Psychology and neuroscience have a particular problem for students outside the United States and Western Europe. The best competitions exist, they are mostly free, and several of them cannot be entered on your own. The Brain Bee needs a national chapter. The Society for Neuroscience contest needs one of its members to submit on your behalf. The American Psychological Association's competition needs you to have taken a psychology course, and lets your school enter only five students.
Defne from Turkey found the most direct answer to that. Her country had no Brain Bee, so she became the International Brain Bee's national representative and founded it, establishing Turkey's first high school neuroscience olympiad with a team of twelve school students and five undergraduates, working with the Turkish Brain Research Society. She also ran a psychology podcast with more than 100,000 streams. She is now at Colby College on a near-full ride studying psychology.
Yassin from Egypt did something similar with the other organisation in this post, becoming vice president of the International Youth Neuroscience Association's Gharbiya chapter, which ranked first globally among its chapters, and running seminars that reached 2,500 people.
Below are twelve ways in, seven competitions and five programs. Each entry says plainly who can enter and what it costs, and where a route needs a gatekeeper, it says who.
Competitions
International Brain Bee World Championship
The championship of the field, running for 28 years with more than 25,000 competitors a year across over 50 countries, and governed with the American Psychological Association, the Society for Neuroscience, the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, the International Brain Research Organization and the Dana Foundation behind it. Students aged 13 to 19 compete individually on neuroanatomy, a written test, patient diagnosis and live judging, at material drawn from university and medical school courses. You cannot enter the World Championship directly: you win your local Brain Bee, then your national one. If your country has no Brain Bee, the official route is the IYNA Virtual Brain Bee, whose winner qualifies for the world final. The other route is Defne's, which is to write to the organisers and start your country's chapter with a teacher or researcher. The 2026 final is virtual, provisionally November 6 to 11.
International Neuroscience Olympiad
The one you can enter by yourself, today. Three rounds: an Opens exam of 40 questions in an hour, semi-finals of 20 questions in two hours, then a final where the top 20 write and defend a research proposal over two weeks. Open worldwide to anyone 18 or under in secondary school, homeschooled or a college freshman, with more than 1,000 participants from over 24 countries. It is run by a youth-led nonprofit. The homepage says it is free while the registration page charges $10, with fee waivers on request, so budget the ten dollars and ask if that is a barrier. Registration closes on September 30 and the Opens exam is on October 24 and 25, 2026. Students in 29 Asian countries register through its regional partner instead.
Brain Awareness Video Contest
The biggest cash prize in school-level neuroscience: $4,000 for first place plus conference registration, $500 for second, $250 for third and $500 for the People's Choice. Run by the Society for Neuroscience through BrainFacts, it takes a video of four minutes or less on any neuroscience concept, from entrants of any age and any country, with no entry fee. The catch is the sponsor: every video must be submitted by a Society for Neuroscience member, so if you are not one, you find a neuroscientist who is, through the society's own Find a Neuroscientist database. The 2026 round ran from March to late June, and 2027 dates are not out yet.
Neuroethics Essay Contest
The cleanest entry on this list: no membership, no teacher, no chapter, open to any secondary school student anywhere in the world, free. You write up to 1,000 words on a question where neuroscience meets ethics, judged in a high school category separate from university and early-career entrants, or submit a five to seven minute video instead. Category winners receive up to $500 plus a year's membership of the International Neuroethics Society, which co-hosts it with the International Youth Neuroscience Association, and publishing opportunities. The 2026 deadline was at the end of August; watch for the next call.
John Locke Institute Global Essay Prize, Psychology
The largest prize a school student can win writing about psychology. The competition runs a dedicated psychology category alongside its others, entry is free, and it is open to anyone under 19 from any country with no minimum age. You answer one of three set questions in up to 2,000 words. The category winner receives a $5,000 scholarship, with $2,000 and $1,000 for second and third, and the grand prize across all categories is a $10,000 scholarship. Entries come from more than 150 countries. The 2026 round closed on May 31 and the 2027 questions come out early in the year.
British Psychology Olympiad
Three rounds run online and open to secondary students internationally, not only in the UK: a 90-minute multiple choice qualifier, then short written answers, then an essay of 1,000 to 1,500 words. It is aimed at students aged 16 to 17, with ambitious younger students accepted and final-year students excluded. Entry costs £15, awards are certificates and honour roll placings rather than cash, and it is worth knowing that Minds Underground is a private UK tutoring company rather than a university or a national olympiad body. It has the clearest calendar here: round one on February 7, 2027, round two on February 21, and the final essay due April 4.
APA TOPSS Competition
The American Psychological Association's own competition for school students, run by its Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools committee, and international students are welcome. Recent rounds have asked for a video of no more than three minutes, uploaded unlisted to YouTube; earlier ones asked for an essay of up to 1,500 words citing at least two peer-reviewed papers. There is no entry fee, and about three winners each receive a $300 scholarship. Two conditions shape who can enter. You must be taking or have taken a psychology course, at school or online, and no school may submit more than five entries, so if psychology is popular where you study, the queue starts inside your own classroom. The 2026 deadline was in March and the next topic has not been published.
Programs
IYNA Neuroscience Summer Courses
Six weeks each summer, entirely free, run by the International Youth Neuroscience Association for school students worldwide, with over 750 alumni from more than 40 countries. Two courses run in parallel, an introduction covering the cell biology of the nervous system and sensory systems, and a second course on neurodevelopment, cognition and disease for students who have done the first or competed in a Brain Bee. You choose a flexible participant track or a capstone track with homework and a research project at 20 to 25 hours a week. Applications need a short essay on why you want to take part. The 2026 round ran applications from March to mid-May for a programme from late June to August.
Brain Bee Bootcamp
The preparation programme for the competition above it, also free, also run by the International Youth Neuroscience Association in partnership with the International Brain Bee. Sixteen weeks online at three to four hours a week for students aged 13 to 19 anywhere, with rolling admission. If you are in a country where the Brain Bee is new or where you are starting the chapter yourself, this is the structure you would otherwise have to build. Check the site for the current cycle, because the published dates differ across its pages.
ThinkNeuro
A ten-week virtual research internship in neuroscience, computer science or data analytics, ending in a symposium, open to school students from anywhere with no prior research experience. It costs $295 for the regular track and $895 for the intensive track, which adds mentorship from faculty, physicians and engineers, with prices rising in 2027. ThinkNeuro says it offers aid covering full tuition for students with an SAT or ACT fee waiver or a household income under about $60,000. Two things to be clear about: it is a private company rather than a university programme, whatever the affiliations of its instructors, and it publishes no acceptance rate, so treat it as a course you buy rather than one you win.
SPARC
Two weeks in California on applied rationality and cognition, drawing on decision theory and behavioural science, and completely free including room and board, with need-based travel scholarships for those admitted. It takes about 30 students from roughly 500 applicants, so around six percent. International students may apply. It sits closer to mathematics and decision-making than to clinical psychology, so apply if what draws you is how people reason rather than how they feel. Applications for 2027 open in January.
European Summer Program on Rationality
SPARC's sister programme and the one its organisers point international applicants towards. Same model, in the UK, for students aged 16 to 19, with tuition, accommodation and meals free for everyone admitted and travel scholarships available. The 2026 edition ran from late July to early August in Somerset. If you are applying from outside North America, this is usually the easier of the two to attend.
Start your own journey
The nearest deadline is the International Neuroscience Olympiad, which closes on September 30, with its first exam in late October. After that the British Psychology Olympiad opens in February and SPARC in January.
If your country has no Brain Bee, you have two options and both are open: enter through the virtual route, or do what Defne did and start the chapter.
Kai, the Borderless AI college counselor, works out which of these you qualify for, keeps the deadlines in one place, and helps you turn a placing or a project into an application an admissions reader can follow. It is free to use.
Start with Kai, and read the stories from students who did it.
