Freshman CS Internships That Actually Exist

The programs I could verify for first-years as of June 2026, the ones the internet still recommends that are dead, and when to apply.

Searching "freshman CS internships" gets you a lot of stale Reddit threads and listicles recommending programs that don't exist anymore. The list below was current as of June 2026. Programs change every cycle, so always confirm on the company's own page before you plan around a date.

Paid internships (around 12 weeks)

Real engineering work and real pay, designed for first-years.

Program	Length	Who
Microsoft Explore Design/Build/Quality rotation	12 weeks	Freshman + Sophomore. Intro CS and one semester of calc.
Microsoft Discovery For rising first-years	4 weeks	Freshman only. Redmond or Atlanta.
LinkedIn First Play AI-native builders, scoped eng projects	12 weeks	Freshman + Sophomore. Mountain View, hybrid.
NVIDIA Ignite HW/SW/business immersion	12 weeks	Freshman + Sophomore, underrepresented backgrounds.
EA Pathfinder SWE, PM, and more	12 weeks	Freshman + Sophomore.
Ramp iOS SWE Intern Fintech, housing stipend	10 weeks	Freshman + Sophomore. NYC.
NASA Internship Program	Varies	All students. Many postings accept freshmen. Year-round.
Rockwell Engineering Pathways	8–10 weeks	Freshman only.

The quant and trading pipeline

These are short, but they feed directly into sophomore internships. Do them and you're ahead.

Jane Street FTTP (First-Year Trading and Technology Program). Freshman only, multi-day, travel and housing covered.
Jane Street JSIP, a paid multi-week SWE fellowship in NYC between first and second year. Also FOCUS (for students who faced barriers to STEM, no finance knowledge needed) and SEE (Software Engineering Experience).
Optiver FutureFocus. Five days, can fast-track you to an internship offer. Chicago, Amsterdam, Sydney.
SIG Discovery Day (one day in March) and Discover Citadel (1–2 days in November).
Two Sigma College Mentor Connect. Part-time open source mentorship, paired with an employee.

Fellowships and startups

MLH Fellowship: 12 weeks of remote open source with a stipend. You need to attend one MLH hackathon first.
Google Summer of Code: 10 weeks, remote, stipend, working with a mentor org.
Outreachy: 13-week paid remote open source internship for people underrepresented in tech.
8VC Fellowship: 3 months placed at startups, engineering and design tracks.
Pear VC Fellows: academic-year VC apprenticeship.
Uber Career Prep: unpaid, 6 months of workshops, mock interviews, and 1:1 mentoring.
Thiel Fellowship: $250K over 2 years for founders under 23.

Sophomore targets to start prepping for now

You can't do these as a freshman, but they open in August and September of sophomore year: Citadel Launch, Five Rings LINK, IMC Launchpad, Salesforce Futureforce Tech Launchpad (with CodePath), and HRT's Women in Trading & Tech January winternship.

Dead programs: stop applying

The internet still recommends these. They're gone.

Google STEP: killed in 2025.
Meta University: killed during the 2023–2024 layoffs.
Amazon Propel: page removed entirely.
Two Sigma "Discovery": never existed as an undergrad program. It's a PhD symposium.
Bessemer Fellows: paused indefinitely.

When to apply

When	What
August–September	Microsoft Explore, NVIDIA Ignite, EA Pathfinder, LinkedIn First Play
October–November	Discover Citadel, most corporate applications
January–March	Jane Street FTTP, SIG Discovery Day, HRT WiTT
Rolling / year-round	MLH Fellowship, NASA, 8VC, Thiel, Google Summer of Code

The main lesson: most of the best first-year opportunities open in late summer and early fall, way earlier than people expect. Set reminders now.