Grants and Writing Resources for Loyola Marymount University

A senior who graduated in 2025 with majors in biology and studio arts left LMU on a Fulbright research award to Ecuador. Her project combines a study of germination and growth in two Scalesia species, the trees known as Darwin's giant daisies, with new urban gardens in Puerto Ayora in the Galápagos that bring local residents, particularly students, into hands-on restoration. Several other LMU applicants reached the Fulbright semi-finalist round that year.

Research Funding

Undergraduates can spend six weeks of summer on faculty-guided research or creative work through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program. Participants are named Rains Undergraduate Research Fellows and receive a research stipend plus a housing stipend set at the cost of traditional campus housing. They live together in a living-learning community and attend workshops on research and presentation skills. During the year, the Rains Research Assistant Program pays tenured and tenure-track faculty to hire student research assistants.

In the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, students can request conference and research funding: up to $850 to travel and present at a conference, and up to $600 for research costs such as survey payments or archive trips. A faculty sponsor has to endorse the request.

Presenting Research

The Undergraduate Research Symposium draws more than 300 undergraduates in an average year, with poster sessions, talks and an arts exhibition from every discipline. Accepted abstracts are printed in the symposium program. Before the event, the Office of Research and Creative Arts runs workshops on abstract writing, poster design and public speaking.

Library Research Awards

The William H. Hannon Library judges research papers and creative projects on how well they use its collections and services. Its Undergraduate Library Research Awards are in their twenty-first year, and the Graduate Library Research Awards run in parallel for graduate students. Each pays $1,000 for the top individual project, $1,500 for the best group project and $500 for each of two honorable mentions. Winning work is archived online.

Students aiming at Fulbright, Goldwater, Truman, Udall or the Critical Language Scholarship can work with the Office of National and International Fellowships, which helps undergraduates, graduate students and alumni find awards and draft personal statements.

Where Theses Are Published

Graduate work goes into Digital Commons at LMU, the university's open-access repository for master's theses, doctoral dissertations and capstone projects. Theses from the University Honors Program have their own Honors Thesis collection there, with work from 2026 already posted.

Help With Writing

The Academic Resource Center's Writing Center offers free peer tutoring to undergraduates and graduate students, on projects in any discipline and at any stage. Graduate writers can also book the Graduate Writing Specialist for 45-minute sessions, in person or remote. That support includes project management for theses, capstones and dissertations, with regular meetings for students who want them.

Our editors work with LMU writers at the final-draft stage, from seminar papers to dissertations. See our Loyola Marymount University dissertation and thesis editing and Loyola Marymount University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• Treating the Personal Statement as a Scholarly Defense
• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter
• The Literature Search: Using "Close Reading" as a Forensic Tool