Grants and Writing Resources for Drexel University

Two Drexel undergraduates with degrees still ahead of them won national science scholarships in 2026. A biological sciences student in the Class of 2027 was named a Goldwater Scholar and a Truman Scholarship finalist, and a mechanical engineering student in the Class of 2028 became Drexel's second-ever Astronaut Scholar, with a $15,000 award.

Research Money for Undergraduates

Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Programs, part of the Pennoni Honors College, awards Undergraduate Research Grants to Drexel faculty and their undergraduate collaborators. The money can pay the student or cover research expenses. Students accepted to present at a conference can also apply for a travel grant: up to $500 when the meeting is less than 2,500 miles away, and up to $750 for longer or international trips. Full-time undergraduates may receive one a year.

First-year students can start sooner. The STAR Scholars Program funds a full-time, faculty-mentored project in the summer after the first year, with a stipend and free campus housing. It ends with a poster at the STAR Scholars Summer Showcase. For externally funded national and international awards, the fellowships office in the same unit advises students and alumni and runs any nomination or endorsement an award requires.

Talks and Showcases

Nerd Night @ Drexel U runs four times a year. Students give informal talks of 10 to 20 minutes on their research for listeners outside the field, with trivia between them. The same office supports undergraduates who present at national meetings such as the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

Graduate students have the Emerging Graduate Scholars Research Showcase. Its 10th edition, on April 14, 2026, drew more than 70 presenters, and 17 of them received first- or second-place awards.

Graduate Travel and Awards

A master's or doctoral student invited to give an oral presentation at a conference in the United States can apply for the Teck-Kah Lim Travel Award, which reimbursed up to $1,000 after the trip for talks in the 2025-26 fiscal year. No more than 20 are given a year. The Graduate Student Association's Domestic Travel Subsidy Award pays up to $800 for oral talks in the 2026-27 fiscal year. A student can hold one GSA or Office of Graduate Studies travel award per fiscal year.

The Graduate College's Graduate Student Excellence Awards are chosen by a faculty and staff committee. Research Excellence Awards honor original research, scholarship or creative work done at Drexel. Outstanding Dissertation Awards are limited to doctoral students.

Contests and The 33rd

The Drexel Publishing Group runs the DPG Essay Contest, open to current students in every major. Its STEM category is the Zelda Provenzano Endowed STEM Writing Award; the other two are humanities and social science. Essays run 1,500 words at most and must cite their sources.

The 33rd, the College of Arts and Sciences anthology, prints winners and honorable mentions from that contest and from the First-Year Writing Contest, the DPG Creative Writing Contest and the Literature Essay Contest. It comes out each fall and is used in the first-year writing curriculum. The English and Philosophy department lists its other student publications, including Maya for undergraduate writers and artists and Paper Dragon for MFA students.

Writing Center and Thesis Filing

The Drexel Writing Center in the Korman Center holds free consultations in person and online. Undergraduates can book two appointments a week and graduate students one. Graduate Writing Consultants work on theses, dissertations and journal articles, and the Large Project Consulting Program gives any graduate student free, long-term weekly appointments for a large project such as a dissertation. The center does no copy editing; consultants help writers recognize and correct grammar and style errors.

Formatting follows the Drexel University Thesis Manual, and the faculty advisor approves both content and format in eForms, as the thesis and dissertation page explains. Final PDFs go to ProQuest through ETD Administrator. The Drexel Libraries also make them available in Drexel Research Discovery, the university's open access repository, and a student can request an embargo to delay release.

Before a thesis goes to ETD Administrator or an essay goes to the DPG judges, our editors can check it for grammar, consistency and format. See our Drexel University dissertation and thesis editing and Drexel University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Write an Expository Essay: Reveal the Proof
• Methodology Chapter Secrets: Building the Architecture of Your Argument
• ProQuest Readiness: The Final Mechanical Audit