Participants will be charged a program fee of $1,000. This can be paid via check or money order in three installments or in full via credit or debit card using an online payment portal. More details will be sent to selected participants.
All participants will be required to enroll in them Rice University Summer School for College Students for 3 credits of ELEC 490: Electrical Engineering Resaerch Project credit. At the end of the summer, students will be issued a grade and they can request a copy of their Rice University transcript online. Non-Rice University students who would like to have this credit transferred back to their home unviersity, should speak with their academic department and/or registrar's office prior to departure to enquire about applicable transfer credit application and approval process at their home university.
The follow program components are paid for directly by NanoJapan:
In addition to the costs that are paid for directly by the program each NanoJapan participant will received an NSF Stipend of up to $4,000 to be used towards living costs while abroad. In particular, these funds should be used during the Research Internship period to pay all housing and daily living costs and for in-country transportation in Japan to/from the research host lab. The stipend will be issued to students via a U.S. dollar check prior to departure for Japan. NanoJapan students are responsible for ensuring that these funds are available for use while in Japan and for all currency conversion or related fees. For more information on expenses in Japan see the NanoJapan Participant Guide: Money Matters..
NanoJapan students may use their stipend funds to pay for the following types of expenses though students should be aware that the stipend may not be sufficient to cover all costs while in Japan. Costs will vary based on research host site though the program will ensure that the stipend amount awarded to each student is sufficient to fully cover their housing and most of their daily living expenses.
Stipend funds should first be used towards housing and daily meal costs and any remaining funds may be used for other types of approved expenses including:
We have included below an estimate of costs that may be incurred by participants in this program. Some costs may not be required for all students. For example, students whose immunizations are already up to date or those who already have a passport will not incur these costs and students who live in the Houston area will not incur domestic travel costs.
Costs listed are high estimates and exact costs will vary by student based on individual spending habits and research host institution placement. For example, housing costs may vary based on availability at the host lab that summer and most students will have access to a kitchen during the research internship and can greatly reduce their daily food expenses by preparing meals on their own. Other students may live on campus or within walking or biking distance of their research lab thereby reducing their daily commuting costs. An updated and more detailed budget will be provided to selected participants in April based on actual anticipated costs at their research host institution.
The costs indicated above do not include personal spending and independent sight-seeing in Japan. Some of these costs may include personal shopping, entertainment, souvenirs/gifts, and independent sight-seeing/travel in Japan. We recommend students budget an additional $1,000 - $1,500 for these costs while in Japan, though not all students will spend this much. If you plan to do a lot of sight-seeing and traveling on the weekends during your research internship you may need to budget more than this. See the NanoJapan Participant Guide: Money Matters for more information on costs in Japan.
In addition to the NSF stipend awarded to NanoJapan participants students are also strongly encouraged to pursue additional avenues of financial support. Note that in many cases you will have to submit your scholarship application prior to notification of final application status/acceptance into NanoJapan. Check with the scholarship sponsor, but typically it is okay to submit an application to an international scholarship prior to notification of program acceptance so long as you are in the proceess of applying to a study or research program abroad.
