Leerink Partners Internship 2027–2028: Programs, Deadlines & How to Apply

Last updated: September 2026

Leerink Partners is what happens when an investment bank refuses to do anything except healthcare. Founded in 1995, it describes itself as a leading investment bank with a "strategic focus on the healthcare industry," and its careers page claims it is "consistently one of the Top Five investment banking firms for healthcare transactions," citing FactSet and Dealogic. Independent until 2019, it was acquired by SVB Financial Group, survived SVB’s bankruptcy in March 2023 through a $55 million management buyout backed by the Baupost Group, and took its name back. It is independent again, headquartered in Boston, with offices across eight US cities.

For a student, the relevant facts are sharper. Leerink runs a ten-week Summer Investment Banking Analyst Internship Program for "accomplished students in their penultimate year of undergraduate studies," and it recruits current sophomores. Applications open in November or December, roughly nineteen months before the internship starts. Its 2025, 2026 and 2027 Summer Analyst classes are full, with the 2027 class already in “Offers Out” status. If you are a sophomore reading this in autumn 2026, the Summer 2028 application is about to open and you have weeks, not months.

Quick Facts

The two numbers that matter: Leerink recruits sophomores roughly 19 months ahead of the internship, and the prior cycle’s application window ran from 2 November 2025 to 20 February 2026. For the Summer 2028 cycle, expect applications to open around November 2026. Watch the Workday board from early October.

Externships are short, remote professional experience programs where you finish a real project with a real company. The Yinan Zhao Investing & Financial Modeling Externship builds the valuation fluency Leerink tests in interviews, and the Pfizer Advanced AI-Powered Document Intelligence Externship gives you the healthcare evidence that, by candidates’ own account, is what differentiates applicants. Explore all Externships.

What Is a Leerink Partners Internship?

A Leerink Partners internship is a ten-week, paid summer placement at a healthcare-specialist investment bank that recruits current sophomores for an internship in their penultimate year of study. The firm provides "a complete suite of financial solutions comprising M&A advisory, equity, debt, and derivative capital markets, equity research, and sales and trading capabilities" with a strategic focus on the healthcare industry. Leerink is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a FINRA member, headquartered at Exchange Place in Boston, with offices in New York, Charlotte, San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, Nashville and London (planned). Its two named investment banking coverage verticals are Biopharma and Healthcare Services and Technology, plus a distinct ECM (equity capital markets) product group. On Indeed, Leerink Partners LLC carries a 3.4 out of 5 rating from 9 reviews, with compensation and benefits scoring highest at 4.0 and work-life balance lowest at 3.0. The firm also operates MEDACorp, a proprietary expert network of clinical and scientific experts, and the Leerink Center for Pharmacoeconomics, which publishes research and a podcast on drug pricing and health economics.

When Do Leerink Partners Internship Applications Open for 2027–2028?

Leerink Partners recruits its Summer Analysts on a sophomore-year, approximately nineteen-months-ahead calendar. The Summer 2027 class was recruited from November 2025 through February 2026, and its status is now “Offers Out.” No Summer 2028 requisition exists yet, but Leerink’s own published pattern and the prior cycle’s timing point to a window opening around November or December 2026. One important caveat: Leerink’s careers page told students the 2027 application would open “in December of 2025,” but the requisition actually went live on 2 November 2025. A student who waited for December lost roughly four weeks.

How to read this page: our dates come from tracking previous recruiting cycles and daily posting data. Treat them as informed estimates based on historical patterns, not confirmed dates. The company's official careers page is always the most current source. If a role is posted there, go by that, even if this page suggests the window hasn't opened yet.

Why You Must Apply the Week Applications Open

Leerink’s window is short and it fills. A Glassdoor candidate on 17 March 2026 said it plainly: "I applied very late so they had already filled up spots except one." The prior cycle’s requisition ran from 2 November 2025 to 20 February 2026, roughly three and a half months, and Leerink itself states that interviews happen in February and March. Seats fill as the interviews progress. Add a second factor: Leerink’s careers page stated the 2027 application would open in December, but the requisition actually posted a month earlier in November. A student who waited for the stated month and then applied a few weeks into the real window was already late. The practical advice is simple: set a Workday job alert from early October, apply in the first week the requisition appears, and treat the stated month on leerink.com/careers as a rough guide rather than a start date.

Which Leerink Partners Internship Programs Should You Target?

Leerink runs one formal summer programme for undergraduates and one fellowship for post-graduates. The two are not interchangeable and have different eligibility, different timelines, and different pay structures.

See all openings on the Leerink Workday board. The Summer Analyst programme is the entry point for current undergraduates; the Equity Research Fellowship is the route for recent or advanced-degree graduates who want healthcare equity research.

