed for high school students aged 16 and older who want to observe clinical and non-clinical healthcare environments before committing to a career path. During your shadowing hours, you observe how caregivers communicate with patients, coordinate treatment, manage hospital workflows, and operate inside real healthcare settings.

High school students can complete up to 20 hours of shadowing per year and may explore multiple departments or specialties depending on availability. Cleveland Clinic also runs related career exploration programs, boot camps, and healthcare pathway experiences connected to nursing, research, and allied health professions through its Center for Youth and College Education.

Why it stands out: The ability to rotate across three departments within a single program makes this one of the more flexible shadowing options at a major US medical institution.

5. Ochsner Health Job Shadowing Program

Location: Ochsner Health Network, Louisiana
Cost: Free
Program Dates: Up to 5 days per year; each session is usually a half day, not exceeding 8 hours
Deadline: Rolling
Eligibility: Age 16 or older; parental or guardian permission required for students aged 16-17; international student eligibility not specified

Ochsner’s Job Shadowing Program adds a short-term hospital-based option to this list of doctor shadowing opportunities for high school students. If you are at least 16 years old, you can shadow physicians, advanced practice providers, or other healthcare professionals for up to five days during the year while observing how clinical teams manage patient care and daily hospital operations.

The program is observation-only, so you do not assist with medical procedures, but you closely follow professionals through their workflows, communication, and responsibilities inside clinical settings. Ochsner strongly encourages applicants to arrange a mentor in advance, which makes the experience feel more targeted toward specific healthcare interests or specialties.

Why it stands out: Physician-specific and repeatable across five days, this is one of the few formal shadowing programs that gives you structured, recurring access to doctors and advanced practice providers at a major health system.

6. Denver Health Job Shadowing Program

Location: Denver, Colorado
Cost: Free
Program Dates: Up to 40 hours per year; all hours must be completed within a 2-month window
Deadline: Submit completed paperwork at least 2 weeks before your desired shadowing date
Eligibility: Domestic students aged 14 or older, currently enrolled in a high school or GED program

Denver Health’s Job Shadowing Program gives you direct observational access to real healthcare environments inside one of Colorado’s major public hospital systems. If you are at least 14 years old and enrolled in high school, you can arrange a shadowing experience with a Denver Health employee in the medical field you want to explore.

During the experience, you observe how healthcare professionals manage patient care, communicate with teams, and move through daily clinical responsibilities inside hospital settings. Certain departments have additional age requirements; for example, operating rooms and intensive care units require you to be at least 16, while the Emergency Department requires you to be 18 or older.

Why it stands out: Denver Health is a major urban safety-net hospital, which means you’ll observe healthcare delivery across a genuinely diverse patient population, a different experience from shadowing in a private clinic or academic medical center.

7. Hunterdon Health Shadowing Program

Location: New Jersey
Cost: Free
Program Dates: Four sessions annually: Spring (March-April), Summer (June-August), Fall (September-October), and Winter (December-January)
Deadline: Spring: February 1-28 | Summer: May 15th – June 5th | Fall: August 1-31 | Winter: November 1-29
Eligibility: Age 16 or older, high school and college students; must be living locally

Hunterdon Health’s Shadowing Program runs four times a year and gives you access to a wide range of clinical and non-clinical departments, from inpatient nursing and medical imaging to laboratory science, home health, and hospice care.

Each shadowing placement runs up to 8 hours in a single setting and includes a facility tour, observation of staff at work, and direct conversation with employees about their roles and career paths. To apply, you submit an online application and a short essay explaining your interest in the program and what you hope to take away from the experience.

Why it stands out: With four application windows a year across both clinical and non-clinical areas, this is one of the more accessible and flexible hospital shadowing programs for high school students on the East Coast.

8. Texas Health Dallas’s High School Student Service Learning Program (HSSSL)

Location: Texas Health Dallas, Texas
Cost: Free
Program Dates: June through August
Deadline: Applications open in January and close in February
Eligibility: Current domestic high school student, at least 16 years old by May 1st of the participating summer

This is one of the more structured hospital volunteer programs available to high school students in Dallas. During the summer, you volunteer in both clinical and nonclinical departments at Texas Health Dallas while observing how patient care and hospital operations function together inside a major healthcare system. The program requires a serious time commitment of 16 hours per week across roughly 10 weeks, so the experience feels much closer to a long-term hospital placement than a short volunteer opportunity.

