Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduate Students
Notre Dame has many opportunities for promising undergraduate students to broaden their research skills in a range of disciplines with world-class faculty before applying for graduate studies (see the table below).
The Graduate School's Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP)
The Graduate School offers its own summer research experience for undergraduate students: the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). The goal of the SROP is to increase the attainment of advanced degrees offered through the Graduate School (please see list here) by domestic students (U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents, DREAMers, or DACA students), who meet one of the following criteria:
- first-generation or low-income college students; or
- have joined at least one affinity group associated with an underrepresented minority; or
- students and alumni of historically black colleges or universities, hispanic serving institutions, or tribal colleges or universities.
SROP prepares aspiring graduate students for success by immersing them in guided research on Notre Dame's campus with a faculty member. Additionally, the twenty-person cohort participates in a blend of professional, academic, and social programming. The SROP supports accepted applicants by providing:
- A generous stipend
- Housing expenses
- Travel expenses
- GRE prep course
- Specialized assistance with grant and fellowship applications to NSF, NIH, Fulbright, and more
- Up to $1,000 in travel and accommodations to support research presentations in the year following participation in SROP.
- 8-10 weeks (from late May to late July) of research and training
The deadline for applications is March 1. Eligible undergraduate students are encouraged to apply (instructions here).
Upcoming Events
Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) Info Session and Q&A:
- To be announced
Apply today to the Graduate School’s Summer Research Opportunities Program
Click here to view our 2023 SROP brochure
Meet Past Participants
Meet 2021 Notre Dame summer research participant Austin Wyman. Austin earned his bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of Notre Dame in May of 2023, and joined the Ph.D. program in the Department of Psychology in fall 2023. Austin applied to multiple graduate programs and external fellowships with the help of the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement at Notre Dame and the Graduate School’s Office of Grants and Fellowships and Graduate Enrollment Management teams.
Meet 2016 Notre Dame summer research participant Jordan Lewis. Jordan is an evolutionary biologist, who earned his Ph.D. from Emory University in the Population Biology, Ecology, and Evolution program at Laney Graduate School. Jordan is the recipient of the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and was recently awarded a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology from the National Science Foundation. He will be working as a postdoctoral research scientist at Yale University in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Meet 2015 Notre Dame summer research participant Karen Angeles. Karen earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at Notre Dame in the spring of 2023. She is a published scholar (e.g., in the journals Automation in Construction and Structural Safety) and has won several fellowships, including the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Karen has accepted a job as a research engineer on the Flood Vulnerability Team at Verisk, where she will be responsible for developing, enhancing, and managing the vulnerability component and overall model performance of Verisk Extreme Event Solutions’ water peril catastrophe models that cover worldwide regions.
All Notre Dame Undergraduate Summer Research Programs & Areas