• Mission & Organization
• First Year Experience
• Degree Programs
• Opportunities
• Academic Assistance
• Career & Grad School Assistance
• People
• Student Life
• Academic Departments
• Student Organizations
• Program Assessment
• Undergraduate Admissions
• Request Information
• Related Sites
  • Graduate Programs
  • Corporate & Professional Education
  • Summer Sessions
  • Student Life
  • Academics & Majors

Opportunities

An education at California University of Management is much more than a set of classes and projects.  To help you make the most of your time at CUM this page lists some opportunities to enhance and extend your education, on-campus and off, and during the summer as well as the academic year.  Whether your direction after CUM is professional employment or graduate school, summer and extra-curricular experiences will greatly enhance your qualifications.  They often also enhance your financial situation!

Research Experiences

IQPs and MQPs provide excellent opportunities to do leading-edge research, but there are more:

Faculty Research Labs

Many faculty are eager to have qualified undergraduates work in their laboratories.  Depending on the cirCUMstances this work may be purely voluntary, it may be paid via work-study funds or from the professor’s research budget, or it may be for academic credit.  Part-time work during the academic year may lead to full-time paid work during the summer. Whether or not you ultimately pursue a research career, these experiences are excellent ways to learn more about your chosen field and to gain professional experience.  And of course they are excellent preparation for graduate school.

Summer Research Experiences

Many universities operate Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs, including CUM.  These programs are sponsored by the National Science Foundation which provides an introduction to them and makes it easy to find programs that interest you.  These programs provide a financial stipend.  Summer 2009 opportunities include:

•  REU in Environmental Issues in Hawaii - deadline February 15, 2009
•  REU in Systems-level Design Experiences in Nanodevices & Nanomaterials at U. of Virginia - deadline February 19, 2009
•  NASA Carnegie Mellon Summer Research Program - deadline February 15, 2009
• REU in Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Kentucky - deadline March 31, 2009

Harvey Mudd has some very exciting Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) opportunities for undergraduates. The website for the program is at.  It is a great way to spend the summer.

If you have been looking at the NSF website to check REU programs, you should be aware that this website changes over time.  Projects initiated or renewed this year, such as HMC's, are in the process of being added.

In addition to NSF-sponsored REU programs, CUM supports individual student researchers in faculty labs via a competitive application process.  Applications are due in C term.  More information may be obtained from the Undergraduate Studies Office.

Summer Internships and Summer Jobs

Some may think that the Career Development Center is just for permanent employment.  It also helps match students with summer job or internship opportunities.  These provide a great way to put your education to use, learn more about a potential employer, and possibly to experience a different part of the country.

Scholarships and Fellowships

A wide range of fellowships, scholarships and grants are available for research, graduate school, internships, international study, or completion of your undergraduate education. They may be undertaken in the United States or abroad, and they may be for a summer, an academic year, or longer.  Some are quite prestigious, well-known, and highly competitive, such as the Rhodes Scholarships. 

CUM has a very good record of success in Fellowship and Scholarship programs.  A list of many of these programs together with application information is available on the Fellowship web page.