CS Internships for Freshmen and Sophomores: Your 2027 Playbook + 30+ Program Links

TL;DR

• We re-checked 32 underclassmen CS programs on official careers pages on October 8, 2026, and fewer are running than most lists suggest. Open right now: NVIDIA Ignite (closes October 18), Microsoft Explore for second-years (monthly windows through December), Jane Street FOCUS (November 15) and Five Rings LINK. According to NACE's 2026 Internship & Co-op Report, the intern-to-full-time conversion rate hit 63.1% for 2024-25 interns. That makes early-start programs more valuable than ever.

• This guide covers 22 full internship programs, 10 insight/discovery events, month-by-month application timelines, resume strategies for students with zero professional experience, and alternatives like Externships that build real skills when traditional internships aren't available.

• You don't need a perfect GPA or three side projects to get started. Targeted applications and the right prep matter more than volume.

• The biggest mistake underclassmen make is waiting until sophomore spring to start looking, because the best programs close their applications months before most students even realize they exist.

• New this year: Meta University has ended, Google has posted no STEP internship for summer 2027, Microsoft Explore is now for second-years only, and several programs other lists still show (Palantir Path, UberSTAR, Citadel Launch) have no 2027 posting.

Externships are short, remote professional experience programs where you work on real projects with real companies. Explore CS-adjacent Externships: Wayfair AI Agent Engineering | Pfizer AI & Data Extraction | Explore all Externships →

---

Browse all 14 industries and 100 company guides in our Best Summer 2027 Internships master hub.

What Are Underclassmen CS Internships?

If you're a freshman or sophomore studying CS, the standard internship job boards can feel like they're written for someone else. Most listings want juniors who've already cleared data structures, algorithms, and two summers of experience. But more companies than you'd expect have built programs specifically for students like you. Here's what those look like.

How Underclassmen Programs Differ From Standard Internships

An underclassmen CS internship is a paid summer program that accepts first-year and second-year students who haven't finished upper-level CS coursework yet. Think of it as the on-ramp version. These programs use rotational formats, pair you with a dedicated mentor, and keep the technical interview bar lower than what you'd face for a standard SWE internship. And the focus is on potential and curiosity, not polish.

According to NACE, more than 70% of organizations expected to increase or maintain intern hiring in its April 2025 survey. Early-pipeline programs are a growing piece of that, and the trend is accelerating as more companies realize the ROI of locking in talent early. Companies aren't running these because they're generous. They're building a talent funnel. And they want you in it before your junior year, when every other company starts competing for the same students.

One more thing worth flagging: the list of dedicated underclassmen programs is shorter than it was two years ago. That makes the few that remain, plus insight events and general internship postings you qualify for, more important.

Why Tech Companies Recruit Freshmen and Sophomores

It comes down to retention economics. That NACE conversion rate of 63.1% means companies turn roughly two out of every three interns into full-time hires. So locking in promising students before competitors do saves recruiting costs and builds brand loyalty. Access goals matter too. Jane Street's FOCUS program, for example, is built for first-year students who've faced barriers to advanced STEM education.

Which Companies Offer CS Internships for Freshmen and Sophomores in 2027?

The landscape keeps expanding. For Summer 2027, we've verified 22 full internship programs and 10 insight/discovery events that accept underclassmen. Several programs other lists still feature have no 2027 posting or have ended, so each status below comes from a check of official careers pages on October 8, 2026. Here are the standout programs worth knowing about, followed by a complete program directory.

Microsoft Explore Program

Microsoft Explore is probably the best-known underclassmen CS internship out there. It's a rotational program where you work across software engineering, product management and technical program management. That rotation matters, because it helps you figure out which track fits before you commit for your junior-year internship.

The big change for 2027: Explore is now posted for second-year students only. The Redmond posting asks for students in the second year of a four-year degree who'll have intro CS and a semester of calculus done by the program start. We found no first-year version this cycle.

