Summer Research and Creative Projects: For Students

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Each summer, roughly 200 undergraduates work directly with faculty members on projects that touch the frontiers of discovery.

Most fellowships are funded directly by Colgate. Additional fellowships receive funding from corporate or foundation grants, individual donors, or individual faculty research grants.

Summertime research and creative projects often result in the presentation of papers at professional meetings or publication in journals, with undergraduates as co-authors and exhibitors. Students and faculty from all academic departments and divisions participate.

There are two ways for students to pursue research or creative projects on campus over the summer:

Each summer, many faculty members from across the university will have positions available to students to collaborate on existing faculty research and creative projects. Students interested in collaborating in one of the projects (listed below) may apply to the faculty member through an online application form.

The student will collaborate in the project at a high intellectual level for up to 10 weeks over the summer, receiving a stipend of $585 per week.

Available Positions, 2025

Information on for summer 2025 will be released in January, 2025.

There are positions available in each of the following departments and programs. Students may submit a single application to express interest in up to three positions (positions may be in any department/program or combination of departments/programs).

Deadlines

Stages Deadline
Students apply online to up to three faculty Feb 6, 2025
Faculty decisions announced to students via email from the Office of Undergraduate Research Feb 28, 2025
Students reply to undergraduate research office to accept position and indicate start/end dates March 14, 2025
Summer housing TBD

 

Past projects

This type of funding envisions research or creative projects supervised by faculty mentors but proposed by students. Projects do not need to be related to the faculty member’s research or specific area of scholarly or artistic interest, but the faculty member must agree to supervise the student for the duration of the project. Students apply for funding in consultation with faculty mentors. Information about applying and application deadlines may be found at the student-initiated summer research page.

Other Summer Opportunities

Colgate and its generous alumni and parent donors offer grants to support the living costs and supplemental expenses of students who pursue unpaid and underpaid summer experiences.

Explore Summer Funding

The Center for Freedom and Western Civilization sponsors students (current second or third-year students) to pursue faculty-mentored summer research projects focused on themes related to the Western heritage of freedom, culture, and civilization. These opportunities are available through the James Madison Fellowship and the International Security and Intelligence Programme at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University.

More about the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization

The Lampert Institute grants several fellowships each summer allowing Colgate students to design research projects analyzing a policy issue of the student's choice under the mentorship of a faculty member. Students must also participate in a seminar course during the fall of their senior year.

Lampert Institute

The Office of Sustainability offers a 10-week, paid internship for five students each summer. Interns will spend approximately half of their time supporting the Colgate Community Garden and the other half dedicated to various sustainability projects within the office. Applications will open on the portal early in spring semester. 

Student involvement in sustainability

Summer Field School Fellows work with community, government, or non-profit partners in the local and Adirondack region to complete independent research work on projects that benefit the upstate New York community in a variety of fields.

Field school

For Faculty

If you are a faculty member interested in applying for funding to support student projects over the summer, please see the summer fellowship information page for faculty.

Contact Information

Questions about specific summer fellowship opportunities should be directed to the advising faculty member.

Questions regarding the summer fellowship application process and funding opportunities may be directed to:

kgbelanger
Karyn Belanger
Co-Director Center for Learning, Teaching, and Research
101A Lathrop Hall