Grants and Writing Resources for Stanford University

Graduate study at Oxford is next for two Stanford seniors, in bioengineering and in computer science and classics, who were named 2026 Rhodes Scholars in November 2025. Most Stanford research starts closer to home. Undergraduate Research's Major Grant pays a 10-week summer stipend of $8,800, and most recipients are juniors starting an honors thesis, arts senior project, or senior synthesis.

Research Funding for Undergraduates

Undergraduate Research, part of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, funds student grants for projects designed with a faculty mentor. The Major Grant pays a 10-week summer stipend of $8,800, plus a $1,500 need-based supplement for eligible students, and most recipients are juniors starting an honors thesis, arts senior project, or senior synthesis. Small Grants cover project expenses up to $1,500. Students whose own work has been accepted at a peer-reviewed conference or festival can request a Conference Grant of up to $1,500.

Finished projects go before the campus at SURPS, the Symposium of Undergraduate Research and Public Service, which Undergraduate Research and the Haas Center for Public Service hold in spring. Presenters come from every discipline. The fall session has been discontinued, so in 2025-26 the spring event is the only one.

Writing Prizes

The Program in Writing and Rhetoric awards three student prizes. The Boothe Prize rewards expository and argumentative writing in first-year writing classes and COLLEGE; each quarter's first-place winner receives $350 and the honorable mention $200, and winning essays appear in an annual collection. Instructors in Writing in the Major courses nominate papers for the Hoefer Prize for Writing in the Major, judged across the humanities, social sciences, natural and mathematical sciences, and engineering. Spoken work counts too. The Lunsford Award for Oral Presentation of Research recognizes multimedia research presentations from PWR 2 classes.

Graduate Fellowships

The Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education runs university-wide doctoral fellowships. Degree programs can nominate incoming doctoral students for them. The Stanford Graduate Fellowship in Science & Engineering supports about 100 doctoral students a year with stipend and tuition for two or three years, while the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship gives three years of support to doctoral students in any of the seven schools whose research crosses fields.

For the last year of the degree, the Dissertation Completion Fellowship pays three quarters of stipend and TGR tuition to candidates who commit to finishing by the end of spring quarter, and fellows meet as a cohort. Nominations come through each school. Doctoral candidates whose dissertations address diversity can request up to $5,000 for research expenses through the Diversity Dissertation Research Opportunity.

Publishing and the Dissertation Record

The Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal is a student-run, peer-reviewed annual that publishes research from every academic field; Volume 21 appeared in winter 2026. Dissertations follow a fixed route. Students upload the final copy through the Dissertation and Thesis Center in Axess, and once the Registrar approves it the library preserves the work in the Stanford Digital Repository and makes it available in SearchWorks, as the dissertation and thesis submission guide explains.

Help With Writing

The Hume Center for Writing and Speaking offers free one-on-one tutoring for any piece of writing at any stage, drop-in hours with undergraduate peer tutors, and speaking support. Graduate students book tutors through the same system. Its Dissertation Boot Camp gives graduate writers ten writing days in a quiet room with snacks and supplies, free of charge, for any graduate project from a master's thesis to a dissertation.

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