Are you wondering what a Swattie does during summer breaks? Swarthmore provides students with a multitude of different research, funding, non-Swarthmore and Swarthmore opportunities in almost every country, county, and state. There are opportunities through different academic departments, such as research with a professor, and there are also scholarships and funding to do independent projects at Swarthmore, with Swarthmore professors, and globally (at different colleges and different areas of the world). Swat students also find ways to do incredible activities over the summer with little to no affiliation with the college!
The Career Services stipend (open to all majors):
The Career Services department at Swarthmore provides stipends for industries that are typically unpaid or under-paid, such as non-profit summer internships, jobs, or research opportunities. This program is uniquely very well connected to various Philadelphia-based start-ups too! The Career Services stipend is primarily used for unpaid industries and opportunities. These opportunities are open to freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. One of my close friends, an applied Math and Computer Science Double-Major in the class of 2026, did research with a math professor for around 8 weeks. He applied and was granted this stipend, meaning that he was paid for the research he did over this past summer. He studied retinal disparity using a computer algorithm and applied mathematics models. He really enjoyed the research as a whole and being able to study within his major, with his advisor, while also being at school and being able to use the Swarthmore facilities. He also, luckily, had a couple weeks to go home before coming to school early for a fall sport! The hours and weeks vary depending on your field, the professor, and the work that you are doing. Although Swarthmore is not a university or a prominent research college, it does produce lots of research over the summer, primarily in STEM fields, and many students work during the year, and notably, over the summer, to do this.
The stipends in general are around $6,000 for up to 10 weeks of full-time (35-40 hours per week) work. The applications for these various processes typically open in January and close in February; students are notified about the status of their application(s) in March with an acceptance deadline of April 1. Along with all of these opportunities, the various departments provide websites with links to internships that students typically apply to, such as, for the Political Science Department, the Brookings Institute and the United Nations (UN).
Swarthmore has a multitude of other in-semester internships and fellowships, along with the summer funding and internships available, as linked here.
Over my summer 2024, I did research and helped a faculty member at UNC-Chapel Hill interested in History and Judaic Studies. I mostly did remote work, with a couple of in-person meetings, and I used Zoom to communicate with my advisor. I primarily read Judaic poetry, which was super amazing and beautiful to read. I acquired this position from emailing this faculty member out of the blue after I found what she was doing at UNC and thought it was very interesting. I had an amazing first time in academia. Although Swarthmore did not directly connect me with this field of research or the professor, the communication and intellectual advocacy skills that I have begun to cultivate at Swarthmore greatly aided me in securing this position over the summer. Swarthmore was, and still is, a big factor in positively impacting and shaping my future and career aspirations.