Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Colorado Boulder
In September 2026 the American Meteorological Society named CU Boulder's student chapter its local student chapter of the year. Its faculty advisor says students launched the chapter in 2021, and the society cited its student networks and community outreach. Chapter events have included tours of the NCAR Research Aviation Facility, an eclipse viewing and a weather balloon launch. The award will be presented at the AMS annual meeting in Denver in January. Earlier in 2026, seven first-, second- and third-year students placed in the National Chinese Speech Contest, which drew more than 700 contestants from over 80 schools. Two of them took first and second place nationwide in the college heritage group.
Research Grants for Undergraduates
The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) offers students three kinds of grants: Assistantships, Individual Projects and Individual Conference Travel. Faculty apply for Team Project and Group Conference Travel grants. An assistantship carries a $2,000 stipend in summer, set higher to cover the cost of living in the Boulder area, and $1,000 for the academic year. The money counts as financial aid. Students submit no timesheets and can pair the grant with independent or directed study credit.
Individual Conference Travel grants help undergraduates share research or creative work at academic and professional conferences, competitions and creative exhibitions. UROP awards them on a rolling basis.
Graduate Grants and Fellowships
The Graduate School's Graduate Student Research Grants pay up to $1,200 for almost any research or creative project, with priority for thesis and dissertation work. Applicants must be full-time, degree-seeking and hold a 3.0 GPA. A master's student can receive one grant and a doctoral student two. Thesis preparation costs such as typing and copying are excluded.
To present work as primary author outside Colorado, a student can apply for the Graduate School Student Travel Grant. It reimburses transportation, lodging and registration up to $650 in the U.S., $800 for Canada or Mexico and $1,000 elsewhere.
In the current round, doctoral students advanced to candidacy by the end of spring semester 2027 can apply for a Dissertation Completion Fellowship: one semester with a monthly stipend equal to the 50% GPTI salary, tuition for up to five dissertation hours, mandatory fees and the student gold health insurance plan. Fellows hold no other paid university appointment that semester. Students in nine humanities and arts departments, among them English, History and Philosophy, apply to the Arts & Humanities Dissertation Fellowships instead.
Three Minutes, Prizes and Journals
Eleven graduate students reached the final of the ninth annual Three Minute Thesis competition in January 2026, held in the Glenn Miller Ballroom. Judges scored comprehension, content, engagement and communication. First place paid $2,000 and a spot at the Western Association of Graduate Schools competition; second place paid $750.
The Program for Writing and Rhetoric gives PWR writing awards for work from its courses. First-year categories run from short and long inquiry and argument essays to creative nonfiction and multimodal composition. Upper-division prizes include the A&S Writing Prize, the Mackison Prize for engineering majors and the Collaborative Writing Award for team projects done for a client or community partner. The contests are on hold for the 2026 academic year.
Among the program's student publications is Hindsight, a creative nonfiction journal whose editing, design and production are handled by CU Boulder undergraduates. Changing Skies, on climate change, started in 2022.
Writing Center and Thesis Filing
The Writing Center is free for current CU Boulder undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff, and for alumni and university affiliates. Sessions last 50 minutes. Its FAQ says the goal is to make writers better self-editors; the center does no copy editing but can give students a list of copy editors for hire. For dissertations and articles, Graduate Writing Support sets up regular meetings with a graduate writing specialist, who comments on cogency, organization, analysis, grammar and style.
A thesis is formatted to Graduate School requirements and approved by the committee through the Thesis Approval Form. The PDF is then uploaded through ProQuest, as the Thesis & Dissertation Submission page lays out. The Graduate School reviews it and either accepts it or asks for revisions. Its submission FAQ invites students to call about a format pre-check before uploading. Students can choose to have the work included in CU Scholar, an open access repository maintained by the University Libraries.
When a thesis is headed to ProQuest or a research grant proposal needs a last read, our editors can check it for grammar, consistency and format. See our University of Colorado Boulder dissertation and thesis editing and University of Colorado Boulder 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 Colorado Boulder, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your CU Boulder writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.