What Are the Eligibility Requirements?

Leerink publishes unusually little about Summer Analyst eligibility. The two things it does publish are unambiguous and decisive:

• Class year: current sophomores at the time of application, interning in their penultimate (rising senior) year. Leerink: "for current sophomores"; University of Michigan event listing: "targeted for current Sophomores (i.e. 2028 grads)."

• Calibre: "accomplished students in their penultimate year of undergraduate studies."

• GPA: not published. No numeric GPA appears on the careers page, in any live requisition, or in the University of Michigan event listing.

• Degree field: not published. A Glassdoor candidate with a "non science background" was interviewed and asked how that background leads to healthcare, suggesting a science degree is not required.

Do You Need a Science Background for Healthcare IB?

Apparently not. One Glassdoor candidate explicitly noted a "non science background" and reported being asked "How my background leads me to healthcare? Why I would be a good fit for it?" Leerink publishes no required major. What it does screen for, hard, is a credible reason you want healthcare investment banking specifically. Candidates consistently report that "emphasis on why healthcare IB, why Leerink specifically" is the interview’s centre of gravity, and one put it plainly: "Have previous experience ready for why specifically healthcare IB — this is what differentiates candidates." Build that answer deliberately: a healthcare project, a biotech stock pitch, a policy paper, a pharmaceutical externship. The science literacy matters more than the science degree.

What Skills Does Leerink Partners Look For, and How Do You Build Them?

Leerink publishes no Summer Analyst job description. The skill picture below comes from two sources: the live Equity Research Fellowship requisition (R00654), which is the nearest first-party early-career document and describes the work a summer analyst sits alongside; and twelve dated Glassdoor summer-analyst interview accounts, which reveal what Leerink actually tests. The pattern is clear: standard IB technicals are the baseline, and what separates candidates is a specific, evidenced answer to why healthcare investment banking and why Leerink.

Note: Chart suppressed — Leerink does not publish a Summer Analyst job description, and hiring.cafe returned zero postings. Skills are drawn from the live Equity Research Fellowship requisition and from candidate interview reports instead.

How Is Demand for Healthcare Investment Banking Interns Moving Right Now?

Build These Skills Before You Apply

Leerink’s interview record names the skills that actually win: financial modelling and valuation, a credible healthcare motivation, and the ability to hold a technical conversation. Each one maps to a remote Externship you can complete before the window opens.

How close is the overlap? The Yinan Zhao deliverable is a financial model in exactly the vocabulary Leerink’s interview tests, the Pfizer project builds the healthcare evidence every candidate account says differentiates applicants, and the EIC externship produces a published-quality market research deliverable with an investment thesis. Complete the first two before the November window and your application carries finished work, not talking points.

What Is the Leerink Partners Application and Interview Process Like?

Leerink publishes only that applications open around November or December and interviews run in February and March. Everything below is community-reported from twelve dated Glassdoor summer-analyst interview accounts across two employer entities (SVB Leerink and Leerink Partners):

1. Network and attend the campus session if Leerink visits your school. One candidate described it as "required": "Networking was required, both during on campus recruiting event and over the phone / LinkedIn." The 2027 cycle included a University of Michigan info session in November.

2. Apply on Leerink’s Workday board the week the requisition appears. The 2027 cycle opened 2 November 2025 despite the careers page stating December. Applying late genuinely costs seats.

3. First-round interview (on campus or virtual). A mix of behavioural and technical questions. Reported technical content: "simple technicals straight from 400 M&I guide" and "Are multiples higher in precedent transactions or public comps?" The behavioural centre of gravity is "why healthcare IB, why Leerink."

4. Possibly a second round, depending on the cycle. One candidate described three on-campus rounds before the Super Day.

5. Super Day (in person at Leerink’s office, or virtual). The most recent dated account (June 2026, New York) describes three 20-minute interviews with an associate, a director and a senior managing director, all behavioural and anchored on the resume. Another candidate’s Super Day was a single 30-minute virtual behavioural with an MD. Prepare for both shapes.

6. Offer. One candidate received a phone call the same day as the process (a different employer’s pattern; Leerink’s turnaround has been reported as two weeks to two months).

Prepare for brain teasers. One candidate: "They asked two hard brain teasers, which I never prepared for, so I got really thrown off by that. Aside from the brain teasers, the other questions were all in line with your typical valuation and accounting questions for IB." Our HireVue question guide with a free AI mock tool covers the same behavioural-question format.

