Summer research programs are held for 8-10 weeks at colleges, universities, laboratories, hospitals, and institutes across the country and abroad.  They are usually intended for students after their sophomore or junior years of college, but there are an increasing number of programs that seek students after their first year.  A student’s time at a summer research program is generally devoted to working in small groups with other undergraduate students on original research projects under the direction of a professional researcher.

Summer research programs usually pay each student a stipend of several thousand dollars to participate.  In addition, they often cover travel and living expenses for the duration of the program and fund travel to present research at conferences. 

Tips on applying to summer research programs

• Customize your application for each program.  Indicate why you are specifically interested in that program.
• Each program has different requirements for its participants, so pay close attention to them.  For example, some programs expect their participants to have completed certain classes and the majority require U.S. citizenship.
• Emphasize your potential by mentioning any undergraduate research you have completed and any outstanding projects or term papers you have completed for your classes.
• Indicate any interest in graduate school that you may have.  Note that programs in biological or medical fields generally prefer students who have an interest in graduate school rather than students who are strictly interested in medical school.
• Ask a professor in your major to read over your application materials.
• Every application will require recommendation letters.  Do not wait until the last minute to request them from your professors!

Links to summer research opportunities on and off campus. 

• On Campus
  • Dr. Albert H. & Greta A. Bryan Summer Research Program (Mathematics)
• Off Campus
  • Education and Social Sciences
    • “Hands-On, Minds-On”
    • ICPSR
    • Kentucky P20 Innovation
    • Race, Ethnicity, and the Demography of Crime and Punishment

National Science Foundation – numerous programs (NSF)

 

• AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellows Program – strengthens the connections between scientists and journalists by placing advanced science, mathematics, and engineering students in newsrooms across the country (AAAS)
• American Chemical Society and the Department of Energy – nuclear and radiochemistry (ACS-NRUSS)
• American Mathematical Society (AMS)
• American Physical Society and IBM – women in science and engineering (APhysicS)
• American Physiological Society (APhysioS) – several programs – some accept students with little or no lab experience
• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)
• Arizona State University – Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (ASU-MTBI)
• Carleton College – women in mathematics (CC)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Center for Environmental Health - chemistry and biology (CDC/NCEH-ORISE)
• Cornell University – mathematics – focuses on coursework rather than research projects (CU-SMI)
• Dauphin Island Sea Lab – various fields (DISL)
• Department of Energy – Office of Fossil Energy – Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship – women and minority students in various fields (DoE-FE)
• Department of Energy – Office of Science – Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships – all students, including graduating seniors who have applied to graduate programs (DoE-S)
• Department of Energy – Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists – science, technology, engineering, mathematics (DoE-WDTS)
• Department of Energy Scholars Program – undergraduate and recent graduates in various fields (DoE-SP)
• Department of Homeland Security – various fields (HS-STEM)
• Department of Homeland Security – Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science and the Center for Dynamic Data Analysis – several programs include a trip to the Czech Republic (website / website)
• Des Moines University – various fields (DMU)
• Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates – women and minority students in computer science and engineering (DREU)
• EDGE Summer Program – women and minority students in mathematics – graduating seniors who have applied to graduate programs (EDGE)
• George Washington University – women in mathematics (GWU-M)
• German universities – Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE)
• Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation in La Crosse – Interns/Fellows link on this webpage
• Iowa State University – Interdisciplinary Research and Education in Emerging Interface Technologies (ISU-SPIRE-EIT)
• Iowa State University – molecular biotechnology and genomics (ISU-MBG)
• Mayo Clinics – biomedical research (M-SURF)
• Medical College of Wisconsin – Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (MCW)
• Miami University in Ohio – mathematics (SUMSRI)
• NASA – OSSI LauchPad – various fields (NASA-OSSILP)
• NASA – Student Airborne Research Program – various fields (NASA-SARP)
• National Institutes of Health – Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award – graduating seniors (NIH-PITRA)
• National Weather Center – motivated students from any major (NWC)
• North Dakota State University – Center for Protease Research – lab sciences (NDSU-CPR)
• North Dakota State University - Collaborations in Discipline-based Education Research (NDSU-CIDER)
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory – research programs and internships in a variety of fields at different locations (ORNL)
• Princeton University – Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)
• Purdue University – environmental and ecological engineering (PU-EEE)
• Rice University – statistics (RU-SIS)
• Roswell Park Cancer Institute – biological and biomedical research (RPCI)
• Simpson College – Dr. Albert H. & Greta A. Bryan Summer Research Program – mathematics (SC-Math)
• Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA)
• Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City – biological and physical sciences (SIMR)
• Texas A & M University – mathematics (MCTP)
• University of Alabama – chemistry (UA-SURP)
• University of Alabama at Birmingham – Department of Pathology – biomedical science (UAB-P)
• University of California – Berkeley – computational mathematics (MSRI-UP)
• University of California – Los Angeles – Research in Industrial Projects program at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics – accepts both U.S. and international students (UCLA-RIPS)
• University of Iowa – biological and medical sciences (UI-B&M)
• University of Nebraska at Lincoln – various fields (UNL)
• University of New Mexico – Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research – biology (UNM)
• University of Wisconsin – Madison – integrated biological sciences (IBSSRP)
• Virginia Tech University – Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VTU-VBI)
• Yale University – Center for Research on Interface Structures and Phenomena – various fields (YU-CRISP)