Frequently Asked Questions

Please visit our Mission page to learn about the overall goals of the SIMR program.  Students who are applying to the summer program must be current high school juniors or seniors at the time of application. Students must also be 16 years old or older by the program start date.  The program is open to all U.S. citizens and permanent residents (with a green card) and MUST CURRENTLY BE LIVING IN AND ATTENDING HIGH SCHOOL IN THE U.S.

This year we are expecting around 50 students.  The actual number will depend on the number of participating labs and our funding sources.

There is a $50 application fee to apply.  The application fee will be waived if your gross family income is under $80,000 or if you have special circumstances that make it difficult to pay.  If you need to waive the fee, you can indicate this on the online application.  If selected to participate in the program, there is NO COST for any student. There will be limited stipends given on a needs-based system from special grants. 

Housing/transportation are not provided by the program and all participants are required to live with a family member/legal adult guardian during the program.  For students who are from out of state or outside of the Bay Area, please note that finding housing in the Bay Area is extremely challenging and costly as it is a 8 week program.  We strongly recommend that you live with a close family member/relative who already resides in CA in the Bay Area.  On the application, students will be asked to write the contact information for the person they will be staying with.  If selected for the program, we will ask for immediate housing verification for those who are not from the Bay Area.  

The application fee of $50. 

On the application you will rank the institute in which you prefer to work. If accepted, you will be given a list of faculty who have offered to host students in their labs and their research topics which you will rank again.  Please do not contact Faculty on your own for the lab placement.

The first day there will be an morning orientation session which includes mandatory safety training. During the first and second next week, you will attend lectures several times a week in the morning and the rest of the day you will be in your lab. Most of the summer is reserved for full time lab work. You should expect to be on campus around 40 hours a week during the program (Monday through Friday, no evening or weekend hours). Throughout the summer there will be special joint lectures. During the last 2 weeks of the program, you will be busy preparing your poster for the poster session.

This is the highlight of the summer for the SIMR program where students will present a research poster of their project. Family, teachers, and Stanford community members (faculty, students, and staff) attend to view the posters and speak with the students about their research. The poster session is usually held on campus in the evening on the last day of the program. A special talk on how to put together a research poster will be given during the first couple of weeks by the Faculty Director of the program.

All day to day mentors are Stanford graduate students or post-doctoral fellows who will work closely with each student to carry out a research project in the lab of a faculty member.

Students should expect to participate in all 8 weeks of the program and are required to attend the orientation on the first day and all safety sessions. Students will spend approximately 40 hours/week in the program (Monday through Friday, approximately 8 hours/day).  Students should not be here on the weekends or evenings.

The selection process will strongly favor local students due to various grant requirements. Non-local students can still apply, but we are focusing our efforts on students from the Bay Area. Please click on the "mission" link on the left hand panel for more information.  Any students from out of the Bay Area must provide on their application the name/address of a family member who they will be staying with (students may not stay at hotels or AirBnbs). There are many other summer programs at Stanford that accept applicants from anywhere in the U.S. and you may find more information about other summer programs at https://oso.stanford.edu and https://spcs.stanford.edu.

To qualify for an application fee waiver, the total gross adjusted household income should be less than $80,000 per year.  Once you start a Slideroom application, there is a link in the application to request a waiver.