Grants and Writing Resources for East Tennessee State University

In March 2026 two ETSU undergraduates were named Goldwater Scholars. Congress established the Goldwater Foundation in 1986 to support undergraduates headed for careers in science, engineering and mathematics, and ETSU had its first Goldwater Scholar in 2022. In 2026, eight of the nine ETSU students who applied for Fulbright awards were named semifinalists.

Boland Research Day and the Three Minute Thesis

ETSU gathers its student research presentations into a single day. Dr. Jay W. Boland Research Day, named for a former faculty member, combines what were once the Boland Undergraduate Research Symposium, the Appalachian Student Research Forum and the Community Engagement Showcase. The 2026 event ran on April 15 in the D.P. Culp Center and Reece Museum, with posters, oral presentations and creative displays from undergraduates, graduate students, residents and fellows. Presenters can choose a juried setting or an uncompetitive one. The 2026 presentations are collected in Digital Commons @ ETSU.

Graduate students also compete in the Graduate School's Three Minute Thesis. Each talk gets one static slide and no props, and a speaker who runs past three minutes is disqualified. First place carries a $1,100 scholarship, and second and third places $750 each. Students in distance programs can enter, and so can students whose final project is a business plan or literature review.

Undergraduate Research Grants

Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, part of the Honors College, runs the undergraduate research funding programs, and all ETSU undergraduates are eligible. Travel Grants of up to $500 help a student present a paper, poster or performance, exhibit creative work, or enter a formal competition. A student can receive one a year and two during their time at ETSU.

Summer Research Fellowships pay up to $3,500 toward summer tuition or living expenses. Fellows work with a faculty mentor and enroll in at least one credit hour of independent study, and each student can hold the fellowship once. Global Research Grants go up to $3,000 for materials and supplies, travel, housing, and tuition and fees, and the research can take place locally, regionally or abroad.

The office also lists Community Engagement Research Grants of up to $1,500 for community-based projects with a faculty mentor, and REU Fellowships of up to $5,000 for the summer after the sophomore year. Every award ends with a report from the student.

Graduate Grants, Travel and Thesis Awards

The Graduate School's Small Grants in Support pay $500 to $1,000 toward the itemized costs of a thesis, dissertation, capstone or exhibition. Up to eight go to thesis or dissertation research, as funding permits. A master's student can receive one grant and a doctoral student two, and the committee chair signs an agreement form before the proposal is considered. Conference costs come from a separate fund.

That fund is Transportation Funds. A graduate or professional student presenting at a conference can receive up to $700, and one attending without presenting up to $300, once per academic year. Students presenting research as sole author or co-author get first priority. Afterward, each recipient gives a 10- to 15-minute talk at a Graduate Professional Student Association event.

Graduate faculty can nominate students for the Outstanding Thesis, Dissertation, and Capstone Awards. Up to five are given each year, one each for a dissertation, a capstone, and theses in three fields: arts and humanities; science, math, technology and computer science; and social science and education. Each winner receives a plaque and $500 as funds allow. Graduate assistantships carry tuition assistance and a monthly stipend for nine months, with stipends set by program.

Fellowships and Student Magazines

The Office of Prestigious Awards works with students and alumni who apply for national and international scholarships and fellowships, among them the Rhodes, Truman, Fulbright and Gilman. Its staff work with faculty and campus scholarship committees to identify candidates.

The Department of Literature and Language publishes The Mockingbird, a student literary magazine open to ETSU students in any major; two student co-editors lead the 2027 issue. Graduate research appears in Illuminated, which the Graduate School publishes to feature graduate students and their faculty advisors. Students are put forward through a nomination form, and the archive reaches back to 2012.

Writing Tutors and the Thesis Guide

The Center for Academic Achievement offers free individual tutoring in writing. Graduate students can book sessions with a graduate writing tutor in Sherrod Library to go over a chapter or part of one, and the Graduate School lists workshop recordings and templates with its thesis resources.

Every thesis and dissertation follows the Graduate School's Thesis and Dissertation Guide, which takes precedence over a department's style manual where the two conflict. The full guide tells a student who hires an editor or manuscript preparer to give that person a copy of the guidelines, and the student remains responsible for the accuracy and format of the paper. Once the committee approves, the student can submit for review with a Manuscript Review form, and a typical review takes one to two weeks.

Approved work goes into the Electronic Theses and Dissertations collection at Digital Commons @ ETSU and is archived in ProQuest. Honors scholars file their theses through the Honors College eThesis repository, which the college runs with Sherrod Library.

Send the ETSU guide along with your manuscript, and our editors will give a thesis, dissertation or course paper its final edit for grammar, consistency and format. See our East Tennessee State University dissertation and thesis editing and East Tennessee State University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• ProQuest Readiness: The Final Mechanical Audit
• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter
• The Secret to Better Grades: Starting Your Writing Process Early