Grants and Writing Resources for San Francisco State University
Ten SF State students advanced from the February campus round to the 40th annual CSU Student Research Competition at San José State in April 2026, and they won five awards, the highest total of any campus. A chemistry student took first place in Physical and Mathematical Sciences. A month earlier the U.S. Department of State named SF State a Gilman Program 25th Anniversary Top Producing Institution; 22 SF State students studied abroad on Gilman scholarships in 2025.
Where Students Present
Graduate students show their work at the annual Graduate Research and Creative Works Showcase. Presenters bring posters on a project's purpose, design, methods and results, and creative work can include a recorded excerpt. Projects may still be in progress, but they must be approved or exempt through the university's human and animal protection review. Campus winners in the CSU Research Competition advance to the systemwide event.
Grad Slam asks graduate students for a recorded talk of three minutes or less with a single static slide. Two delegates go on to the CSU-wide final. Undergraduates in the College of Liberal & Creative Arts present at the LCA Undergraduate Research Showcase, which welcomes students from any discipline in the college at any level of research experience.
Research Grants for Undergraduates
The College of Liberal & Creative Arts pays for student research through its Marcus programs. A Marcus Undergraduate Research Fellowship carries $3,000 for the student and $1,000 for the faculty mentor over a year-long project. Fellows hand in a report of about 1,000 words at the end of spring and present at one or more conferences. The Marcus Undergraduate Student Presentation Grant covers up to $1,000 per fiscal year in travel, lodging and registration for LCA majors presenting at a peer-reviewed or juried conference or exhibit.
Fellowships and Graduate Awards
The Fellowships Office advises undergraduates, graduate students and recent alumni who apply for nationally competitive and CSU fellowships, and it holds information sessions on the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Two CSU programs prepare students for faculty careers. The California Pre-Doctoral Program names Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholars, pairs each with a faculty sponsor, and funds the work of applying to doctoral programs. The Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program lends doctoral students up to $30,000, forgivable for fellows who later take CSU faculty positions.
Graduate Studies runs the Graduate Equity Fellowship for California residents in master's and doctoral programs who come from educationally or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. In the 2027-28 cycle it pays up to $3,500 for master's students and up to $5,000 for doctoral students.
Where Student Work Appears
Transfer Magazine has printed SF State student writing and art since 1956. Undergraduates on staff in CW 640 read submissions and choose each issue. Graduate students in Creative Writing run Fourteen Hills, founded in 1994, which publishes writers from the United States and abroad in the annual Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review.
Help With Writing and Theses
The Tutoring and Academic Support Center in LIB 220 gives free writing tutoring to students from first year through graduate school, in 50-minute appointments or at drop-in hours. It also hosts a Grad Student Writing Group. The Graduate Studies list of graduate writing support includes ENG 670, a three-unit course in graduate writing for the liberal and creative arts, and HSS 700 for health and social science programs.
Under the thesis and dissertation guidelines, a student emails a partial draft to a Graduate Program Specialist for a preliminary format check, then sends the finished, accessible draft for a final check before submitting it to the library. Graduate Studies supplies Word templates for the EdD dissertation and the master's thesis. SF State theses and dissertations from 2010 on are held in ScholarWorks.
Our editors can give a thesis, dissertation, or seminar paper a final read before it goes to Graduate Studies for the format check. See our San Francisco State University dissertation and thesis editing and San Francisco State 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 San Francisco State University, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your SF State writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.