Many schools provide summer research opportunities for college students. These research programs may be a requirement of a certain program and provide the student with additional education and training in their chosen career field. Associations for different career fields typically list schools which offer summer research programs available to college students.
Medical
Schools around the nation provide summer research opportunities for medical students which the Association of American Medical Colleges supports. Medical fellowships provide students with real-world research opportunities. For example, Harvard's Division of Medical Science summer program allows you to research biomedical topics including cellular biology, cancer biology and genetics while allowing students to work in labs best suited to their interests.
Most of these summer programs provide students with a stipend. The programs from the Mayo Clinic, Harvard and John's Hopkins College all last for 10 weeks and students will earn between $3,000 to $5,000 dollars. However, housing and other costs vary between programs. Colleges provide information about research programs on the school's website.
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
hms.harvard.edu
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
hopkinsmedicine.org
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN
mayo.edu
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, NY
mountsinai.org
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD
training.nih.gov
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, CA
ssrp.stanford.edu/
Mathematics
The American Mathematical Society lists over 72 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs at colleges nationwide. The programs have a variety of focuses, some general mathematics and some specific topics such as algebra or geometry.
Some summer programs may overlap science or medical research programs. For example, the National Cancer Institute's Student Internship Program offers several research labs about cancer as well as a program which studies the AIDS virus. On the other hand, Cornell University's REU program provides students an opportunity to work with fractals and differential equations--a focus which is more mathematical. Research topics vary from year to year.
As of May 2010, application is closed to most, if not all, summer research programs for the year. Students should check the website of the school offering the research program. Many programs place application deadlines in the second half of February.
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY
math.cornell.edu
National Cancer Institute
Frederick, MD
web.ncifcrf.gov
Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, NJ
math.ias.edu
Rutgers University
Piscataway, NJ
dimacs.rutgers.edu
UCLA-Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics
Los Angeles, CA
ipam.ucla.edu
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA
biomath.vbi.vt
Physiology
The American Physiological Society recognizes several Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowships (SURF). The American Physiological Society and the Association of American Medical Colleges both recognize some of the same summer research fellowships.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT, provides an extensive list of research opportunities that students can search by "supervisor" (mentor) or lab department. One such research opportunity MIT offers is the "Sleep Signal Processing and Pattern Analysis" project which studies, among other things, physiological reactions during sleep.
Some universities offer research programs especially for students of color. Pasadena-based Caltech runs Minority Undergraduate Research Fellowships (MURF) programs for "African American, Hispanic, and Native American females who are underrepresented in their discipline, and first-generation college students" to complete summer research.
Caltech
Pasadena CA
its.caltech.edu
MIT
Cambridge, MA
web.mit.edu
National Cancer Institute
Rockville, MD
icbp.nci.nih.gov
UCLA Science
Los Angeles, CA
care.ucla.edu
University of Chicago
Dept. of Medicine and Neurobiology, Pharmacology, and Physiology
Chicago, IL
college.uchicago.edu
Tags: research opportunities, Cancer Institute, college students, National Cancer, National Cancer Institute, research programs, research programs