FAQs

Summer Funding is a program designed to support students pursuing unpaid or underpaid summer experiences by helping to cover the costs associated with pursuing those experiences.

Students applying to the training, courses, and credentialing programs can apply their grant to program fees, required equipment and uniforms, and commuting expenses.

Students who apply for grant support for experiential learning opportunities such as internships, research, or long-term volunteer opportunities may use their grant to offset experience-related expenses including transportation, housing, and food during their experience.

Currently matriculating students in good academic and behavioral standing are eligible to apply for summer funding. You must intend to enroll at Colgate for at least one more semester. Students must also have their resumes certified by Career Services before the application deadline within the same academic year.

Summer Funding offers students two avenues of support:

Students can apply for funding support for experiential learning opportunities such as internships, research, or long-term volunteer opportunities. These experiences should provide the student the opportunity to work alongside professionals in their field in a real work environment. Experiences must be at least 8 full-time weeks to qualify (280 hours minimum).

Alternatively, students may apply for grant support to pursue training programs, courses, or credentials not typically offered at Colgate that will provide essential skills for their intended field. Qualifying experiences will be primarily training in nature and may have both classroom and applied components, with a preference for experience with more applied components. Examples of qualifying programs would include CNA, STNA, EMT, or phlebotomy training; business courses; design courses; language programs; field school; coding bootcamp; and more. Training experiences should be a minimum of 80 hours to qualify and do not need to be credit bearing.

Career Services Summer Funding has two different grant options, one for experiential learning like internships, research, and long-term volunteer positions and one for training programs, courses, and credentials. Students may only apply to one program. Each program has a distinct timeline and different maximum grant amounts. Students are encouraged to talk with one of our professional career advisers to determine which grant option is better suited to their career development goals.

No. Students who already have secured internships, are still in the process of applying, or who have just started their search are invited to apply. We ask that you clearly articulate your summer intentions, including specific search criteria, meaningful summer goals, and reasoning for pursuing an experience. Application strength will determine tentative funding offers.

You will need to confirm your summer plans to access your award. Students pursuing training programs will have until May 1 to enroll in a program, course, or credential. Students who have applied for experiential learning support have until June 1 of the year they have been offered funding to confirm an internship, research position, or long term volunteer position.

In order to be eligible, students must have their resume or CV certified by Career Services before the deadline and within the same academic year as your application. Students must also submit the online application form found on the Colgate Summer Funding website. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered and students will not be granted extensions for resume certification.

Summer Funding is a competitive, budget based grant program. Students who are selected for funding will complete an orientation and budget process and final grants will be based on student's individual circumstances. A student’s demonstrated financial need will be carefully considered.

Students pursuing experiential learning opportunities including full-time internships, research, and long term volunteer experiences may be eligible for a maximum grant of up to $5,100 for domestic experiences or $6,100 for international experiences. 

Students who apply for grant support for training programs, courses, or credentials will be eligible for grant support for program fees, required equipment and uniforms, and commuting expenses. Maximum grant amounts for summer 2024 are $3,500 for students who receive financial aid from Colgate, and $1,500 for students who are not eligible for financial aid.

Our career advisers are prepared to help you develop your application materials and review your short essay responses before submission. Advisers can walk you through the search process, alert you to different search resources, and help you put together application materials.

Yes. Both students who receive financial aid from Colgate and those who do not are eligible to receive a summer funding grant. Financial aid status may influence which sources of funding you are eligible to receive grant dollars from and may influence the maximum grant for which you qualify.

Applications are reviewed by a committee of Colgate faculty, staff, and alumni. Each application is scored by three committee members based on a number of criteria including, but not limited to, clarity of learning objectives and relevance of experience. Funding will be awarded to the highest scoring applicants, and a group of others will be placed on a waitlist. 

Students who apply for grant support for a training program, course, or credential will receive a decision on their application in mid-March. Students will have until May 1 to enroll in a qualifying program.

Students who apply for grant support for an internship, research, or long-term volunteer experience will receive grant offers in early April. Initial offers are conditional upon the student securing a summer experience that aligns with the goals laid out in their funding application. Career Services aims to return final grant offers within one week of students submitting internship confirmation and budget paperwork.

Applicants are notified of summer funding decisions between mid-March and early April. Unfortunately, we cannot notify grantees before that time. Approximately 40% of our applicants received funding offers last year, and students can expect an equally competitive process this year. We will also maintain a waitlist. If you are asked to commit to an experience before the deadline, you should consider whether this is an experience you can afford in the event that you do not receive funding. Your employer may also be willing to extend the time frame by which you need to respond to your offer.  Please connect with our advisers to discuss how to approach this negotiation. 

If your reasonable living costs as defined in the summer funding budget process are higher than your anticipated earned wages,  you may still qualify for a summer funding grant to help cover the gap. Detailed information about qualifying expenses will be covered during summer funding orientation in early April.

If your compensations is expected to exceed your reasonable experience-related expenses, you will not qualify for a summer funding grant. 

Training programs, courses, and credentials should be a minimum of 80 hours to qualify for funding. Programs shorter than 80 hours will not qualify under the summer funding program, but may be eligible for support under Career Service's microcredentials initiative.

Internships, research, or volunteer experiences, or the combination of multiple experiences, need to be a minimum of eight weeks, and equivalent to at least 35 hours per week (280 hours minimum) to qualify for grant funding. We are committed to funding substantive and quality experiences, and it may be difficult to experience the full depth of an opportunity in a short period of time. Students may combine multiple short-term or part-time experiences to meet the duration requirements of their grant. Decreases to the overall minimum length will be considered on a case-by-case basis for circumstances such as early study abroad departure, military service, and other significant conflicts.

Career Services adheres to all University travel policies. If the University is allowing international travel, students may apply their summer funding grant to an international experience.

It is important to note, that all international travel proposals are reviewed for risk and approved on a case-by-case basis. Any international location that is deemed a significant health or safety concern will not be approved. Students are encouraged to research travel warnings on the U.S. Department of State website and discuss their plans with Career Services before requesting funding for an international location. Because conditions can change quickly, students are also encouraged to consider a domestic backup plan.

Because short-term travel is disproportionately expensive, students requesting funds for international travel should plan for the international component of their experience to be at least five weeks in length. Please keep in mind that the overall minimum length of experience is still eight weeks.

Travel is not eligible for funding under the training program, courses, and credentials program, through program fees, required equipment and uniforms, and daily commuting expenses may be covered up to the maximum grant amount.

Training, courses, and credentialing: summer grants can can be used toward program fees and required equipment and uniforms, up to the maximum grant amount.

Internships, research, and long term volunteer positions: summer funding grants do not typically cover program fees associated with using a placement agency or third party vendor to secure a summer experience; however, students may request partial coverage of these fees, up to the maximum grant amount but not exceeding $1,500 if there is money remaining from their grant offer after they have calculated all other experience-related expenses including housing, food, and transportation.

In order to make funding accessible to as many students as possible, students may only access one full time funding offer per summer. Students who have committed to receiving funding from the Lampert Institute, Upstate Institute, student- or faculty-initiated summer research, TIA, or Colgate summer employment are obligated to withdraw their funding application through Career Services. Likewise, students who commit to accessing Career Services funding should  withdraw from other on-campus funding sources’ application processes.

Students who receive a small grant through the training, courses, and credentials program (maximum grant $3,500 for aided students/$1,500 for unaided students) may be eligible for other sources of campus funding, not to exceed the maximum summer funding grant size.

Refer to our housing search resources page for some tips.