Summer Research Program
All of Wooster’s physics faculty are actively engaged in research involving undergraduates. During the academic year, our focus is on the College’s nationally-recognized Independent Study program. Every summer since 1994, we have also run an 8 to 10 week summer research program, currently funded by the National Science Foundation.
- Summer 2025 dates: May 27 to July 25
- Stipend: $7000
- No minimum GPA!
- Campus housing is included
- Funds for your travel expenses to relocate to Wooster are available.
Summer Research
- The College of Wooster’s 9-week REU program is housed in the Physics Department and includes a range of projects from astrophysics to quantum optics, from granular materials to chemistry.
- Students in the program have come from Wooster and from 55 other colleges or universities in 19 states.
- Our National Science Foundation funding is restricted to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, but Wooster students who are not U.S. citizens may also apply for Wooster-specific funding.
- The College of Wooster is a liberal arts college long recognized for its mentored undergraduate research. The research topics we offer in the sciences mix experiment, computation, and theory and are designed to fully incorporate even novice undergraduate students as full collaborators. Our faculty have designed on-going research programs that are both innovative and accessible to undergraduates. We treat our students as co-discoverers and teach them to become independent scientific thinkers and practitioners.
- Participants also take part in a variety of workshops for career-building activities, and we have multiple social events throughout the program. All students write a paper to summarize their work, and present their work to the broader community at our end-of-the-summer poster session. See our past schedules for more details!
- In 2025, our program begins Tuesday May 27 and ends Friday July 25. Students are paid a $7000 stipend. Campus housing is included, and funds for students to relocate to Wooster are available. Wooster is located in a scenic part of Northeast Ohio, about an hour from Cleveland or ninety minutes from Columbus.
- Many of our participants have completed only a single year of college. Our program is especially adaptable to students of a wide range of backgrounds because our faculty are dedicated to mentoring undergraduate research programs. Students should have completed one year of introductory physics at the college level in most cases.
- Peruse our results at conferences and in peer-reviewed publications or browse our history.
