The hidden cost of lab experience

The federal benchmark for a funded summer

The National Science Foundation runs the largest paid undergraduate research program in the country. It expects its summer sites to pay each student about $700 a week, and to cover housing, meals, and travel on top. It expects the full cost to stay under about $1,550 per student per week.¹

Ten weeks at those rates comes to $7,000 in stipend and up to $15,500 in total. That is what the government thinks a summer of student research is worth. An unpaid position pays none of it.

Most students already work

Nearly 70 percent of college students work while enrolled. Of the 14 million who do, about 6 million come from low-income families.² They work longer hours, in jobs further from their field. The same study found that higher-income students hold the internships and assistantships, and low-income students hold the food service, sales, and office jobs.²

A student in that position cannot swap a paying job for a lab that pays nothing. Researchers who study access to science have made the point directly: students who must work to pay for college often cannot volunteer for a research experience.³ Reporting in 2026 found that many colleges still rely on unpaid undergraduate research, and that the practice limits who takes part.⁴

Some universities now say this in their own rules. New York University lets students spend research grant money on income they lose by cutting hours at a job.⁵

Unpaid work pays off less

The National Association of Colleges and Employers surveys graduating students every year. Students who held paid internships averaged 1.61 job offers. Students who held unpaid internships averaged 0.94, close to the 0.77 for students with no internship at all.⁶

Paid internship

1.61

Unpaid internship

0.94

No internship

0.77

Source: NACE 2022 Student Survey, four-year college students.⁶

Pay followed the same line. The median starting salary was $62,500 for students with paid internships and $42,500 for students with unpaid ones.⁶ The 2023 survey found the same gap: 1.4 offers against 0.9, and $67,500 against $45,000.⁷

Paid internship

$62,500

Unpaid internship

$42,500

Source: NACE 2022 Student Survey.⁶

NACE also found that women, Black students, Hispanic students, and first-generation students were underrepresented in the paid positions.⁶

Debt closes the next door too

Undergraduate debt lowers the chance that a science graduate goes on to graduate school.⁸ A student who borrows to cover an unpaid summer pays for it twice.

What we do with this

We cannot change how labs pay. We can change whether a student can say yes. Read how the money moves, or apply for funding.

Sources

1. U.S. National Science Foundation. Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), program solicitation NSF 23-601. Stipend and cost guidance for REU Sites. nsf.gov
2. 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
3. Bangera G, Brownell SE. Course-based undergraduate research experiences can make scientific research more inclusive. CBE Life Sciences Education. 2014;13(4):602-606. doi.org
4. Inside Higher Ed. Rethinking unpaid undergraduate research. April 16, 2026. insidehighered.com
5. New York University, College of Arts and Science. Dean's Undergraduate Research Fund, research grant description and allowable expenses. studentresearchandfunding.nyu.edu
6. National Association of Colleges and Employers. Position statement: U.S. internships. Reports results of the NACE 2022 Student Survey. naceweb.org
7. National Association of Colleges and Employers. Press release, July 27, 2023. Results of the 2023 Student Survey on paid and unpaid internships. naceweb.org
8. Malcom LE, Dowd AC. The impact of undergraduate debt on the graduate school enrollment of STEM baccalaureates. The Review of Higher Education. 2012;35(2):265-305. doi.org

Sources checked September 21, 2026. See every source we cite.