Alongside patient-facing environments, you also gain exposure to administrative workflows, support services, and the operational side of healthcare systems. Since the program accepts only a small number of students each year from a large applicant pool, the selection process is highly competitive.

Why it stands out: This program’s highly competitive selection process and 128-hour minimum commitment make it one of the most substantial clinical volunteering experiences available to high school students in Texas, and it carries real weight on a college application.

9. Nationwide Children’s Hospital Job Shadowing

Location: Columbus, Ohio
Cost: Free
Program Dates: Half a day to two days per observation
Deadline: Rolling; coordinated through your school
Eligibility: Current high school students age 14 or older; must attend a school with an affiliation agreement with Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Job Shadowing program gives high school students an observational look at real healthcare careers inside one of the country’s leading pediatric medical centers.

You’ll spend time alongside a healthcare professional in their actual work environment, watching the duties they carry out day-to-day and gaining a clearer picture of what different roles in a hospital setting involve. Shadowing is strictly observational; you won’t provide patient care or handle any clinical equipment, but you will see firsthand how clinical teams operate.

Why it stands out: Getting inside a nationally recognized pediatric hospital as a high school student is rare, and this program lets you do it across multiple departments, giving you a specific look at how children’s healthcare works as a specialty.

10. Medical Career Collaborative (MC²) Children’s Hospital Colorado & Denver Health

Location: Children’s Hospital Colorado and Denver Health, Colorado
Cost: A stipend is paid
Program Dates: Programming spans junior and senior years; internship completed during the junior year
Deadline: Applications open at the beginning of the year on an annual basis; check the website for the next cycle
Eligibility: Current high school sophomores attending school in the Denver metro or Colorado Springs area; must be legally authorized to work in the US

MC² is one of the most comprehensive doctor shadowing opportunities for high school students who are seriously interested in medicine and health sciences. During your junior year, you complete a paid hospital internship lasting around 100 to 120 hours while working directly with a mentor inside a real healthcare department. Depending on your placement, your mentor could be a physician, nurse, paramedic, therapist, or medical technician, which gives you exposure to different healthcare pathways early on.

The program continues through senior year with monthly workshops, hospital field trips, and healthcare training sessions focused on medical careers and industry certifications. Seniors receive direct support with college applications, scholarships, and financial aid, and alumni continue to receive career coaching even after graduation.

Why it stands out: This is one of the only high school programs that combines a paid hospital internship, physician and nurse mentorship, and post-secondary guidance all in one, spanning two full years.

11. University of Kansas Health System’s ELEVATE Internship

Location: University of Kansas Health System, 100+ locations across the region
Cost: Coordinated through the school
Program Dates: Semester-long commitment during junior or senior year
Deadline: Arranged through your school liaison
Eligibility: High school juniors or seniors, age 16 or older, enrolled in an academic credit course; your high school must have a current affiliation agreement with The University of Kansas Health System

The ELEVATE program, Engaging Learners in Education and Vocational Aspirations Transition Experiences, is a semester-long shadowing experience at one of the region’s largest academic health systems. You can choose between a Tier 1 placement, where you shadow a single profession in depth, or a Tier 2 placement, which rotates you across up to three different healthcare roles over the course of the semester.

With more than 100 locations available across the region, students are placed in both clinical and non-clinical departments, and unlike purely observational programs, ELEVATE allows you to assist with limited hands-on tasks alongside the professionals you’re working with.

Why it stands out: The two-tier placement structure is genuinely uncommon, giving you the option to go deep into one specialty or compare multiple roles side by side, depending on where you are in your thinking about a medical career.

12. WellSpan Health Shadowing Program

Location: WellSpan Gettysburg Hospital, WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital, and WellSpan Waynesboro Hospital, Pennsylvania
Cost: Free
Program Dates: Up to two observations per semester, totaling 16 hours per year
Deadline: Submit your application at least 4 weeks before your desired shadowing date
Eligibility: High school students in grades 11 or 12 (Gettysburg); high school students at Chambersburg and Waynesboro, to contact the coordinator directly to arrange

WellSpan’s shadowing program gives you direct exposure to healthcare careers across hospitals in Pennsylvania while letting you observe how medical teams operate in real clinical environments. Depending on the location, you may shadow professionals in areas like nursing, imaging, laboratory medicine, or rehabilitation services while following their day-to-day responsibilities inside the hospital.

