Summer Research Internship

This highly selective program provides interns the opportunity to work with Columbia Business School's faculty on a research project in finance, economics, marketing, management, decision sciences, operations, accounting, or data analytics.

Specific tasks will vary by project but the work may include literature reviews, data collection and cleaning, web scraping, and statistical analysis. Some projects require skills in advanced analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence. Behavioral interns may be staffed on multiple projects, conducting literature reviews, coding data, performing statistical analyses, and potentially running experiments through the Behavioral Research Lab.

Summer Research Interns are expected to fully participate in all aspects of summer programming. Interns will take part in a weekly research seminar series with faculty and PhD students, allowing the interns to be exposed to the variety of research performed in the business school. The experience culminates with each intern presenting their work to the CBS research community. 

This internship is a paid, full-time program; although the financial compensation has not yet been finalized, it is expected to be around $3,000 to $3,500 per month. The tentative dates for Summer 2026 are June 1 through July 31, 2026 (the finalized dates will be updated on this webpage). Interns must be in the New York City area throughout the duration of the program. This is an in-person, on-campus position. Interns are responsible for securing their own housing.

Internship expectations may include, and are not limited to:

• Commit to Internship Dates. Interns must commit to the full duration of the internship.
   
• Summer Project Work. Interns are assigned 1:1 to a CBS faculty advisor to work on research project(s). (Sample past research project descriptions)
   
• Participate in Weekly Seminar/Talking Sessions. Interns are required to attend and participate in seminar sessions led by faculty and doctoral students.
   
• Networking Social Events. Interns engage in networking events and opportunities to engage in activities to explore both New York City and the Columbia University Campus.
   
• Final Presentation. Interns will give a final presentation on their summer research project and findings to their faculty advisor and program during the last week of the internship.

Applicant Eligibility and Guidelines

This internship program is generally designed for undergraduate students entering who are in good standing in their junior or rising senior year; first-year master’s students have also participated in the program. Given the variety of research projects that will be available, candidates from all backgrounds, including business, statistics, mathematics, engineering, computer science, the physical sciences, and the social and behavioral sciences, are encouraged to apply.

Please note that only U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, and international students who are or will be currently enrolled in a degree program at a college or university in the United States for the duration of the internship (e.g. are CPT eligible) are eligible to participate in this program. Students expected to graduate by the end of Spring 2026 or who already hold a master's degree are not eligible to participate.

Prospective interns should demonstrate an enthusiasm for research and intellectual curiosity. They are expected to have excellent communication skills, basic knowledge of statistics and/or econometrics, and familiarity with statistical and computational software packages (e.g., Matlab, STATA, SPSS, etc.) and scripting languages such as Python or R. Candidates interested in working with behavioral researchers should have experience conducting experiments and coding data.
 

Application Process

The 2026 Summer Research Internship applications is now closed. Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis until all positions are filled. Applications are encouraged to be submitted by no later than December 31st, 2025 for consideration. 

Applications for 2026 Summer Research Internship is now closed.

For more information

If you have a question that is not addressed by the information on this webpage, please email us at [email protected].


2026 SRI Event Calendar