Grants and Writing Resources for Mercer University
Mercer's law students hold a national title this year. The American Bar Association Law Student Division named the Mercer School of Law Student Bar Association its 2026 Student Bar Association of the Year, and Mercer Law was the only school in the country selected. During 2025-2026 the association helped the law school reach a record $28,239 for the Legal Food Frenzy, which provided more than 100,000 meals through the Middle Georgia Community Food Bank.
Two Research Days
In Macon, the spring showcase is BEAR Day, short for Breakthroughs in Engagement, Arts, and Research. It showcases undergraduate and graduate research and special projects. The 16th BEAR Day, on April 21, 2026, drew more than 300 students from six schools and colleges and included 160 poster presentations, 40 general paper presentations and 20 special symposia.
The Atlanta Research Conference started in 2011. Its sixteenth meeting was set for April 11, 2026, in the Administration and Conference Center on the Atlanta campus, with students and faculty from the Atlanta, Macon, Douglas County and Henry County locations giving posters or lecture sessions.
Summer Research and Fellowships
The Mercer Undergraduate Research Scholar (MURS) Training Initiative is a ten-week, full-time summer program. Students work about 40 hours a week with faculty mentors. In 2026 participants received a $4,000 taxable stipend and summer housing in Macon residence halls, and they could not take summer classes during the program. Successful applicants have cumulative and math/science GPAs above 3.0.
Mercer counts 23 Goldwater Scholars since 2012-13, three of them in 2025-26. Graduate students compete for outside fellowships as well. In February 2026 a College of Pharmacy doctoral student received a two-year, $70,676 American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship to study how the gut microbiome may influence high blood pressure.
A Poetry Prize and a Law Review
The David Bottoms Prize for Poetry honors a 1971 alumnus who was Poet Laureate of Georgia from 2002 to 2012. Undergraduates submit up to three unpublished poems, and an outside reader judges them anonymously. The 2025 contest paid $100 for first place and $50 to one finalist, and both read their work at the April Third Thursday Reading.
The Mercer Law Review, founded in 1949, is the oldest continually published law review in Georgia. Its yearly run includes the Annual Survey of Georgia Law and the Annual Eleventh Circuit Survey, and since Volume 71 it has added a Companion Edition of student writing. Student members elect the editorial board each year.
Writing Help and Theses
The Writers' Hub in Ryals Hall, Room 205, runs free Drop-In-Days with Writing Fellows for students in writing instruction courses. Sessions are first come, first served and cover brainstorming, organization and revision. Bring the assignment, any drafts and copies of your sources. For Macon undergraduates, the Academic Resource Center adds peer tutoring and writing workshops on the writing process, formatting and common mistakes.
Graduate theses and dissertations follow the Office of the Provost's thesis and dissertation requirements. The format guide puts responsibility for writing, editing and formatting on the student and limits the Provost's review to formatting and publication requirements. Files go in through ProQuest ETD Administrator, doctoral dissertations are published by ProQuest, and students agree to have each submission published in URSA, Mercer's digital repository.
Since the editing of a Mercer thesis falls to the student, a final check for grammar, consistency and format before it reaches the Provost's office can save a round of corrections. See our Mercer University dissertation and thesis editing and Mercer University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.
From Our Writing Guides
Compiled by James Peterson Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of Editors For Students. Links checked October 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with Mercer University, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your Mercer writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.