Undergraduate students enrolled at Purdue and other U.S. institutions are eligible to apply.

Please review the full list of eligibility criteria on the website. Students can participate in the SURF program only once.

Yes. See the eligibility criteria and Pre-SURF program for more details.

SURF program is only available to students currently enrolled in an institution in the U.S.

No. SURF is available only for students who will continue to be enrolled as an undergraduate for at least one academic semester/quarter after the end of the SURF program.

Please visit the SURF Application Form to apply online.

No. However, we encourage Purdue students to contact faculty members directly to determine if research opportunities exist in their lab. We highly encourage you to determine your areas of interest and explore the research being conducted on campus. Each school/department’s website lists faculty members and their specific research areas. We also have a list of projects with potential openings; however, this is not a comprehensive list of potential projects.

For non-Purdue students considered for the program, the SURF staff will assist them in finding an appropriate research project and mentor. Students are encouraged to explore Purdue websites to discover the research being conducted at Purdue and indicate their research interest on the application form, including specific projects and names of faculty members, if possible.

Yes, the interdisciplinary aspect of many of the projects allows students to learn and work across other disciplines while still applying the concepts and skills from their own programs. Students are encouraged to determine all research areas that may be of interest to them.

GPA is considered along with the entire application. A minimum cumulative GPA of 2.8 is required.

A PDF of either official or unofficial transcript should be uploaded along with your application. Your transcript should include all past and current coursework. Please do NOT email/mail us your transcript.

Only external students (Non-Purdue students) need a letter of recommendation. You can submit your application without the letter of recommendation letter. Once you submit your application, you will receive a link to upload the LOR. You may forward it to your recommender so that they can upload the letter to our system.

You can obtain a recommendation letter from a Professor/Professional who you have worked closely with and can attest to your work ethics, attitude, behavior, skills, and interest related to the SURF program. Recommenders may be faculty teaching a course you have taken, lab lead of a research project that you were part of, professionals leading a team that you did your internship in. 

Your letter of recommendation should describe why you would be a good fit for the SURF program. Your recommender may choose to describe your professional work ethics, and/or your research/leadership/teamwork capabilities based on their interaction with you.

It is good practice to allow your recommender 2-3 weeks to submit your letter of recommendation. You should plan ahead, and request a recommendation ahead of time, so that your recommender has time to submit the letter before the application deadline. 

The letter of interest is a one-page letter describing why you are interested in the program and why you think that you would be a good fit for the program. It should be directed to EURO. You can mention your interest in SURF, relevant skills and experience, research interests, career goal, how research is aligned with your future plan, and the project(s) that matches your research interest. You also may explain any special circumstances applicable to your background and elaborate on your special abilities, awards, achievements, scholarly publications, and/or professional history.

Here is a template of letter of interest for your reference.

These are some relevant links, which you may find helpful:

https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Students/CoverLetters

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html

https://www.cco.purdue.edu/Students/WhatWeOffer?tab=CCOHandbook

No, you will only write one. Be sure your letter of interest is all-inclusive, and supports your suitability for all three projects listed on your application. If you are particularly interested in working in a faculty's project or have reached out to a faculty/graduate student already, you can also mention that and list why you would be a good candidate for the project (courses taken, previous research experience etc. that align with the requirements of the project of interest).

The deadline for SURF 2023 application is 15 February, 2023 (11:59 PM EST). 

You may count 3 completed quarter systems to be equal to 2 completed semesters. 

Yes, you will still need to submit an application. Indicate the details of the project in the application when prompted. Also, you may choose to post a research project in the SURF website on behalf of your graduate mentor/faculty mentor, to facilitate the process. See Post a research project for more details. 

Please email eur@purdue.edu to request change by Feb 15 if you would like to update your choices of projects. Please do NOT submit a new application. We will accommodate to change once.

The Engineering Undergraduate Research Office is located in Room 2522, Dudley Hall, 420 Central Dr, West Lafayette. Office hour schedule can be found here.

Purdue students are responsible for securing their own housing for the summer. External students from another U.S. institution will obtain free housing for the duration of the SURF program.

During the summer, students are paid $6000 on a biweekly schedule for the 11-week program.

The SURF stipend will be paid as a personal payment. Students are considered participants in the SURF program but are not employees of the university. In most cases, taxes will not be withheld from your checks, but the income may be subject to taxes at the end of the year. Each taxpayer is responsible for determining the amount that may be taxable and should contact a tax advisor with questions. IRS Publication 970 may provide helpful information.

Note: For international students, the payments may be subject to taxes as required by the U.S. government. Participants will be asked to update their on-line Glacier file. The generated summary report will indicate any tax liability and the documents required by the university to process your pay.

No. SURF students will only be able to receive pay for completing the 11-week program.

We do not recommend the students to take classes during SURF. This has to be discussed with the faculty mentor and this option is available only to Purdue students at the discretion of the faculty mentors. External students are not allowed to take summer classes while participating in the program.

Yes. Since SURF is a 10-week program in a span of 11-week, students are eligible to take time off. However, this has to be discussed and approved by the faculty mentors and EURO ahead of time. Students are advised to discuss this with their faculty mentor before accepting the position (especially if long duration of time off is anticipated during the summer).

Each summer, 150-200 students participate in the SURF program.

SURF may offer research opportunities during the academic year, as well. If available, they will be posted on the SURF website.

SURF 2023 will be most likely be in person given the current information. Please check back later for a final decision.