Dates, stipends, and info

Dates

• The dates of the 2026 REU program are May 26 - July 17, 2026.

• The program is 8 weeks long, and is fully in person here on campus at CSUSB.  Housing is usually in our dorms here but specifics are determined closer to the program.

Stipends

• Participants in our program will receive a $5600 stipend, as well as a room on or near campus for the duration of the program. The $5600 stipend is usually paid out in two installments. Usually around $2000 is paid after the first or second week of the program, and the remaining $3600 is dispersed on the final day of the program.  However, if you have special financial circumstances, we are willing to work with you to find a different reasonable payment schedule.

• Participants will also be given a stipend to cover the costs of food (our budget forbids this to be too much, but most food should be covered by this stipend).  This is usually around $800 for the Summer, but budgetary factors may require us to change this (lower or higher!).

• While our program is residential, we are aware that family obligations, or other circumstances, can impact your ability to stay on campus for the entirety of the program, although this is a staple of the program and strongly desired. (On weekends, you're free to do what you wish!)  In the past we have been able to accommodate a variety of special situations, and so if you have any special circumstances, please contact us directly. We welcome the opportunity to discuss potential accommodations. 

• After the close of the application period, we review the applications and send out invitations in "rounds". Generally, it takes about a month to thoroughly review the applications (sometimes longer, sometimes shorter). We then send out invations and allow a reasonable amount of time for each person to respond. This process can continue for quite some time if we get a lot of "no" responses that don't come back right away. We will contact each applicant either way about their application as soon as there is something certain to say, and so if you haven't heard from us in a while it is not unusual.  However, should you have any questions or concerns about your application, please feel free to contact Dr. Dunn (cmdunn@csusb.edu) or Dr. Trapp (rtrapp@csusb.edu) at any time. 

Eligibility

Please note the following eligibility requirements for our program:

• Participants must be continuing their undergraduate education following the conclusion of the program.  Thus, for example, if you are graduating in the Spring, you are not eligible for the program the following Summer.  

• Only US Citizens, US Nationals, and Permanent Residents are eligible for the program.  This has been made very clear to us over the years.  Thus, if you are not a US Citizen, US National, or Permanent Resident you are ineligible for the program even if you have your own source of funding.

• ALL eligible people are welcome and encouraged to apply.  We strive to obtain a very large applicant pool representative of the full spectrum of talent available nationwide.  This includes students from large universities, small liberal arts colleges, and community (2-year) colleges.  If you have any questions about whether you are prepared for the program, please remember that we only require a bit of mathematical maturity, an ability to spend 8 weeks on math, an exposure (or immenent exposure) to proof-based mathematics, and an enduring enthusiasm for mathematics.  Otherwise, please feel free to contact Dr. Dunn (cmdunn@csusb.edu) or Dr. Trapp (rtrapp@csusb.edu).

• There are no age or content related eligibility requirements.  Specifically, there is no required mathematical background except perhaps some experience with proofs and an enduring enthusiasm for doing mathematics all day for 8 weeks.  We provide all of the background knowledge needed in the first week of the program.  In addition, you do not have to be over 18 years old to participate, although you need to be otherwise eligible as outlined above.  If you are under 18, please indicate that you are under 18 somewhere on your application!   We only need to know this because if you become a participant some special arrangements will need to be made well in advance, and we emphasize that your age is not used to discriminate against your application--it is merely a legal issue we need a head start with.

• We genuinely care about equally considering all applications from those who is eligible.   In this way, we especially encourage applications from those who do not have access to research experiences at their home institution, or have never experienced research before.  These are not discriminating factors in our selection of participants--we simply care about making our Summer REU equally accessible to everyone.

Other information

We want to be very clear about what we look for in our participants, so we have constructed this document you might consider looking at.  (we have had some difficulty sharing this document, if for some reason you can't access it, please try again later.)

In addition, we'd like to be clear about how we select our participants.  First, we sort the applicants in terms of mathematical background to get a sense of where each applicant is.  We then select our participants with the following in mind.  We want participants that:

 (1) are interested in the mathematics we do, 

(2) are capable of spending 8 straight weeks doing mathematics (the letters of recommendation typically speak to a student’s ability to research independently), 

(3) receive positive letters of recommendation, 

(4) have appropriate mathematical background, and 

(5) work well with other people and seem to be able to contribute positively to our tightly knit REU community.  

Thus we are not necessarily looking for the most advanced students as students of many abilities are capable of succeeding in our program, rather, we wish to assemble an enthusiastic group of individuals who will form a meaningful mathematical community.