Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Alabama
In April 2026 the National Science Foundation picked five current UA students for its Graduate Research Fellowship: four seniors and a graduate student in materials science. The seniors study aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, biology and English. A month later a junior pursuing degrees in environmental science and English was named one of 65 students nationally to earn a Udall Undergraduate Scholarship, the second UA student to win the award in two years. She also edits poetry for the campus digital magazine Ripple Arts Review.
Presenting Undergraduate Work
The Office for Undergraduate Research hosts the Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity Conference (URCA) each spring, and students from every discipline may apply to present research or creative work. The 18th conference, on March 26, 2024, drew more than 550 student presenters. Judges score each entry on a five-part rubric: the significance of the project, its research question or creative objective, its methods, its conclusions, and the delivery of the talk or performance.
Students headed to a professional meeting can apply for the office's Conference Presentation Travel Award, which generally runs from $50 to $500. The applicant must be a current undergraduate listed as an author on an accepted presentation, and the work must have been done under a faculty mentor. Each student can receive one award per fiscal year, and recipients who have not yet graduated also present at URCA.
Student Journals
The Crimson Historical Review is UA's first undergraduate history journal. UA undergraduates make up its boards, and it runs as a student organization with support from the Department of History.
The office's conferences and publications page lists other outlets. JOSHUA, the Journal of Science and Health at the University of Alabama, is written, edited and published by undergraduates once a year. The Capstone Journal of Law & Public Policy, run by the Legal Research Club, is described there as the first undergraduate-run law review in the state.
Graduate Fellowships and Research Funds
The Graduate School lists its fellowships on one page. Departments nominate students for the Capstone Doctoral Fellowship, which lasts five years and pays an annual stipend of at least $35,000: a $25,000 Graduate School stipend plus a quarter-time departmental assistantship. The Graduate School covers the remaining tuition, fees and health insurance. Graduate Council Fellowships, open to full-time on-campus students, and National Alumni Association Fellowships, for Alabama residents, pay $20,000 or $25,000 for one academic year depending on the program, with a full tuition scholarship. More than 100 of these awards are made each year.
The 2026-27 graduate catalog describes the Graduate Student Conference and Research Fund, which departments match one to one. Conference awards reach $500 for meetings in North America and $800 beyond it, for students presenting their work at a major meeting in their field. Research awards reach $300 and $600, with priority for thesis, pre-dissertation and dissertation research.
Writing Center and Thesis Format
The University of Alabama Writing Center in 322 Lloyd Hall is open to all members of the UA community, with tutors who work on brainstorming, drafting, revising, sources, grammar and style. Its graduate services include in-person and online consultations on seminar papers, conference abstracts, proposals and literature reviews. With the Graduate School it co-sponsors a Summer Dissertation Writing Challenge, which typically runs six weeks and is open to advanced graduate students working on a thesis or dissertation.
The Graduate School's thesis and dissertation page has a Template Generator in the Graduate Student Portal, Word and LaTeX templates, and a formatting checklist that its reviewers also use. Finished documents go to ProQuest, and an embargo can last up to two years.
A thesis bound for Graduate School review can get a final edit from our editors for grammar, consistency and format. See our University of Alabama dissertation and thesis editing and University of Alabama 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 the University of Alabama, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your UA writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.