What the Community Says

Leerink has no usable Reddit footprint. Every reddit.com URL mentioning the firm was read in full, and Leerink appears only as a name in peer lists with no first-hand internship or interview account. The cards below draw on Glassdoor and Indeed, where twelve dated summer-analyst interview reviews and three intern reviews paint a more useful picture.

How Do You Stand Out at a Healthcare-Only Investment Bank?

Three moves, all executable before the window opens. First, answer “why healthcare IB” with evidence, not interest. Candidates consistently report this as the interview’s centre of gravity. A completed pharmaceutical externship, a biotech stock pitch, or a health-economics paper is the answer; a sentence about wanting to “make a difference in healthcare” is not. Second, prepare the standard technicals from the standard source. A candidate reported "simple technicals straight from 400 M&I guide," which is the 400 Investment Banking Interview Questions guide. Also prepare "Are multiples higher in precedent transactions or public comps?" and two hard brain teasers, both specifically reported at Leerink. Third, know the SVB story and what independence means. Leerink was acquired by SVB Financial Group in 2019, survived SVB’s March 2023 bankruptcy through a $55 million management buyout backed by Baupost, and returned to independence in July 2023. Being able to discuss what independence means for a specialist bank, and how it shapes culture and deal flow, is a sophisticated answer to “why Leerink” that most candidates will not have. And listen to the Leerink Center for Pharmacoeconomics podcast before your interview. It is free, current, firm-branded material on drug pricing and health economics. Citing a specific episode is the cheapest possible way to demonstrate the sector interest they are explicitly screening for.

What Other Companies Should You Consider?

Leerink’s peer set spans healthcare-focused and middle-market investment banks competing for the same sophomore candidates.

Our investment banking internships guide maps the full landscape of IB opportunities across generalist and specialist banks, timeline by timeline.

FAQ

Can I still apply for a summer 2026 Leerink Partners internship?

No. Leerink’s 2025 and 2026 Summer Analyst classes are full, stated on its own careers page. The 2027 class also has offers out. The next open cycle is Summer 2028 for current sophomores: applications are expected to open around November or December 2026 based on the prior cycle’s pattern.

When do Leerink Summer Analyst applications open?

Leerink’s careers page says applications open in December, but the 2027 requisition actually went live on 2 November 2025, a month earlier. Interviews run in February and March, and the prior cycle’s requisition closed 20 February 2026. Set a Workday job alert from early October and do not wait for the stated month.

What year of college do I need to be in to apply?

Your sophomore year. Leerink states the programme is for current sophomores and for students in their penultimate year of undergraduate studies. The University of Michigan info session for the 2027 cycle said explicitly: this role is targeted for current Sophomores, i.e. 2028 grads. If you are a junior, the Summer Analyst programme is out of reach.

How much do Leerink Partners summer analysts get paid?

Leerink does not publish summer analyst compensation and no employer figure could be found. It does publish a salary range of $110,000 to $135,000 for its six-month Equity Research Fellowship in New York, but that is a separate post-graduate role. Ignore any Glassdoor figure in the $180,000 to $300,000 range, which is a modelled total-pay estimate, not what a ten-week intern is paid.

What is the Leerink interview process like?

Leerink publishes only that interviews take place in February and March. Candidates describe networking or a campus info session, a first round mixing behavioural and technical questions, sometimes a second round, then a Super Day. The most recent account describes two rounds before an in-person Super Day of three 20-minute interviews with an associate, a director and a senior managing director. Another candidate’s Super Day was a single 30-minute virtual behavioural with an MD. Turnaround ranges from two weeks to two months.

Do I need a science background for Leerink?

Apparently not. One Glassdoor candidate explicitly noted a non-science background and was asked how that background leads to healthcare. Leerink publishes no required major. What it does screen for is a credible reason you want healthcare investment banking specifically, and candidates say this is what differentiates applicants.

Does Leerink sponsor visas?

Not stated. Leerink publishes no sponsorship policy on its careers page or in any requisition. Check the Summer 2028 requisition when it opens. The highest-value action for international students is to capture that requisition body the moment it appears, since New York pay-transparency law may require the posting to carry a range and may include sponsorship details.

Is there anything I can apply to at Leerink right now?

If you have graduated, yes: the Equity Research Fellowship in Medical Devices and Technology (requisition R00654, New York) is live and accepting applications. It is a six-month fellowship paying $110,000 to $135,000, with a stated path to full-time conversion, and includes an at-home case study with a financial model and a writing sample. If you are still an undergraduate, there is nothing open. Join the networking effort and watch the Workday board.

Leerink’s window opens in weeks, fills quickly, and asks one question above all others: why healthcare? Spend the runway building proof: a remote Externship turns “interested in healthcare” into a finished pharmaceutical or financial modelling project a November 2026 application can point at.