Applications for these programs may become available in October through December, and early application is always encouraged since these programs usually go through a rolling admissions process. Letters of recommendation are always expected from college professors. Deadlines for most of these programs occur by February to March. Successful applicants tend to be very desirable for health professional graduate as well as research-oriented programs.

This list is organized by name of sponsoring institution. More programs can be found on Explore Health Careers. WebGuru also has suggestions on undergraduate research experiences and has a searchable database. A compilation in a PDF document can also be found through SACNAS. A list of cooperative and paid opportunities is available at Rochester Institute of Technology and the PMABS office at UNC. Other health professions links: Wesleyan University Career Development Center.

Make sure you are eligible before you apply. Some of these programs are only for freshmen and sophomores, some for upperclassmen, and a few welcome postbaccalaurates. Many items here list formal mentoring programs for minority, underrepresented, and disadvantaged students, who normally do not have the connections to find opportunities with specific labs or clinics; make sure you are eligible according to their definitions.

Almost all of these programs require at least one letter of recommendation from a faculty member. Make sure you secure that letter and appropriately follow-up.

• Summer Undergraduate Research Program and Hispanic Center of Excellence Summer Undergraduate Mentorship Program, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York
• Summer Undergraduate Fellowship Program and Minority Undergraduate Summer Experience Program, American Association of Physicists in Medicine
  
• Summer Medical and Dental Education Program, 12 different sites, coordinated by the American Dental Education Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges
• Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship opportunities from the American Physiological Society
  
• Undergraduate Research Fellowship and Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship (underrepresented) Programs, American Society for Microbiology (research must be done at GMU with faculty member who is an ASM member)
• Summer Pre-dental Enrichment Program, Baylor University College of Dentistry, Houston, Texas
  
• Summer Medical and Research Training Programs, Baylor University College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
• Summer Training in Academic Research and Scholarship (STARS), Brigham & Women's Hospital with Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
  
• Minority Undergraduate Research Fellowships, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California
• California School of Podiatric Medicine Summer Immersion Week, Oakland, California
• Student Intern Research Program, Cardiopulmonary Research Science and Technology Institute, Dallas, Texas (application period only lasts 2 weeks in mid-to-late January)
  
• Academic Careers in Engineering and Science Summer Undergraduate Program for Minorities and other Summer Research Programs, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
  
• Summer Program in Undergraduate Research (HHMI), Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (other summer programs)
  • International Summer and Short-Term Break Bioethics Program
    
• Collegiate Leaders in Environmental Public Health, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia
• Minority Health & Health Disparities International Research Training (MHIRT), Christian Brothers University and Mid-South Coalition for Minority International Research
  
• Summer Undergraduate Research Program, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York
• Vet Prep (one year academic postbac bridge program), Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine
  
• Summer Research Program, Columbia University, New York
• Summer Research Opportunity Program, Committee on Institutional Cooperation
  
• ACCESS Summer Research Program for Underserved College Students (for sophomores and juniors interested in Ph.D.), Weill Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, New York
• Travelers Summer Research Program for Premedical Students, Weill Cornell University School of Medicine, New York
• Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy Summer Fellowship Program, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
  • Other opportunities at Duke (Office of Undergraduate Research
• Health Education & Advocacy Liaison Intership at Roatan Volunteer Pediatric Clinic (Honduras), Global Healing, Inc., and Stanford University
• Global Semesters
  
  • Animal Science Summer in Belize
  • Medical Spanish Summer in Mexico
    
  • Health Science Summer in Cyprus
    
• Undergraduate Training Program in Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, Keck Center, Gulf Coast Consortium, Houston, Texas
  
• Minority Health International Research Training program, Hampton University, Virginia
• Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
  
  • Four Directions Summer Research Program (Native Americans)
    
  • Harvard Stem Cell Institute Internship Program
  • Summer Clinical and Translational Research Program
    
  • Summer Honors Undergraduate Research Program
    
  • Summer Internship Research Program, Joslin Diabetes Center
  • Pre-baccalaureate (research) and Summer Veterinary Program, New England Primate Research Center
• Undergraduate Scholars Program, Howard Hughes Janelia Farms, Ashburn, Virginia
  
• Minority International Research Training Program, Howard University, Washington, DC
• Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates in Animal Behavior, Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
• Summer Nursing Externship Program and Trauma (Pre-health) Externship Program, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Virginia
  
• Summer Student Program, Jackson Laboratories, Bar Harbor, Maine
  
• Janelia Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, Janelia Farm Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Ashburn, Virginia
• Summer Institute in Anatomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
• Summer Internship Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland
• Leadership Alliance Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP), for undergraduates interested in PhD or MD/PhD (or similar) career paths.
  