High school students in grades 11 and 12 can apply for opportunities at hospitals like WellSpan Gettysburg and WellSpan Chambersburg, while some locations have additional eligibility requirements tied to healthcare training programs. Most shadowing visits last between two and four hours, and the experience is strictly observational, so you focus on learning how healthcare systems function without participating in patient care.

Why it stands out: Three hospital locations, two counties, and a program specifically open to high school juniors and seniors. WellSpan is one of the more accessible multi-campus shadowing options on the East Coast for students who don’t yet have a clinical network to tap.

13. Medical College of Wisconsin’s STEP-UP High School Program

Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Cost: Free
Program Dates: Six Saturdays from November through April
Deadline: Applications open August 1st and close September 30th
Eligibility: Students enrolled in grades 9-12 in Milwaukee Public Schools or charter/private schools in the Milwaukee Metropolitan area; 2.5 or higher cumulative GPA; acceptance is holistic

STEP-UP is an academic-year program at the Medical College of Wisconsin that introduces Milwaukee-area high school students to careers across health sciences and medicine.

Over six Saturdays, you’ll participate in interactive sessions led by practicing physicians, MCW medical students, college pre-med students, and other health professionals, with the opportunity to engage in physician shadowing as part of your experience. The sessions are structured to be age-appropriate and hands-on, covering topics that go well beyond what a typical high school science curriculum offers.

Why it stands out: Six structured Saturdays with practicing physicians and current medical students give you a recurring, mentored look at medicine without needing a personal contact inside a hospital to get started.

14. Medical College of Wisconsin’s Apprenticeship in Medicine (AIM)

Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Cost: Stipend provided
Program Dates: Mid-June through early August (6 weeks)
Deadline: March 1st
Eligibility: Rising high school juniors, seniors, or June graduates; age 16 or older; 2.75 science and math GPA; must attend school in Milwaukee Public Schools, a Milwaukee charter or private school, or a surrounding suburban school district

Medical College of Wisconsin’s Apprenticeship in Medicine is one of the most complete doctor shadowing opportunities for high school students who are seriously considering a career in medicine or healthcare. Every week includes clinical shadowing alongside hands-on simulations, so you’re not just observing, you’re actively building your understanding of how clinical care works across different scenarios.

You’ll be mentored by current MCW medical students throughout the program and get the chance to meet and learn from health professionals and specialists across a range of fields. The program wraps up with each student developing a medical abstract and delivering an oral presentation on a disease or condition of their choosing.

Why it stands out: Weekly clinical shadowing paired with simulations, medical student mentorship, and a final research presentation makes AIM one of the most complete pre-medicine summer experiences available to high school students in the Midwest.

15. UCSF PITCH Program

Location: UCSF campuses, San Francisco, California
Cost: Free
Program Dates: July 6th – July 24th
Deadline: Applications open January 5th and close March 1st
Eligibility: Local rising 10th and 11th graders; minimum 2.5 GPA (UC/CSU scale); designed for first-generation and low-income students interested in health and medical sciences

PITCH is a three-week immersive summer program at UCSF built for first-generation and low-income high school students who are curious about what a career in health or medicine could actually look like. You’ll work directly with UCSF mentors to investigate real health issues, then present your findings at the PITCH Health Symposium, giving you a taste of what health research and clinical inquiry look like at one of the country’s top medical universities.

The program is designed to help you understand how the healthcare landscape connects across disciplines, from research and medicine to public health and patient care. Beyond the health sciences content, you’ll also receive direct guidance on college planning, navigating postsecondary options, and preparing for what comes after high school.

Why it stands out: Working alongside UCSF mentors on real health issues and presenting at a formal symposium gives you a level of academic exposure that goes well beyond a standard summer program, and it’s built specifically for students who don’t always get access to this kind of opportunity.

Building Medical Insight Beyond the Shadowing Room

Shadowing can show you how doctors think, communicate, and respond when patient care becomes complex, urgent, or emotionally demanding.

The 15 doctor shadowing opportunities for high school students listed here help you observe real clinical environments, from hospitals and pediatrics to surgery, emergency care, and research.

Afterward, keep asking what you noticed most: diagnosis, teamwork, patient trust, medical ethics, or the pressure of making careful decisions.

Want to understand medicine beyond what you observe? Explore our Medicine Top Books Guide for inspiring reads that deepen your medical knowledge and curiosity.