Sophomore Internships 2027: What's Open Now, What Comes Next, and the Summer 2028 Roles You Apply for This Fall

Sophomore internships for 2027 look different from the lists you'll find on most career-center pages. We checked more than 50 programs on official careers sites on October 8, 2026. Fifteen were taking applications from current sophomores that day, two more open within weeks, and the rest had already closed, haven't posted yet, or quietly disappeared.

Here's the short version. True 10-week summer internships for sophomores still exist, but they're rare. Most banks and consulting firms now run short insight programs for second-years instead.

And the elite banks go one step further: they recruit sophomores this fall for the summer after junior year. If you're searching for internships for sophomores, you need both lists. For the wider picture across every class year, our complete internship guide covers the rest of the market.

TL;DR

• On October 8, 2026, 15 programs were open to current sophomores (class of 2029). Most are short insight events or virtual series; full summer 2027 internships for sophomores are rare.

• Apollo, P&G and HII are three real summer 2027 roles that are live now, and Bain and Microsoft Explore open their next windows within weeks.

• The bigger deadline is a year ahead: Evercore's summer 2028 analyst window closes November 15, 2026, and Harris Williams recruits sophomores from October 2026 to January 2027.

• Several well-known sophomore programs are gone or moved: Google has no STEP posting for summer 2027, McKinsey's US sophomore program and BCG's Growing Future Leaders no longer appear, and Deloitte Discovery now recruits a year earlier.

• This guide lists every program we checked, what opens month by month, and how to get picked with no experience.

Externships are short, remote professional experience programs where you work on real projects for real companies. Three fit this guide well: the Yinan Zhao Investing & Financial Modeling Externship, the HP Tech Ventures Deal Sourcing & Startup Analysis Externship and the Lean Startup Co. Corporate Strategy Externship. Each one leaves you with finished work to discuss. Explore all Externships.

What Counts as a Sophomore Internship in 2027?

A sophomore internship is any program a second-year college student can apply to, from a paid 10-week summer role to a one-day event at a firm's office. In 2026-27, most of these programs exist to feed the junior-summer internship, which is the role that turns into full-time offers.

The Four Kinds of Sophomore Programs

Sophomore programs fall into four buckets. They're not equal. A summer internship gives you real work and pay, plus a manager who can vouch for you a year later. An insight program gives you access and a recruiter who knows your name. Summits work the same way, in person. And the fourth bucket isn't a sophomore program at all. It's the junior-summer analyst role that some firms now fill during your sophomore year, which sounds absurd until you see the dates.

At Extern, we publish and re-check internship guides for more than 1,200 companies, so we see posting dates move year to year. The pattern this cycle is clear. The share of firms offering a full summer seat to sophomores has shrunk, while short programs and earlier junior-summer recruiting have grown.

So plan for all four buckets, not just the first. Is that more work than one application? Sure. It's also how you avoid waking up in March with nothing.

If you're a freshman reading ahead, the freshman programs are different again; our guide to internships for freshmen in college covers those.

Which Sophomore Programs Are Open Right Now?

As of October 8, 2026, these are the programs current sophomores could apply to, with deadlines taken straight from each firm's official page or live posting. Most close in October and November. The clock's running.

Finance and Trading Programs Open Now

Finance has the deepest list.

And it has the earliest deadlines, which is the part most people miss until a portal has already closed on them.

• Citi Early ID Program: a three-week virtual experience in Banking or Markets for students who are "currently a sophomore." Applications close October 23, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET, and Citi says the program includes interview preparation for Summer Analyst roles.

• Morgan Stanley Early Insights Program: two live virtual sessions for students graduating between December 2028 and June 2029, held November 2 and November 5, 2026.

• Apollo 2027 Sophomore Summer Analyst: one of the few real 10-week summer 2027 internships for the class of 2029, in New York, El Segundo or Austin, with a posted range of $70,000 to $100,000 annualized.

• Raymond James Fall Virtual Sophomore Program: an investment banking bootcamp with three virtual sessions in October that gives "early consideration" for 2028 Summer Analyst roles. The separate Sophomore Showcase runs in December, and you can choose only one of its in-person sophomore programs.

• Bain Capital Investors of Tomorrow: a half-day in Boston on November 19 plus a virtual panel December 2, for students in their sophomore year. Apply by October 25, 2026.

• Jane Street INSIGHT and Bridge: INSIGHT (New York, January 4 to 9, 2027) is for women, trans and gender-expansive students, with an October 25, 2026 deadline. Bridge is open to first- and second-years graduating in 2029.

• Hudson River Trading WiTTI Winter 2027: a two- to four-week program in New York starting January 4, 2027, for students graduating fall 2028 through summer 2030. Deadline October 16, 2026.