• Summer Research Trainee Program (underrepresented), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
  
• Summer Research Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Vetward Bound Program, Michigan State University
  
• Project IMHOTEP (public health), Morehouse College, Georgia
  • Similar opportunities funded by the Centers for Disease Control
    
• Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellowship, Mount Desert Island Marine Laboratory, Salisbury Cove, Maine
• Summer Undergraduate Research Program, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York
  
• Research and Training Programs at the National Institutes of Health. Summer Research Program Booklet
  • Intramural NIAID Research Opportunities at the National Institute for Allergic and Infectious Diseases
• Research Training Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
• Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Undergraduate Summer Research Opportunities, National Science Foundation
• Howard Hughes Honors Summer Institute (Genomics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology), New York University School of Medicine
• Summer Undergraduate Research Program, New York University School of Medicine
• Undergraduate Scientific Research Program Summer Internship, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (Cambridge, Massachusetts; Basel, Switzerland)
• Summer Research Opportunity Program, Ohio State University (completed sophomore year), Columbus, Ohio
  
• Summer Programs at Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens, Ohio
• Graduate Programs Equity Summer Research Program at Oregon Health and Science University
  
• Summer Undergraduate Research Internship Program, Penn State University Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania
• Mid-Infrared Ttechnologies for Health and the Environment NSF REU, Princeton, New Jersey
• Volunteer Corps, Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps
• Summer Clinical Internship, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey
• Research in Science and Engineering (RISE) Program, Rutgers University
• Gerstner Sloan-Kattering Graduate School Summer Undergraduate Rseearch Program (freshmen, sophomores, and juniors interested in a career in biomedical sciences), Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York
• Pediatric Oncology Education Program, St. Jude's Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
  
• Gateways to the Laboratory Summer Research Program, Tri-Institutional MD/PhD program (Rockefeller, Sloan Kettering, and Weill Cornell), New York
• Adventures in Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts
• Summer Research Program, Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts\
• Summer Enrichment Program, University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
• Integrated Micro/Nano Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (IM-SURE), University of California at Irvine,
  
• Academic Enrichment Program, University of California at San Diego
  
• American Heart Association Undergraduate Student Research Program, University of California at San Diego
  
• Research, Observation, Service, Education (ROSE) Program (Ohio residents only), Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Summer Surgery Experience, Summer Neuroscience Experience, and other Summer Research Programs at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio
• Minority Summer Research Residency Program, Department of Pharmacology University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
  
• SURF at NIST Boulder, University of Colorado & NIST
• SURF at NIST Gaithersburg, Maryland
  
• Texocop Summer Program, University of Houston, Texas
• Preveterinary Summer Internship Program, Caine Veterinary Teaching Center, University of Idaho
• Research experience for undergraduates in molecular biology and genetics, Department of Biology, University of Indiana
  
• NIDDK Short-Term Education Program for Underrepresented Persons (STEP UP), University of Maryland Baltimore County
  
• Summer Enrichment Program and Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts
  
• Profile for Success summer program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Life Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program, University of Minnesota
• Gateways to Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri (2005 news release)
  
• Summer Research Program and MD/PhD Summer Undergraduate Research Program, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska
• Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates in Environmental Microbiology at University of Nevada at Las Vegas
  
• Undergraduate Health Sciences Enrichment Program, University of New Mexico
  
• Summer Undergraduate Research Experience and Medical Education Development program, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Summer Undergraduate Internship Program, University of Pennsylvania
  
• Premedical Academic and Career Exploration Regional Series summer program, University of South Carolina, Columbia
• Scholars Program in Organic Chemistry, University ofTexas Southwestern, Dallas
• Integrated Biological Sciences Summer Research Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  
• Vanderbilt Summer Science Academy and Minority Summer Research Program, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
• Clinical Research Summer Internship Program, Valley Health System, Winchester Medical Center, Winchester, Virginia (last contact is Jennifer Stanford, internship coordinator)
  
• Exploring Biomedical Research Opportunities, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, Virginia
  • NHLBI Health Educational Research Opportunities (HERO) Program
  • NIDDK Short-Term Education Program for Underrepresented Persons (STEP UP)
  • Reaching Academic Milestones through Participation and Service (RAMPs)
  • VCU Alliance Program (Center on Health Disparities)
    
• Minority Summer Research Program, Virginia-Maryland Regional Veterinary College
  • Blacksburg VA
    
  • College Park MD
    
• Academic Training Programs, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Karyn Kupcinet International Science School for Overseas Students, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot , Israel
• Dental Summer Summit, West Virginia University School of Dentistry, Morgantown, West Virginia
• Biomedical Science Training and Enrichment Program (BioSTEP), Office of Multicultural Affairs, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut