Five College Astronomy Department Summer 2025 Research Internships
Each summer the Five College Astronomy Department offers several undergraduate research internships with department faculty. The summer program will also include activities with other astronomy summer students and research talks by local astronomers. The internships will last for ten weeks beginning around June 2, 2025, and will provide a stipend of about $6000. You will need to find your own summer housing. There are many summer sublet possibilities both privately and through campus services such as offcampushousing.umass.edu. There are also some separate scholarship opportunities for students at the individual campuses to obtain housing support.
The Five College Astronomy Department conducts research in a wide variety of areas, including the astrophysics of comets, stars, exoplanets, the interstellar medium, and galaxies. There are opportunities to work with radio, infrared, optical, and X-ray data, and to carry out computer modeling, instrument development, and data analysis.
Eligibility: You should be enrolled at one of the Five Colleges (Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, or UMass) and not scheduled to graduate before the end of the academic year. The internships are open to astronomy majors, and majors in math and sciences who are actively considering a career in astronomy. Juniors planning to write a senior research thesis in astronomy are especially encouraged to apply. Exceptional applicants from other local universities or colleges may also be considered.
Click HERE for application.
Undergraduate Research Programs in Astrophysics
| Program Name | Nominal Deadline | Limitations | Webpage |
|---|---|---|---|
| NASA Internships | Fall, Summer and Spring | US only | Click Here |
| LAMAT Program at UCSC | Early December | Currently enrolled in CC in CA (or 2 year institution elsewhere) | Click Here |
| DAAD Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE) Germany | December | Undergraduate students | Click Here |
| Computational Physics Summer Workshop, Los Alamos National Lab | January | Undergraduate and Graduate students | Click Here |
| NSF REU: Northen Arizona University (Flagstaff, AZ) | January 31 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard (Cambridge, MA) | January 31 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: University of Utah (Physics & Astronomy) (Salt Lake City, UT) | January 31 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| Space Telescope Science Institute Space Astronomy Summer Program | January 31 | Non-US and post-bac applications accepted | Click Here |
| Carnegie Observatories Summer Research Program | January 31 | SoCal resident or student | Click Here |
| NRAO Summer Student Research Assistantships: NRAO-Charlottesville, NRAO-Socorro, NRAO-Green Bank | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: American Museum of Natural History | Feburary 1 | US only | Click Here |
| NSF REU: Cornell University | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: Lousiana State University | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: MIT Haystack Observatory | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click here |
| NSF REU: Maria Mitchell Observatory (Nantucket, MA) | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: Northwestern University/CIERA (Chicago, IL) | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: SETI Institute (Mountain View, CA) | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: UC Boulder | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Institute of Astronomy (Honolulu, HI) | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: University of Michigan (Physics & Astronomy) | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and the Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC Summer Research Opportunity (Dwingeloo, Netherlands) | Feburary 1 | Graduate or advanced- undergraduate | Click Here |
| Cal-Bridge CAMPARE | Feburary 1 | CA State University or CA Community College only | Click Here |
| NSF DAWN-IRES Scholars Program (Copenhagen, Denmark) | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bac (but includes PhD students) | Click Here |
| NSF REU: UT Austin | Feburary 1 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| KNAC REU program | Mid- February | Non-US can apply, member school students only, no post- bacs | Click Here |
| College of Natural Sciences William Lee Science Impact Program (Lee SIP) | Mid- February | UMass undergrad; GPA 3.0 or higher | Click Here |
| NSF NOIRLab, Chile | September | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: University of Wisconson, Madison | February 15 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| NSF REU: University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY) | February 15 | US Only | Click here |
| Bryce Canyon National Park Summer Astronomy Outreach Internship | February 15 | US only, no post-bacs | Click Here |
| The Chalmers Astrophysics and Space Science Science Summer (CASSUM) Research Fellowship program | February 22 | Undergrad Students only | Click Here |
| LEAPS Program, Leiden Observatory (Leiden, Netherlands) | February 28 | All students not currently in PhD program | Click Here |
| NSF REU: RIT (Rochester, NY) | March 1 (?) | US only, no post-bacs; Deaf/ hard-of-hearing students encouraged to apply | Click Here |
| NSBP/SAO EHT Summer Internship | February 1 | URM/POC encouraged | Click Here |
| Black Hole Explorers Internship, Center for Astrophysics/Harvard & Smithsonian | February 15 | No post-bacs | Click Here |
General Application Material (may vary by program):
★ Personal Statement
★ Unofficial Transcripts
★ ~2 Letters of Recommendation (request these early, at least 2 weeks before the deadline, and give friendly deadline reminders to your letter writers!)