Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) & Summer Research

Frequently Asked Questions

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External Applicants

Per NSF Guidelines, participants must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or U.S. permanent residents. Furthermore, applicants must be enrolled in a degree program leading to a bachelor's or associate degree. High school graduates who have been accepted at an college or university, but who have not yet started are also eligible.

See: https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/reu-research-experiences-undergraduates/nsf23-601/solicitation 

Yes. If you are selected to participate in our REU program, we will provide on-campus housing. We will also be able to reimburse travel expenses to and from JMU.
If you are selected for our REU, we will provide funds for living expenses (e.g., food, hygiene products, etc). These funds are in addition to your REU stipend.
Yes, you will be paid a stipend. In addition to the stipend, you will receive funds for living expenses, e.g. food hygiene products, etc.
The program is 10 weeks and takes place during the summer. Typically, it runs from the end of May to the end of July. The exact dates change each summer. The tentative dates for Summer 2025 are May 21 - July 30

We provide two, full-time, professional, RID-certified, ASL interpreters. The interpreters are available during working hours to facilitate communication between participants who communicate with ASL and those who communicate with spoken English. They interpret in the lab, during group meetings, the summer research symposium, professional development activities, and during any informational meetings. The interpreters are also available for after-hours social events sponsored by the REU.

In addition to the professional ASL interpreters, we support two student interpreters. These students are also embedded in the labs and help facilitate communication.

Finally, we attempt to make all of our spaces D/HH-centric when possible. This may include rearranging classroom seating into circles so that everyone is visible, reducing background noise, and changing laboratory setups so that students can see mentors and interpreters simultaneously.

No. The expectation for our REU is that it is a full-time position, i.e. 40 hours per week. In order to get the most out of your experience, you need to be able to dedicate your full attention to learning and growing in your research project.
The 2025 application is currently available: https://form.jotform.com/250134000303129 We require your unofficial transcripts, as well as two letters of recommendation, at least one of which must be written by someone from your home institution.
Current JMU Student Applicants
Technically, no, you are not REU students. Only students supported by the REU grant are "REU students." However, we use the term REU rather loosely to mean all summer research students and try not to make a distinction between students supported by the REU grant and those supported by other funds. So, you are welcomed and encouraged to participate in all the REU social and professional development activities.

Everyone! Everyone who plans or would like to do summer research in the chemistry department should fill out the REU application. Fill out the application even if your research mentor is using their grant funding to support you. Fill out the application even if a different program is supporting your summer research. Especially fill out the application if you want to do summer research, but do not have support or even a research mentor.

If you already have grant support, we need your application to keep track of everyone who is doing research in the department. Otherwise, we use your application to determine who gets any departmental or univeristy research scholarships.

The short answer is "No." The REU program itself does not allow students to take summer classes. If your research mentor is paying you with their own external funding, they may allow you to take asynchronous classes in certain situations. However, in our experience this is almost always a bad idea, since your course work and lab work will eventually conflict. In order to get the most out of your experience, you need to be able to dedicate your full attention to learning and growing in your research project. This is a conversation you need to have with your mentor before the summer starts. Be sure to speak with your research mentor before enrolling in any summer class.

This is the most common question we get, and the answer is complicated. First, we are guided by our goal to make sure that all chemistry/biophysical chemistry students who want one, get at least one summer research experience at JMU. Second, some of the university/college scholarships have specific requirements. Third, some of the department scholarships have been specifically earmarked.

So, once we have selected students who best fit the criteria for scholarships and have selected students who receive the earmarked funds, we try select students according to our first criterion - ensuring that all students who want one, have one summer research experience at JMU before they graduate. However, although our is our goal, circumstances don't always allow for us to provide this opportunity for every student.

Stipends can be different because students are paid from different funds. Grant-funded students may be paid differently than department funded students. Also, different grants have different rules depending on who is funding the grant (NSF, ACS Petroleum Research Fund, NIH, Jeffress Memorial Trust, etc), and stipends amounts also depend on how the budget for the grant was developed. As a department, we strive to ensure that all students are paid the same. However, because of the diveristy of ways that the students are paid, it is not uncommon for students to recieve different summer stipends.

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Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Physics/Chemistry Building
MSC 4501
901 Carrier Drive
Room 1186
Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807
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540/568-6246
Fax: 540/568-7938