• Citadel Discover Citadel and Citadel Securities: in person in New York in early April 2027. Applications run to March 5, 2027.

Want something concrete to talk about in those interviews? Most sophomores walk in with coursework and a club title. The Yinan Zhao Investing & Financial Modeling Externship has you build the kind of model a first-round interviewer asks you to walk through.

Consulting and Accounting Programs Open Now

Consulting's sophomore list is shorter than it was two years ago (more on that below).

But Bain is the clear exception.

• Bain & Company BEL, CREW and First Forward: one application covers three in-person programs held January and February 2027. Bain's page says applications "will open in mid-October and close on November 30th, 2026." Travel is covered.

• PwC Destination CPA: a three-day in-person program for accounting sophomores who apply for and accept a 2028 Audit, Tax or related internship offer. Several summer 2028 Destination CPA postings were live on October 8.

If you're leaning toward strategy work, the Lean Startup Co. Corporate Strategy Externship gives you a structured problem to present, which is close to what a case interview tests. Our consulting internships guide covers the junior programs these feed.

Tech, Engineering and Corporate Programs Open Now

Outside finance, a few big employers still post real summer roles for sophomores. Not many, though, and they don't stay up long.

• Microsoft Explore Program: a rotating software engineering, product management and technical program management pod in Redmond for students in the second year of a four-year degree. Microsoft accepts applications "during the first week of each month from October through December, or until all positions are filled," so the next window is the first week of November. Pay is listed at $25.96 to $47.77 an hour.

• P&G R&D Scientist/Engineer Intern, Summer 2027: open to freshmen, sophomores and juniors in engineering or science with a 3.0 GPA, for 12 weeks at $31 to $43 an hour.

• HII 2027 Engineering Intern: sophomores through seniors in electrical engineering, computer engineering or computer science, in Dayton, Ohio. You'll need to be eligible for a Defense Department clearance.

• Abercrombie & Fitch Corporate Sophomore Summit: a three-day virtual event that starts recruiting for 2028 summer internships, posted on A&F's careers site. Event dates come out in spring 2027.

For computer science specifically, our CS internships for freshmen and sophomores guide goes deeper. And if you want an engineering project on your resume before your Explore interview, the Wayfair n8n AI Agent Engineering Externship gives you one.

The table below lists every open and upcoming program we verified, with the official place to apply and our company guide.

Which Sophomore Programs Open Later This School Year?

A second wave arrives between November and January, mostly insight programs from big banks, and a few of the dates below are educated guesses based on last year. Dates marked "last cycle" are last year's windows.

So treat them as a heads-up, not a promise.

November to January

Think of this as a monthly checklist.

1. November: Watch for the JPMorganChase Fellowship Program, a five-week paid summer fellowship that replaced the Advancing Black Pathways name and is now open to all sophomores (last cycle ran November 11 to January 13). Barclays Discovery Programme posted on October 14 last year with a November 7 deadline, and Guggenheim Sophomore FOCUS closed November 10.

2. December: Moelis says its US Summer Analyst applications "typically open in the December of your sophomore year." Raymond James' Sophomore Showcase also runs this month.

3. January: BNY opens its Sophomore Summit on January 11, 2027. Bain Capital's Path into Private Equity analyst role went live in early January last cycle, and Walmart promoted its Sophomore Summit around the same time.

February to June

Spring is quieter.

Yet it isn't empty. Discover Citadel's deadline is March 5, 2027. EY-Parthenon held its three-day Explore program for sophomores in February last year. BCG ran its Embark virtual conference in May 2026, and bp runs a four-day trading-floor experience for second-years in June. Our guide on when to apply for internships maps the full calendar by industry.

Why Are Sophomores Applying for Summer 2028 Already?

Because the junior-summer internship is the one that turns into a job, and the most competitive firms now fill it 18 to 20 months ahead. For a lot of sophomores, the most important application of the year isn't for summer 2027 at all.

Which Banks Recruit Sophomores for Junior Summer?

Investment banking moved first. Vault reported in December 2025 that "students are now expected to apply for banking internships nearly two years in advance," and that "most students applying for summer 2027 internships will be current sophomores" (Vault). That cohort is now juniors. Which means you're next, right? Pretty much.

This cycle's dates back it up:

• Evercore: 2028 Summer Analyst applications opened September 9 and close November 15, 2026. They aren't rolling, and you can apply to at most two groups.

• Harris Williams: its Summer Analyst page lists an application window of October 2026 to January 2027, with interviews in the spring of sophomore year.

• Moelis: opens in December of sophomore year.

• Bain Capital Path into Private Equity: last cycle's posting went live in early January.

But not every bank is this early. eFinancialCareers noted in December 2025 that while there's "a general trend to recruit earlier and earlier," the biggest banks haven't reached these extremes yet (eFinancialCareers). Bulge-bracket summer 2028 windows usually open later. Our investment banking internships 2028 guide tracks them bank by bank.

Consulting and Big 4 Moved Too

It's not only banking. Deloitte's summer 2027 Discovery internship posting required a 2028 graduation date, and recruiting for it ended May 1, 2026. Oliver Wyman's summer 2027 US intern role targeted "second-year undergraduate student (Class of 2028)" and came down in late September.

So for the class of 2029, the matching programs are the summer 2028 versions, which haven't posted yet. We can't promise the exact month. Expect them in spring 2027, about 15 months before the internship starts. The consulting internships summer 2028 guide and our Big 4 accounting internships guide will update as they do.

Which Sophomore Programs Have Closed or Disappeared?

Plenty of sophomore lists online still feature programs that closed weeks ago or no longer exist. Ever applied to something and heard nothing back because it didn't exist anymore? It happens more than you'd think. We checked each one on the firm's official page on October 8, 2026, so you don't waste an evening on a dead link.

Closed for This Cycle

These ran for the class of 2029 but are already done:

• Goldman Sachs Emerging Leaders Series: Goldman's sophomore program page says "Applications are now closed."

• Morgan Stanley Investment Management Sophomore Summer Analyst (Private Credit & Equity): applications were due September 25, 2026.

• Jefferies Class of 2029 IB Insight Day: the deadline was October 2, before a lot of students had even opened a careers page this fall.

• Visa 2027 Sophomore Internship Program (software engineering): posted September 18 and gone by early October.

• American Express 2027 Sophomore Finance: gone.

• Duolingo Thrive (software engineering track): closed September 30, 2026.

• Thrivent and bp sophomore engineering roles: both closed in late September.

The lesson? Sophomore roles post in September and can vanish in two or three weeks.

And next year's will too, so set alerts in August.

No Longer Running, or Not Posted

These names still show up on older lists, but we couldn't find a current program:

• Google STEP: Google had no STEP posting for summer 2027 as of October 8, and the old program page redirects. We found no official announcement that it ended, so check our Google guide for updates.

• McKinsey Sophomore Summer Business Analyst (US): the US posting is gone. A Canadian version is open to Black and Indigenous students in Canada.

• BCG Growing Future Leaders: redirects to BCG's general campus page now, with no sign of a sophomore cohort for 2027.

• PwC Start and EY Launch: PwC's Start page returns an error, and EY Launch no longer appears on EY's US programs page.

• Bank of America and UBS Sophomore Summer Analyst: neither had a summer 2027 sophomore posting on its official site on October 8. Both ran one last cycle, so they may still post.

Honestly, this list surprised us. Some of these programs were sophomore staples three years ago. Maybe a few come back next cycle; we'll update this page if they do.

How Competitive Are Sophomore Internships?

Very.

But the field is less crowded than you'd think at this stage, because the firms are selective while the pool of sophomores applying is still small this early in the year.

The Numbers

Start with the bad news. Handshake's Internships Index 2025 found the average internship drew 109 applications in 2024-25, up from 43 two years earlier. Financial services roles drew 192, and technology roles drew 273 (Handshake). At the top end, Goldman Sachs accepted fewer than 1 in 100 summer internship applicants in 2026, according to Fortune.

And now the good news, which holds up. The same Handshake report found that only 27.6% of sophomores had applied to an internship by January 31, 2025. Business majors were higher, at 33.9%. So if you apply to a few insight programs this fall, you're already ahead of most of your class. Well, ahead of most who were sophomores in 2025, anyway. We don't have the 2026 number yet. Our investment banking acceptance rate breakdown shows how those odds change by bank.

How Do You Get a Sophomore Internship With No Experience?

You don't need prior internships to land a sophomore program. Screeners know you're 19 or 20.

And they're not expecting a finished professional. They want a signal. What they want is proof that you're curious about their industry and can finish something, and you can build that in a single semester.

Five Steps for This Fall

1. Pick five to eight targets by deadline. Use the table above. Put Citi (October 23), Bain Capital (October 25), Jane Street INSIGHT (October 25), Evercore (November 15) and Bain (November 30) on your calendar first if they fit.

2. Write a one-page resume with one real project on it. From our years on the recruiting-process side, we know sophomore screeners skim for one thing: evidence you did more than attend class. A finished project with a result beats a list of clubs.

3. Apply to insight programs before summer roles. They're easier to get into, they last a day or a few weeks instead of a whole summer, and they put your name on a recruiter's list. Several (Citi Early ID, Raymond James, Guggenheim FOCUS) explicitly lead to interview prep or interview access.

4. Talk to two people at each target firm. A 15-minute call with an analyst from your school helps you write a sharper "why this firm" answer. Our networking guide for students has templates.

5. Prep behavioral answers and basic technicals. Expect "walk me through your resume," "why finance," and, at banks, simple accounting questions. Insight programs often include a HireVue.

At Extern, we've seen the same thing across thousands of one-on-one conversations with students: the students who land early programs usually aren't the ones with the best GPA. They're the ones who can talk about a real piece of work for two minutes without notes. Gevans Gabeau, a Boston College finance student now heading to Lazard as an investment banking analyst, put it this way: "In my Capital One interview, they asked what I was doing to grow professionally, and I immediately drew back on my PwC + FCCLA Comparative Strategy Remote Externship." If you want a finance-flavored project to point to, the HP Tech Ventures Deal Sourcing & Startup Analysis Externship has you screen startups the way an investment team does. For more ideas, see how to get an internship with no experience.

What If You Don't Land a Sophomore Internship?

You're fine. Most sophomores don't have one.

And recruiters for junior-summer roles care far more about what you can show by next fall than about a title on this summer's line.

Is It Bad to Spend Sophomore Summer Without an Internship?

No, as long as the summer produces something relevant. NACE's Job Outlook 2026 found that employers rate having an internship with their organization or within their industry as the most influential factors when choosing between two otherwise equal candidates (NACE).

So what does that mean for you now? It's an argument for making your junior-summer internship count, not for panicking in October. And junior internships pay off: NACE reported a 63.1% intern conversion rate for 2024-25, the highest in five years (NACE).

Your options, weighed honestly:

Pros of a non-internship summer:

• Research with a professor: it shows analytical depth and gives you a recommender who knows your work.

• A campus or part-time job with responsibility: managing a schedule, a budget or a team reads well in any interview.

• A remote Externship: most run 8 weeks (range 4 to 11) at 5 to 10 hours a week, so you can stack one with a summer job and finish with a real deliverable.

Cons to watch:

• No firm name on your resume: you'll need to explain the work clearly instead.

• Less recruiter contact: make up for it with insight programs during the school year.

When we asked Extern students which companies they most want to work for, Google, Goldman Sachs, EY and JPMorgan topped the list (Extern Dream Companies survey, 1,285 responses). Those are exactly the firms that recruit early.

So the work you do this year matters more than it looks. Explore Externships to find a project that fits the role you're targeting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can sophomores get internships?

Yes, but fewer than juniors. As of October 2026, true 10-week summer roles for sophomores exist at firms like Apollo and P&G, while most banks and consulting firms offer one- to three-day insight programs or virtual series instead. Those programs often lead to interviews for the junior-summer internship, which is the one that converts to full-time offers.

When should sophomores apply for summer internships?

Start in September and October of sophomore year. Many sophomore programs post in September and close within weeks, and some banks recruit sophomores for the following summer's analyst class this fall: Evercore's summer 2028 window runs September 9 to November 15, 2026. A second wave of insight programs opens in January.

Are sophomore internships paid?

Full summer internships for sophomores are almost always paid. Apollo lists a $70,000 to $100,000 annualized range, P&G pays $31 to $43 an hour, and Microsoft Explore lists $25.96 to $47.77 an hour. Insight events and virtual series usually aren't paid, but in-person ones often cover travel, as Bain and Bain Capital do.

Do sophomore programs lead to junior-year internship offers?

Often they lead to an interview, not a guaranteed offer. Citi says Early ID prepares students for Summer Analyst interviews, and Guggenheim says FOCUS participants are eligible to interview the following summer. Baird's Women in Banking program is unusual: one offer covers both summer 2027 and summer 2028.

What happened to Google STEP and other famous sophomore programs?

Several are gone or quiet. Google had no STEP posting for summer 2027 as of October 2026, McKinsey's US sophomore program and BCG's Growing Future Leaders no longer appear on their sites, and PwC's Start page returns an error. Check each firm's official page before planning around an older list.

Do I have to get an internship in college before junior year?

No. Recruiters care most about relevant experience by the time you apply for junior-summer roles. A research position, a campus job with real responsibility, a part-time role or a remote Externship project can all give you specific results to discuss in interviews, which is what sophomore screeners look for.

What is the difference between a sophomore internship and an early insight program?

A sophomore internship is a paid summer job of eight to twelve weeks with real work. An early insight program is a short event, from a few hours to a few weeks, often virtual, where you learn about the firm and meet recruiters. Insight programs are more common and usually feed the junior-year application.