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The bill for an unpaid summer
4 min read, by the Student Research Institute
A lab that takes an unpaid student spends almost nothing. The student spends a summer's rent.
The federal government has already priced this. The National Science Foundation runs the largest paid undergraduate research program in the country, and it tells the sites it funds what to budget. A student should receive about $700 a week. Housing, meals, and travel come on top. The total should stay under about $1,550 per student per week.1
Run that for ten weeks. The stipend alone is $7,000. The full cost is up to $15,500. That is what a summer of student research costs when someone is honest about it. An unpaid position moves the whole bill to the student.
Who can pay it
Nearly 70 percent of college students work while they study. About 6 million of those working students come from low-income families, and they are more likely to hold jobs in food service, sales, and office support than internships or assistantships.2 For them the cost of an unpaid summer has two parts: the rent they must find, and the wages they stop earning.
Some universities now write this into their rules. New York University lets undergraduates spend research grant money on income lost from cutting hours at a job.3 That is a university saying, in its own funding rules, that lost wages are a research cost.
What we do with the bill
We pay it. A company or a grant program funds a named cost, usually housing, and we give it to a student who holds a position. The lab gets a student who can show up every day. The student gets to be one.
Work out your own number with the calculator on the hidden cost page. If the number is more than you have, apply.
Sources
- U.S. National Science Foundation. Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), program solicitation NSF 23-601. Stipend and cost guidance for REU Sites. nsf.gov
- Carnevale AP, Smith N. Balancing Work and Learning: Implications for Low-Income Students. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 2018. cew.georgetown.edu
- New York University, College of Arts and Science. Dean's Undergraduate Research Fund, research grant description and allowable expenses. studentresearchandfunding.nyu.edu
Sources checked September 21, 2026. See every source we cite.
For companies and foundations
Fund a student researcher
Your gift pays for rent, a stipend, books, or a journal fee. It goes to a student who has the position and lacks the money to take it.