Grants and Writing Resources for Mount Allison University

In September 2026 Mount Allison reported on a fourth-year biology major whose honours thesis studies the diet of the American toad, an invasive species introduced to Newfoundland in the 1960s. Backed by a Mount Allison Independent Student Research Grant funded by NSERC USRA, she spent five weeks on fieldwork in Newfoundland collecting toads by hand, and she is now comparing their diet with the prey available to them. Her findings will go to the province's Wildlife Division to inform how the species is classified and managed.

Summer Research Grants

The Independent Student Research Grant is worth $9,000. It pays a student to run a research or creative project for 14 weeks over the summer, at about 32.5 hours a week, on campus, in a community or overseas. Applicants are entering their final year with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5, and they need a faculty advisor with a continuing appointment. The application is a one-page proposal and a one-page statement of preparation, and the rules bar generative AI from writing or editing any of it. Humanities students are considered automatically for the J.E.A. Crake Student Summer Fellowships, which the Crake Foundation funds through the same program.

Summer researchers show their work at the Student Summer Research Fair (SuRF) in Tweedie Hall, with projects in science, health, fine arts, social science and the humanities.

Scholarships for Returning Students

Some upper-year scholarships need no application. The University General Scholarship of $750 goes to top students in each program who carried 30 credits over fall and winter with a GPA of 3.7 or better and hold no entrance scholarship. Departmental awards come by faculty recommendation.

Others ask for written work. The CN Brown Scholarship, for students entering their final year, asks applicants to describe their intended course of study and plans after graduation. The McKenna School Upper-Year Scholarship pays $5,000 to returning Philosophy, Politics and Economics majors and wants a cover letter and résumé. Art history and museum studies students entering fourth year can apply for a $7,000 Gibbens Lassonde Performance Award with writing samples of up to 10 pages.

Funding the MSc

Mount Allison's graduate degree is a thesis-based Master of Science in biology or in chemistry and biochemistry. Full-time students receive a minimum base stipend of $19,000 a year, which includes a $3,000 teaching assistantship. Two Greenidge Graduate Fellowships of $10,000 each go to students entering the MSc in biology or chemistry. Two Robert L. Rice Memorial Graduate Fellowships, worth about $7,000 each, are open to entering and continuing students in any field of chemistry and can be renewed. For both fellowships, half the money supports the supervisor's stipend and half is paid on top of it.

Writing Help and Theses

The Writing Centre sits in the Academic Support Help Hub, room M16 of the R.P. Bell Library. Tutors help with writing in any subject and at any stage, from lab reports and literature reviews to cover letters and scholarship applications. Professional staff give English as an additional language support.

Honours students follow the university's thesis guidelines: 12-point type, a 1.5-inch left margin, a title page on the set model and a style manual suited to the discipline. The Dean's Office sends the digital copy to the library for the Institutional Repository. MSc candidates choose a traditional or paper format under the graduate thesis formats and instructions, with an abstract of no more than 250 words and a signed Thesis Licence Agreement filed with the final copy.

Before an honours thesis goes to the department for grading, or an MSc thesis goes to committee, our editors can check its grammar, consistency and format. See our Mount Allison University dissertation and thesis editing and Mount Allison University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• The Secret to Better Grades: Starting Your Writing Process Early
• The Results Chapter: Presenting Data with Forensic Clarity
• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter