Making the Most out of your Summer with the MIT Summer Research Program
Many students, whether for prestige or interest, want to get into more research during college, so that they can both demonstrate their perseverance and their intelligence to the world. However, it is difficult to find both great mentors and great forums for showing off your hard work. One great option is to sign up for a research program at a university, where qualified and experienced professors can help you with this task.
Among famous research universities, MIT is undoubtedly the best choice for STEM research. Its summer programs also offer great opportunities for high schoolers. In this blog, we will introduce the MSRP, along with its benefits, research features, requirements to sign up, how to apply, and the faculty mentors you can find at the program.
What is the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP)?
The MSRP is a summer program at MIT that allows high schoolers to do research, mentored by their qualified professors. While researching, MIT provides many different benefits to students and many features that make the program worthwhile.
You can find a quick YouTube video about this program here.
Benefits
Students are mentored by an MIT faculty member, postdoctoral fellow, or advanced graduate student
Students receive academic career counseling
Students receive feedback on undergraduate courses
Students can co-author a scientific paper with the faculty mentor
Students can experience state-of-the-art research laboratories at MIT
Students receive a weekly stipend, round-trip travel expenses, and subsidies for housing and food
Students receive access to MIT campus facilities
Research Features
Weekly research presentation by MIT faculty
Weekly seminars on academic, personal, and professional growth
Community service day
Social outings
Preparation of an abstract, research paper, and graduate school statement of purpose
Poster presentation of research
What are the Requirements to Sign Up for MSRP?
Requirements
MSRP has what seems to be a variety of criteria to apply, but in short, it is just three requirements: be a college student in the US, have a greater than 3.5 overall GPA, and have either a citizen, resident, DACA, or Visa for the US.
The full list:
Have more than a 3.5 overall or major GPA
Must be enrolled in secondary education (University or College) in the US
Be a sophomore, junior, or non-graduating senior there, with at least 2 years of college work
Interested in pursuing a graduate degree in MIT’s programs
Interested in pursuing a career in research or teaching
Be a US Citizen, Permanent Resident, have a DACA, or an appropriate Visa and work authorization.
However, since certain fields have their specific research programs, you cannot apply if you want to research in the Biology or Brain & Cognitive Sciences departments. You can find their special summer programs here.
Encouraged to Apply
In an effort to increase student diversity, MIT also created a list of criteria for applicants that they wish would apply to their program. They encourage more academic participation in communities or groups that are historically underrepresented or disadvantaged in the field that the student wishes to research.
They encourage students who:
May be historically underrepresented in their field of interest and research
Are from a non-traditional educational background or in underrepresented communities
Have demonstrated significant academic achievement by overcoming barriers such as economic, social, or educational disadvantage
Have the potential to contribute to higher education by understanding the barriers facing underrepresented groups
Have demonstrated leadership experience advancing belonging, achievement, and composition.
Have research interests focusing on underserved populations and understanding issues of inequalities.
How do I apply to MSRP?
If you meet those requirements, you can apply on their Slideroom page here.
The application for Summer 2024 has already opened on October 24, 2023, and will end on January 16, 2024. However, they also had sessions to help with your application on November 7th at 3 PM ET and December 7th at 12 PM ET.
Generally, MIT encourages students to apply to more search opportunities to get a greater chance of being accepted. In particular, they encourage students to visit this website. Students just need to fill in some information to receive a list of opportunities. You can also apply to InspiritAI Research programs, in order to expand your list of opportunities.
Here are some examples of people who have successfully entered the MSRP program.
Who are the Faculty Mentors for the MSRP?
There are a lot of different faculty mentors at MSRP for each different field of study. They have created a useful Prezi presentation, that would allow you to both find your department and your potential faculty mentors. You can also find a list of mentors, descriptions, specializations, and websites in the Google Sheets here. Additionally, students may list any MIT faculty in any school within their interested mentors list. Approximately 70% of students are placed with a mentor that they have listed in their interested mentors list.
You can explore the MIT faculty list and potential mentors here.
Have Any Other Questions?
MIT has provided a very detailed FAQ page here. You can find many answers to popular questions there.
Closing Thoughts
The MSRP is an awesome opportunity to make the most out of your summer, and set up your academic career for success. With the experience that you can gain there, you can achieve great things in future research as well.
If you are looking for more opportunities or a different research program more specifically tailored to Technology and AI, check out our 1:1 AI Mentorship program here, and apply here now!
We hope this blog was informative and useful for your research about the MSRP, and we wish you luck in your application!
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