Microsoft lists pay of $25.96 to $47.77 an hour ($37.58 to $54.04 in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York). Applications are accepted during the first week of each month from October through December 2026, or until positions fill, so the next window is the first week of November. Our Microsoft Explore internship guide has the full timeline, eligibility rules and interview format.

Google STEP (and the ASDI Rumor)

Google STEP was Google's best-known program for first- and second-year undergrads, and it's the one we get asked about most. Here's where it stands as of October 8, 2026: Google Careers shows no STEP posting for summer 2027, a search for "Associate Software Developer" returns nothing, and the old STEP page redirects.

An unofficial 2025 LinkedIn post claimed STEP had been renamed ASDI, but we couldn't confirm a US version. Google hasn't announced that STEP ended either. So keep an eye on Google Careers in the fall, but don't plan your year around it.

Capital One TEIP (Technology Early Internship Program)

Capital One's TEIP is a 10-week tech internship for underclassmen. Capital One's early internships page now describes these programs as being for second-year students, and as of October 8, 2026 there's no summer 2027 TEIP posting. Its analyst counterpart (AEIP) did post for summer 2027 and has already closed.

Don't confuse TEIP with Capital One's regular Technology Internship Program, which is for students graduating by 2028. If you're a freshman, TEIP is one to plan for next year.

Other Programs: What's Confirmed and What Isn't

Here's where the other programs you'll see on underclassmen lists stand, based on official pages and postings checked October 8, 2026:

LinkedIn First Play is a 12-week hybrid SWE internship in Mountain View for students who've finished their first or second year of CS. Summer 2026 applications are closed, and LinkedIn hasn't posted summer 2027 details yet.

Duolingo Thrive is a 10-week program in Pittsburgh for second-year students. The software engineering track closed on September 30, 2026, so if you missed it, put it on next year's calendar for early September.

NVIDIA Ignite is open right now, and it closes October 18, 2026. It's a 12-week pre-internship in Santa Clara for first- and second-year students (classes of 2030 and 2029) in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, math or related fields. NVIDIA covers travel for students coming from more than 50 miles away and adds a housing stipend.

Citadel Launch, an 11-week sophomore program in past cycles, has no 2027 posting and no longer appears on Citadel's programs page. The live option at Citadel is Discover Citadel, an April event in New York for first- and second-years (deadline March 5, 2027).

Two Sigma's first-year SWE internship (10 weeks, New York) hasn't posted for 2027 yet. Its 2026 cycle opened in January, so check the careers page after the new year.

Palantir Path and "Palantir Accelerate" don't appear anywhere on Palantir's current student pages, and Palantir's 2027 internships are for students graduating in 2028. Treat both as unavailable to underclassmen this cycle.

More Programs Worth Applying To

Beyond those headliners, several other companies run quality programs for underclassmen. Here's the broader landscape:

Still worth a look: the JPMorganChase Fellowship Program (a five-week paid summer fellowship for sophomores; last cycle opened in November), Salesforce Futureforce Tech Launchpad (for students finishing sophomore year; the 2026 cohort ran through CodePath), the MLH Fellowship (12 weeks, remote; the current batch runs through December 2026), Five Rings LINK (5 days in New York for sophomores, open now) and HRT's WiTTI winter program (deadline October 16, 2026). Ramp's 2027 SWE internship accepts anyone graduating December 2027 or later.

Not available to underclassmen this cycle, or not posted as of October 8, 2026: Amazon Propel, Amazon Future Engineer (for high school seniors), Bank of America's sophomore analyst program, UberSTAR, Bridgewater Rising Fellows, EA Pathfinder and Wells Fargo Discovery. Dropbox's 2027 internship is only for students graduating in 2027 or 2028.

Each has different eligibility windows, locations, and technical expectations. For application links and resume templates, cross-reference with Extern's FAANG internship guide. The complete program directory with all 32 programs is in the table section below.

Complete Program Directory: Every Verified Underclassmen CS Internship for 2027

This is the most comprehensive list of underclassmen CS programs we've been able to verify for the Summer 2027 cycle. We've split it into two categories: full internships (multi-week paid programs) and insight/discovery events (shorter experiences, typically a few days to a week).

