Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) FAQs

Monday, January 30, 2023.

Current Pomona students who are returning in the fall.

Students must also be in good standing with the college.

If your project is designed by and under the direction of a Pomona College faculty member, it is a Research Assistantship. All other projects are considered Summer Projects.

No, only one application per student is allowed.

Applicants must complete on an online application through SM Apply. 

Students should identify faculty in their area of interest and contact them directly, well before the application deadline, to discuss Research Assistantship options and plan the research proposal. Faculty supervising Research Assistants have their own SURP application to complete.

Students interested in a Research Assistantship that is outside of Pomona College should first seek funding from or through the external principal researcher whom they would be assisting. For projects that cannot be funded by the host institution and are not available at Pomona, the opportunity would be considered a Summer Project, requiring endorsement by a Pomona faculty member and recommendation from the external researcher.

Yes. Be advised that U.S. Department of State Travel Advisories will be taken into consideration. 

Note that the Pomona College Policy Regarding College-Funded International Student Travel has been revised as of October 2022. If your project is outside the United States, please complete a preliminary travel form (pages 2-4 at the link) and upload to your application.

SURP projects are expected to be 40 hours a week for the duration of the project.

Students are not allowed to hold more than one Pomona-funded summer opportunity.

Those who have additional non-Pomona opportunities are discouraged from pursuing both simultaneously.

Research Assistant proposals should be based on discussion between the student and the Pomona Faculty member. Faculty and Students complete their own applications, and Students can use the Faculty member's core project description. The Student Application also requires students to describe their individual contributions to the project and how the proposed experience would enhance their Pomona College education.

The proposal narrative should provide an outline of the project’s goals and specific aims, what resources contributed to the project, research design and methods, and projected outcomes. The reviewers will typically not be familiar with the subject matter, so we encourage students to use lay terms.

Each student applicant must prepare their own unique application. Duplicate applications (where all of two students' applications are identical) will not be accepted. Students working as a team should each explain their role in the project, and how the project might work if not all members of the team were funded.

All SURP students need a Pomona faculty mentor, even if you have a mentor at another institution. The student is expected to be in frequent contact with their Pomona faculty mentor to keep them apprised of the project status.

Pomona faculty mentors and their students can determine how much contact time is needed for their project.

Yes.

The Research Committee, including representatives from each division, reviews the applications.

The student and their mentor will be notified if they have been awarded a SURP. Students have 1 week from award notification to accept or decline their SURP award. Awards that are declined will be offered to students on the waitlist.

The Research Committee will contact you to determine if you would like to remain on the waitlist or decline. Additional SURP funds can become available when awarded students decline their SURP. When this happens, the Research Committee will realign those funds with the next eligible candidate on the waitlist. Students should anticipate remaining on the waitlist for approximately 2 weeks. After this period, you will be notified if an award has become available or if your project has been declined for this award cycle.

Many of our donor funds have restrictions that limit what they can be used for, so the Committee must review waitlisted candidates not only on merit, but also that they meet the requirements of the available funds. For this reason, the waitlist is not ordered and waitlisted students cannot be given any estimation of how likely it could be that their project will be funded.

SURP is only available to students enrolled in the following Fall semester. Students are not eligible for SURP funding during the summer after graduation. However, interested seniors could check whether alternate funds may be available in departments or with a specific faculty member (for example, if they have a student wage line on an external grant.)

SURPs can be anywhere between 4-8 weeks in length. Projects can start as early as a week after commencement and end no later than the second week of August. Dates outside of this timeframe require prior approval. Contact grants@pomona.edu to initiate an approval request.

SURP 2023 will fund all students at $700 per week.

SURP funding is decided from the outset and based on the feasibility of the proposed project. While you are encouraged to finish your project, additional funding will not be available. Final Presentations for the Summer Experience Symposium are still required for projects that have become longer undertakings or feed into a senior exercise.

Andy Schuster, Grants Administrator. grants@pomona.edu.