Funding

Funding is available from the college to help support academic research and other pursuits. Whether seeking support for a summer research project, to attend a conference, or to work with a faculty mentor, all applications must include a student proposal and a faculty recommendation.  Students are eligible for $750 per academic year. Sigma Xi members can receive an additional $750 if they become Sigma Xi members. The funding application includes the request for Sigma Xi funding which is handled by the Sigma Xi administrators.

Please contact Corey Falls, cfalls1@swarthmore.edu, with any questions regarding these student support opportunities:

CONFERENCE FUNDING

Students may seek funding to participate in conferences and other academic opportunities.  It is the responsibility of the student to begin this process by seeking out a faculty member to support their application.

To Apply for Funding:

  1. Students seeking this funding should reach out to a faculty member to solicit support for their application for funding for this opportunity.
  2. The faculty member is asked to complete a nomination form which will be electronically sent to an administrator for review. The nomination form is short, but will ask for the name of the opportunity (like a virtual conference), the link to the conference/opportunity (if available), and the amount of funding that the student will be seeking. Faculty members should complete this form five weeks ahead of the opportunity. Positive faculty support, via the nomination form, will then prompt the administrator to send the link to the funding application link to the student via email.
  3. Students should submit their funding application within seven days of receiving the email with the application link.

The application itself will ask which division best suits the students' request for funding. Below is a list of each department by academic division.

  • Natural Sciences and Engineering - Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics, Physics and Astronomy, Psychology
  • Social Sciences - Economics, Educational Studies, History, Linguistics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology
  • Humanities - Art, Classics, English Literature, Film and Media Studies, Modern Languages and Literatures, Music and Dance, Philosophy, Religion, Theater
  • Interdisciplinary (please contact Debbie Thompson to see if your project/proposal is best suited as an interdisciplinary application)

SIGMA XI

Sigma Xi funding can support opportunities for students that are related to scientific research. The process for seeking funding is combined with the conference funding process (see above). 

 NOTE: in order to receive Sigma Xi funding, a student must be a member of Sigma Xi.  Information on how to become a member of Sigma Xi is found here.

Note: The national Sigma Xi organization provides larger travel grants for student research. Visit their site.