So bookmark this section and check back as application windows open. We'll update it as new programs get announced throughout the 2027 cycle.

Full Internships (22 Programs)

Insight and Discovery Events (10 Programs)

GitHub Tracking Repos

And these community-maintained repositories track internship openings in real time, so star them and check back regularly:

• SimplifyJobs/Summer2027-Internships: The most widely used aggregator. Updated daily by the community.

• vanshb03/Summer2027-Internships: Another popular tracker with a strong contributor base.

• zapplyjobs/underclassmen-internships: Specifically focused on underclassmen-eligible programs.

Recently Discontinued Programs

Before you waste hours searching for these, here's what changed with the three programs underclassmen ask about most:

• Google STEP: not posted for 2027. There's no US STEP posting for summer 2027, and we couldn't confirm the rumored rename to ASDI. Google hasn't announced an end date.

• Meta University: ended. A Meta spokesperson confirmed in April 2025 that Meta University had accepted its final class. There's no replacement, so if you see old blog posts recommending it, that information is outdated.

• Palantir Path: gone. The "Accelerate" name some lists use doesn't appear on Palantir's site either, and Palantir's 2027 internships are for students graduating in 2028.

How Can You Get a CS Internship as a Freshman With No Experience?

This is the question, right? You've got no internship history, maybe one semester of coursework, and you're staring at applications that ask for "relevant experience." It's doable. You just need a different strategy than what juniors use.

Build One Strong Project Before You Apply

So let's start with the most impactful thing you can do right now. One finished, deployed project beats ten half-baked repos. Pick something you're genuinely curious about: a personal website, a CLI tool, a web app, or a script that solves a real problem for a campus club. Push it to GitHub with a clean README, clear commit history, and enough documentation that someone else could understand what you built and why.

You don't need to reinvent anything. A to-do app with authentication, a weather dashboard using a public API, or a Chrome extension that does something useful will all work. Yet the point isn't complexity, and this is where a lot of freshmen overthink it. It's proving you can take a project from idea to shipped product, start to finish.

Use Campus Resources That Most Students Skip

Your university's career center, CS department events, and student tech clubs are genuinely underrated. Seriously. Career fairs give you face time with recruiters who specifically handle underclassmen pipelines, and that direct access is hard to replicate through online applications alone. Professor recommendations carry real weight too, especially if you've been active in class or visited office hours a few times. And hackathons are a two-for-one deal: you build a project and meet other motivated students who share internship leads.

Employer events matter more than they look: a recruiter who met you at an info session is far more likely to pull your application out of the pile than one who only sees it online. Showing up still counts for a lot, and it's one of those things that sounds too simple to work until you try it.

For a full walkthrough on the application process, check out Extern's How to Apply for Internships guide.

Tailor Every Application (the Spray-and-Pray Trap)

But here's what most freshmen get wrong about volume. Sending 200 identical applications will almost always lose to sending 20 targeted ones. For each company, spend 15 minutes researching their specific underclassmen program, what tech stack they use, and what intern projects typically involve. And mention something concrete in your essays or cover letter. Recruiters can tell the difference between "I'm passionate about technology" and "I noticed Capital One's TEIP cohort built a fraud detection feature last summer, and I'd love to work on something similar."

When Should You Apply for 2027 CS Internships?

So timing catches more freshmen off guard than anything else. The windows are earlier than most people expect, and missing them means waiting a full year.

The Underclassmen Internship Timeline (Month by Month)

Summer 2027 CS internship recruiting follows a predictable pattern. Big Tech and quant firms open first, then finance, then mid-size companies and startups:

September to October 2026: Peak season for the programs still running. NVIDIA Ignite (open October 5 to 18), Microsoft Explore for second-years (first week of each month through December) and HRT WiTTI (October 16) all land here. Duolingo Thrive's SWE track already closed on September 30.

November to December 2026: Morgan Stanley Early Insights sessions run November 2 and 5, Jane Street FOCUS closes November 15, and the JPMorganChase Fellowship opened November 11 last cycle.

January to February 2027: Jane Street FTTP (deadline January 31) and the January Five Rings LINK sessions. Two Sigma's first-year SWE internship opened in January last cycle. Mid-size companies and well-funded startups also start posting roles, with less competition than the Big Tech tier.

March to April 2027: Discover Citadel closes March 5. After that come last-chance roles at startups, government labs and smaller tech firms that don't follow Big Tech's calendar.

Year-round: Externships and open-source programs like the MLH Fellowship, which runs in batches.

A detailed comparison table with specific program dates is included in the directory above. Bookmark it and set calendar reminders now, because you won't remember to check back in August otherwise.

What to Do If You Missed the Early Deadlines

If you're reading this in spring 2027 and Big Tech windows have closed: take a breath. Not ideal, sure. But mid-size companies, startups, and government research programs recruit through March and sometimes well into April, so you've still got options if you move quickly. Extern's spring recruiting guide covers those paths in detail.

And Externships accept applications year-round. Unlike traditional programs with fixed cohorts, you can start an Externship any time and still gain resume-ready professional experience.

What Should Your CS Internship Resume Look Like as an Underclassman?

Your resume is probably the biggest source of anxiety right now. You're staring at a blank page, thinking you've got nothing to fill it with. You do. I'd argue you have more material than you realize, and the issue isn't a lack of content but rather knowing which experiences actually count in the eyes of a recruiter or an ATS system screening your application.

What to Put on Your Resume When You Have Zero Experience

Lead with education (school, expected graduation, GPA if it's above 3.3, relevant coursework). Then fill your experience section with things you've actually done:

• Personal projects: That GitHub project you built. Describe it with impact verbs and technical specifics. "Built a React weather dashboard using OpenWeather API; deployed on Vercel with CI/CD pipeline" tells a recruiter something real.

• Coursework projects: If your intro CS class had a substantial final project, include it.

• Hackathon projects: Even a 24-hour hack counts, especially if your team placed.

• Club leadership: VP of your school's ACM chapter, hackathon organizer, tutoring coordinator.

• Technical skills: Python, Java, JavaScript, Git, SQL. Only list languages you've actually used.

For a deeper dive, Extern's freshman internship resume guide has templates built for students with limited experience.

Formatting That Passes ATS Filters

Many employers screen resumes with applicant tracking systems before a human reads them (Jobscan's ATS guide explains how they work). For underclassmen, the fix is straightforward: use a single-column layout, standard section headers (Education, Experience, Skills, Projects), skip the graphics and tables, and save as PDF.

Here's the part people miss: include keywords from the job description verbatim. If the posting says "Python" and "data structures," your resume should say exactly that. Not "programming" and "algorithms." ATS systems are literal matchers, and they're not going to connect the dots for you. So keep it simple and mirror the exact language from the posting.

What If You Can't Find a CS Internship?

Let's be real about something: not getting a traditional internship as a freshman or sophomore is completely normal, and it's way more common than your LinkedIn feed would have you believe.

Why Not Landing an Internship Isn't a Career Death Sentence

The narrative that you need an internship every summer starting freshman year is overblown. Plenty of successful software engineers spent their first college summers doing something other than a formal program. That's just true. And what matters is that you're building skills and gaining experience you can articulate clearly in an interview, because the specific format matters far less than the substance of what you actually learned and built.

But doing nothing isn't the move either. The students who struggle during junior-year recruiting are usually the ones who spent two summers without any resume-building activity at all.

5 Alternatives That Build Real Skills

If traditional CS internships aren't working out this cycle, these alternatives carry legitimate resume weight:

1. Remote Externships: An Externship through Extern lets you work on real projects with companies like Amazon, Pfizer, and Wayfair. They're fully remote, don't require prior experience, and you walk away with tangible deliverables you can reference in future applications. For CS students specifically, the Wayfair AI Agent Engineering Externship has you building actual AI tools with real business data.

2. Open-source contributions: Programs like Google Summer of Code and MLH Fellowship give you structured open-source experience. Even outside those programs, meaningful contributions to popular repos show you can work with other people's code. And that's half the job, honestly.

