Grants and Writing Resources for Michigan Technological University

A Michigan Tech mechanical engineering junior won a Barry Goldwater Scholarship in March 2026, and Michigan Tech News told her story that September. Two years earlier, acoustics was a new field to her. She joined the Mechanics, Acoustics, and Dynamics Lab in her second semester to work on a project applying artificial intelligence to the lab's acoustics research. She presented that work at an Acoustical Society of America meeting in Honolulu, and in summer 2026 she was an AI research associate at NASA Langley Research Center, with the Michigan Space Grant Consortium paying for the trip. In May the Graduate School reported that three PhD students had won NSF Graduate Research Fellowships for fall 2026.

Paid Research for Undergraduates

Any Michigan Tech undergraduate can apply to the Undergraduate Research Internship Program, which pays an hourly rate for work on a faculty member's project from September through March. Awards reach $2,340. The Pavlis Honors College puts in $1,170, and the faculty mentor is expected to match it. Every URIP student presents at the spring symposium.

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship pays a summer stipend for a project done under a faculty mentor. It is open to undergraduates with at least one semester left after the summer. Fellows file interim progress reports, attend four professional development meetings in June, and present at the symposium or at a professional conference in their field. A separate group of SURFs, paid for by the Tech Forward Initiative on Sustainability and Resilience, funds research on those subjects.

The Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium is a March poster event open to undergraduates from all colleges. Judges review digital posters remotely ahead of the public session, which in 2026 was held in the Rozsa Lobby.

Doctoral Fellowships

Doctoral Finishing Fellowships come from gifts by alumni and friends of the university. They go to PhD candidates who expect to finish in the semester the award covers and who have not yet held a final oral examination. For spring 2026 the Graduate School expected to fund up to ten, ranging from $2,000 to full support with a stipend plus tuition. A student on full support can take no other employment, including a GTA or GRA, and past recipients can't apply again.

Each department, college or interdisciplinary PhD program may nominate one student for the DeVlieg Foundation Fellowship. The summer 2026 award paid an $11,000 stipend and tuition for three research credits. The foundation supplied $10,000, and the program or principal investigator made up the rest. Nominees are U.S. citizens or permanent residents doing engineering research, and the call encouraged projects that join engineering with wildlife or biology.

The Martin Luther King Jr, Dolores Huerta-Morris Hood Jr, Rosa Parks Future Faculty Fellowship is a Michigan program created in 1986 for academically or economically disadvantaged candidates headed for postsecondary teaching or administration. Michigan residents can receive up to $20,000 toward a master's degree or $35,000 toward a doctorate. Fellows sign an agreement to spend at least three full-time-equivalent years as postsecondary faculty or administrators. If they don't, the fellowship can convert to a loan repaid to the State of Michigan.

Help With Fellowship Proposals

Applicants for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship get workshops, one-on-one writing support and fall drop-in office hours in the Library from the Graduate School. Recorded sessions walk through the personal and research statements. A separate workshop is aimed at faculty who write reference letters.

Space-related research has another source of money. In April 2026 six Michigan Tech graduate students received Michigan Space Grant Consortium fellowships. NASA sponsors the consortium, and each fellowship pays research expenses and a stipend. That year's projects ranged from atmospheric science and geophysics to engineering mechanics.

Graduate Student Government Grants and the 3MT

Graduate Student Government pays travel grants to graduate students who present in person at a conference. For conferences held between May 1, 2026, and April 30, 2027, a grant covers up to $300 for a domestic meeting and up to $500 for an international one, reimbursed against receipts for registration, lodging and airfare. Applicants need an accepted abstract, enrollment in at least one credit that semester, and no full funding for the trip from another source. Students with no other funding get priority. A Professional Development Grant of up to $150 pays for a course, certification, workshop, or membership or publication fees tied to the student's degree. A student can hold one of the two grants per year.

GSG also runs Michigan Tech's Three Minute Thesis competition. Each speaker gets three minutes and a single static slide to explain a research project to listeners outside the field. The 2026 contest paid $600 for first place and $400 for second, with a $200 People's Choice Award. Every graduate student can compete on campus, and only active PhD students can advance to the regional round.

Student Publications

The Lode has been Michigan Tech's student newspaper since its first issue on February 17, 1921. It comes out weekly on Tuesdays during the fall and spring semesters, in print and online. Students from many majors write for it, with two faculty advisors and support from the Experience in Journalism and Editing courses, and new staff join through its general body meetings.

The paper is one of three publications under Ink & Ore Student Publications Enterprise, established in 2025. Paw Prints: The Michigan Tech Journal of First-Year Writing is a student-run academic journal. Students in UN 1015: Composition can submit their major core assignment, and submissions go through anonymized peer review; the April 2026 issue carried eight articles. Kupari is the enterprise's literary magazine for creative work, and its first issue appeared in April 2026.

Writing Help and Thesis Submission

The Writing Center began in 1975 as the Language Skills Lab and is in Room 107 of the Walker Arts and Humanities Center. Its peer coaches work with undergraduate and graduate students in every discipline. Undergraduates can walk in or book in-person, virtual or asynchronous sessions. Graduate students meet coaches by appointment, in person or online, about thesis and dissertation proposals and chapters, research article manuscripts, conference abstracts, and grant and fellowship proposals. An informal Graduate Writing Group meets twice a week.

Several departments host Write-D (Writing in the Discipline) groups, which set aside a quiet room and fixed hours each week for manuscripts and research proposals. Departmental faculty give writing instruction as needed. Guest speakers from Michigan Tech or industry offer publishing advice.

The Graduate School's dissertation and thesis process follows its Guide to Preparing a Dissertation, Thesis, or Report, and the formatting page offers Word templates and LaTeX templates, one of them on Overleaf. Before the defense, the student uploads the document to Canvas and gets formatting feedback within six business days. After the committee's corrections and the Graduate School's formatting corrections are made, the final version goes to Digital Commons and ProQuest; bound copies are no longer required. The formatting page also notes that copy editing is available for a fee through the Center for Teaching and Learning. Finished work is collected in the Graduate School Dissertations and Theses collection.

Before a draft goes to the Graduate School for its format check, our editors can give it a final edit for grammar, consistency and format. See our Michigan Tech dissertation and thesis editing and Michigan Tech essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

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• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter
• The Secret to Better Grades: Starting Your Writing Process Early