FROST SUMMER UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROGRAM
ONE SUMMER CAN SHAPE YOUR FUTURE
This program will empower you to dive into research that matters. With guidance from faculty mentors and financial support, you can focus on work and turn ideas into discovery while gaining valuable experience to shape your academic and professional path.
Career and Life-Changing
The Frost Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) is Learn by Doing at its best. Each summer, 200 undergraduates engage in full-time, faculty-mentored research supported by the Frost Fund. Another 50-100 are supported by faculty grants and by individual donation. Other students are supported part-time by grants or participate on a volunteer basis. In other words, there are many ways for students to be part of this transformative program in the Bailey College.
Beyond the exciting opportunity to contribute to real-world research with the potential for publication, students also come together for workshops, seminars, research symposia and community-building activities that foster learning, curiosity and connection. For most, the participants’ experiences actively shape their career and professional paths moving forward.
Fund Your Frost SURP Experience
The Frost SURP is made possible through external grants and private donations, including the Frost Fund. Frost Research Fellows receive a $4,500 Frost Undergraduate Research Award to participate in research full-time for 8-10 weeks during the summer. Students with high financial need may be eligible for a supplemental summer award through the Bailey College Undergraduate Research Fund. See the FAQs below for more info on Frost SURP and how to apply.
From a high level, my biggest interests are math, data science and computer science. My Frost SURP project combined all of those things.
FAQs
The below FAQ information is for students and faculty who will participate in the Frost Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP). If you have questions about applying for Frost SURP, please contact your department.
General Frost SURP
- Frost Research Fellows are student participants in the Frost Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) who are paid a Frost Undergraduate Research Award.
- Frost Research Scholars are recipients of a $10,000 scholarship for continuing students that includes the guaranteed opportunity to participate in Frost SURP, which comes with the $4,500 award.
Your department will provide instructions for you to complete the following:
- Environmental Health and Safety Volunteer Form
- Frost Research Fellow Student Agreement
- Enrollment in UNIV 421 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, a zero-unit, zero-cost course
- Sign up for direct deposit (strongly recommended but not required)
During the program, Frost Research Fellows are encouraged not to participate in other academic or work-related activities. Students who must work or take classes should consult their faculty mentor; it is at the faculty mentor’s discretion to determine whether they will realistically be able to fulfill the full-time Frost SURP commitment (typically 30-40 hours a week for 8-10 weeks, or 300 hours over the course of the summer). Frost Research Fellows receiving aid for summer courses should consult Financial Aid; other forms of financial aid may reduce the amount of the Frost SURP award because summer aid cannot exceed Financial Aid’s estimated expenses for summer.
Please use the acknowledgment sentence below:
This research was generously supported by the William and Linda Frost Fund in the Cal Poly Bailey College of Science and Mathematics.
The above sentence is also included in the student agreement.
Only continuing undergraduates and 4+1 program students who have not yet had their undergraduate degree are eligible to receive a Frost Undergraduate Research Award. Recent graduates may be able to participate in Frost SURP on a volunteer or grant-funded basis, if their faculty mentor is offering these options.
Only fully matriculated Cal Poly students are eligible to receive any a Frost Undergraduate Research Award or other summer research award that is disbursed through Financial Aid.
Frost Undergraduate Research Award
The $4,500 student awards are disbursed by the end of July. The timing is also listed on the student agreement each Frost Research Fellow signs. Most awards are posted by the end of the third week in July, but end of July is when we commit to having them posted.
We are not able to disburse the awards more quickly because we are unable to begin processing the awards prior to July 1, the start of the fiscal year. After that, it takes about 10 business days for the award posting process to be completed by Financial, plus 3-5 days for Student Accounts to “refund” the award to the student. If a student is not signed up for direct deposit, this will add several days to the process. If you have not received your award by the end of July, please contact Financial Aid at financialaid@calpoly.edu.
Sign up for direct deposit for student accounts refunds via the Cal Poly Portal (myportal.calpoly.edu) Money Matters Tab, using the “Direct Deposit for Refunds” link that can be found in under Self Service.
For students not signed up for direct deposit specifically for Student Accounts refunds, payment checks will be mailed to the address in the student’s portal. If opting for this method of payment, please ensure the address is correct, and anticipate that the processing will take several extra days.
When Financial Aid posts the awards to Student Accounts, it may temporarily appear as though future tuition and fees will be deducted from the award amount. However, this is not the case, and it will self-correct. The only instance when the award amount may be reduced is if the awardee has past due tuition and fees, which is rare.
Yes, late registration for UNIV 421, the required zero unit and zero cost course, may delay award payment. It may also result in a late registration fee.
Students who receive the Frost stipends receive a 1098-T with the amount they received in a calendar year listed on Box 5. Please see Student Accounts for information on how students can access their 1098-T. Whether an award is taxable depends on each student’s specific annual income, and is best answered by the student’s tax preparer or tax accountant. For more information, please visit the offical IRS webpage on “Scholarships, fellowship grants, and other grants” at https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc421.
Faculty Mentor Stipend
Payments will be issued via a non-instructional summer appointment, and these WTUs will count toward the faculty member’s maximum workload for summer. The number of WTUs each mentor receives will vary depending on their individual pay rate, and will be calculated in order to match these payment amounts as closely as possible:
Faculty Department Frost SURP Coordinator payments: $1,000
Faculty mentor payments:
- 1 student = $1,500
- 2 students = $3,000
- 3 students = $4,000
- 4 students = $5,000
- 5 students = $6,000 (this is the maximum)
Yes, but please make sure you communicate this to your department’s Frost SURP faculty coordinator before June.
Full-time continuing academic-year faculty who will be on pay status in Fall Semester and continuing graduate students are eligible to receive a Frost faculty mentor stipend.
Twelve-month employees, such as chairs or Frost Postdoctoral Research Fellows, are not eligible. In addition, faculty who will be taking a leave of absence or will otherwise not be in full time pay status during the start of the upcoming academic year are not eligible to receive a mentor stipend.
Yes. If for some reason a faculty member is unable to fulfill their commitment to mentor a Frost Research Scholar during the summer due to unforeseen circumstances, another faculty member can fill in. Please communicate this by email to help ensure the mentor stipend goes to the correct faculty member.
No, faculty mentor stipends can only go to current faculty.
Graduate Student Stipends for Co-Mentoring
Yes, this can be done if the faculty member provides the department Frost SURP coordinator with these details prior to June, and the Frost SURP coordinator enters this in the department spreadsheet tab:
- Name of graduate student co-mentor
- Name(s) of undergraduate student(s) they will co-mentor
No, the graduate student can only receive the full amount ($1,000-1,500) per student mentored.
Stipends for graduate students are split into three equal monthly payments, with the first payment typically taking place at the beginning of August. Graduate students should refer to the AdobeSign form (AP101-S) they sign for their graduate assistant appointment for the exact payment amounts. Graduate students who have not received payment by mid-August should contact Payroll Services directly to find out the status of their payment.
No, because the stipend is paid via graduate assistant appointment, it cannot be paid to incoming graduate students.