3. Research with professors: Email three to five CS professors whose work interests you. Many run research projects that need undergrad help, especially in machine learning, systems, and HCI. Research experience carries more weight than most students realize.

4. Hackathons and competitions: Finishing a hackathon project shows you can build under time pressure, collaborate, and ship. Major League Hacking runs events year-round.

5. Freelance or contract projects: Built a website for a local business? Automated something for a student org? That's professional experience if you frame it right.

How Externships Give Underclassmen a Head Start

Here's the catch-22 with traditional internships: you can't get one without experience, and you can't get experience without one. Externships break that loop. They don't require prior professional experience, and that's the whole point. They're typically 8 weeks, fully remote, and you're paired with a mentor (called an extern manager) who guides your project work from start to finish.

The deliverables you produce are yours to keep and show off. That means you walk into junior-year recruiting with a portfolio of company-endorsed projects instead of a blank resume section.

How Do Externships Compare to Traditional CS Internships?

This question comes up constantly from underclassmen weighing their options, and the honest answer is that both formats have real value. The right choice depends entirely on where you are right now and what you're trying to accomplish this semester or summer.

Externship vs Internship for Underclassmen: Side by Side

The core differences: a traditional CS internship runs 10 to 12 weeks, usually on-site (sometimes hybrid), paid hourly or salaried, and requires passing a competitive application with technical interviews. An Externship is shorter (usually 8 weeks), fully remote, project-based with a specific deliverable, and open to students at any experience level.

For underclassmen who can't land a traditional internship or who want to stack experience across multiple semesters, Externships offer a lower-barrier path to the same outcome: resume-ready professional experience. The full breakdown is in Extern's Externship vs. Internship guide.

A detailed comparison table with duration, location, compensation, experience requirements, resume value, and flexibility is included in the code embed section below.

When an Externship Makes More Sense Than an Internship

You missed the deadlines. Traditional programs fill their cohorts by November or December, and once those spots are gone, they're gone until next year. Externships accept applications year-round.

You can't relocate. Most major CS internships need you in a tech hub for the summer. Externships are fully remote.

You want to try multiple fields. Instead of one company for 12 weeks, you could do two Externships in different areas (say, AI engineering and data analytics) in the same time frame.

You're building a base for junior-year apps. Even one professional experience on your resume changes the recruiter response rate dramatically. And sometimes, honestly, that single line item is all it takes to transform how recruiters perceive your entire application.

What Mistakes Do Freshmen Make When Applying for CS Internships?

And knowing what to avoid saves almost as much time as knowing what to do. These are the three patterns that trip up first-year CS applicants the most, and they're all completely fixable once you see them coming.

Only Targeting FAANG (and Missing Mid-Tier Goldmines)

Programs like NVIDIA Ignite and Microsoft Explore draw huge applicant pools for a small number of seats. So putting all your energy into FAANG is a losing bet for most students. The better move: apply to five to eight underclassmen-specific programs at top companies, then add ten to fifteen applications at mid-size companies and well-funded startups where the odds are much better. Companies like Datadog, Stripe, Plaid, and Cloudflare run excellent intern programs with far less competition.

Waiting Until Sophomore Spring

This is the single most common mistake, and it's the one that costs students the most opportunities they'll never even know they missed. By the time most sophomores start thinking about summer internships in February or March, every major underclassmen program has already filled its spots. The timeline section above lays it out: August through October is the critical window. If you're a current freshman reading this, set a reminder for July to start polishing your resume.

Ignoring Behavioral Interview Prep

Underclassmen programs weight behavioral interviews more heavily than traditional SWE roles, and this catches a lot of technically-prepared students off guard. Companies already know you haven't taken algorithms. What they're really evaluating is your communication, your teamwork instincts, and whether you can walk through how you approach a problem you've never seen before. Practice the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) with three to five stories from school projects, clubs, or part-time work. And you'll use those stories more than LeetCode at this stage, which might sound surprising if you've been grinding coding problems for weeks.

How to Set Yourself Up for Junior-Year Recruiting Right Now

Everything you do as a freshman or sophomore compounds. The students who land top junior-year internships aren't fundamentally smarter or more talented. They just started earlier, and that head start compounds in ways that aren't obvious until recruiting season hits.

What to Do This Summer Even Without an Internship

Here's your checklist if you don't have a formal internship lined up:

1. Build or finish one portfolio project. Push it to GitHub with a clean README that explains what the project does, why you built it, and how to run it locally.

2. Contribute to one open-source project. Even a small bug fix or documentation PR counts, and it shows you can work in someone else's codebase.

3. Start an Externship. Browse current Externships on Extern.com that match your interests and apply before summer ends.

4. Begin data structures and algorithms prep. You'll need this for junior-year technical interviews, and starting now means it won't feel like cramming when October rolls around.

5. Attend at least one virtual tech event or meetup. Build your network before you need it, because the best time to make connections is when you're not desperate for a referral.

The Compound Effect of Starting Early

Employers say the same thing. NACE's Job Outlook 2026 found that an internship with the employer or in its industry is the most influential factor when choosing between two otherwise equal candidates. Anything you build before junior year counts toward that.

You're not behind if you're reading this as a freshman or sophomore. The fact that you're researching underclassmen CS internships right now already puts you ahead of most of your classmates who won't think about this until it's too late.

So start with one thing this week. Polish your resume, or push a project to GitHub, or apply to one program. Pick one. The rest follows from there, and it'll feel a lot less overwhelming once you've taken that first step.

---

FAQ

Can freshmen get CS internships in 2027?

Yes, but fewer dedicated programs exist than a few years ago. NVIDIA Ignite takes first-years and is open until October 18, 2026, Jane Street FOCUS accepts first-years until November 15, and LinkedIn First Play has taken students after their first year. Microsoft Explore is now for second-years, and Google has posted no STEP internship for 2027.

How do I get a CS internship with no experience?

Put one solid project on GitHub with a clean README. Build your resume around coursework, transferable skills, and club leadership, then target programs designed for underclassmen instead of general SWE roles. And don't sleep on career fairs and professor referrals, because those connections open doors that hundreds of cold applications alone simply won't.

When do 2027 CS internship applications open?

The main wave runs October to November 2026: NVIDIA Ignite closes October 18, Microsoft Explore takes applications the first week of each month through December, and Jane Street FOCUS closes November 15. Quant programs and Two Sigma's first-year role follow in January. Mid-size companies and startups recruit through March 2027.

What happened to Meta University and Google STEP?

Meta University ended: Meta confirmed in April 2025 that it had accepted its final class. Google has posted no STEP internship for summer 2027, and we couldn't confirm the rumored rename to ASDI in the US. Palantir Path is gone too, and Palantir's 2027 internships are for 2028 graduates.

What's the difference between an Externship and an internship?

An Externship is a short, remote professional experience focused on project-based learning with real companies. Internships tend to be longer, usually on-site, and often require relocation. Externships don't need prior professional experience, which makes them a realistic option for freshmen who can't land traditional programs yet.

Are underclassmen CS internships paid?

Most major programs are paid, with compensation varying widely. Microsoft lists $25.96 to $47.77 an hour for Explore, and NVIDIA lists $20 to $56 an hour plus a housing stipend for Ignite. Smaller companies and nonprofits may offer stipends. Externships use a different model entirely, focused on skills development and producing resume-ready deliverables.

What should I put on my resume as a CS freshman?

Lead with relevant coursework and personal projects. Add hackathon results, club leadership, and specific technical skills like Python, Java, or Git. One well-documented GitHub project with a clean README carries more weight with recruiters than a list of completed classes. Check the resume section above for formatting tips that pass ATS filters.

Is it too late to apply for 2027 summer CS internships?

Depends on when you're reading this. Big Tech deadlines usually pass by November 2026, but mid-size companies keep recruiting through March. Startups and Externships accept year-round applications. If the traditional windows closed, open-source programs and Externships can still bridge the gap before junior year.