Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
In April 2026, four Illinois undergraduates received Goldwater Scholarships: a sophomore and three juniors, two of the juniors majoring in mathematics. That brought Illinois to 13 Goldwater recipients in three years, and no university has had more over that period.
Research Grants for Undergraduates
The Office of Undergraduate Research awards Research Support Grants of up to $2,000 to undergraduates in good academic standing who have a faculty or research staff mentor. The money can pay for research travel, materials and supplies, and living costs during winter or summer break; tuition and fees are excluded. The applicant writes the proposal, five pages at most, and the office bars generative AI from its drafting. Students already accepted to present at a conference can apply for a Conference Travel Grant of up to $400, scaled to the distance from Urbana and limited to one a year.
College money adds to these. LAS Get Experience Scholarships pay up to $5,000 to Liberal Arts and Sciences students for supervised research or an internship with a nonprofit, educational or government employer. ACES Undergraduate Research Scholarships fund approved projects up to $1,500 and add a $500 merit scholarship for the term. Recipients file a short report and present at ACES Undergraduate Research Day or another approved venue.
Showcases and Student Journals
The Research Showcase is an annual Dad's Weekend event. For the 2026 showcase in the Illini Union, the office chose 16 undergraduate presenters from campus partner nominations, weighing the quality of their research and creative work and their presentation experience.
Two journals publish undergraduate work in the humanities. The Undergraduate History Journal at Illinois, founded in 2021, takes original historical research from any field, honors theses and course papers included, and undergraduates do the peer review. Techné is a student-led, peer-reviewed philosophy journal that comes out each spring. The office keeps a longer list of undergraduate research journals.
Fellowships and National Awards
Graduate College fellowships run through departments. Departments submit the nominations for Dissertation Completion Fellowships, which go to doctoral students finishing the dissertation, and for Travel Grants for Master's Projects and Dissertation Research, which cover off-campus travel the work requires. Conference Presentation Awards help graduate presenters with travel or, for online conferences, registration. For 2026-27, each department's semester allocation runs from $250 to $1,000 based on enrollment, and a student may receive one award per academic year.
The National and International Scholarships Program advises everyone from freshmen to recent alumni on nationally competitive awards. Its 2025-26 recipient list includes seven Fulbright awards and a Churchill Scholarship.
Writers Workshop and Thesis Deposit
The Writers Workshop gives free help to any writer in the campus community. It offers 50-minute appointments in the Main Library, Grainger Library or the MCB Learning Center, along with video calls, written feedback and drop-in hours. Consultants will read anything from one paragraph to a 50-page dissertation chapter. They point out grammar errors and recurring patterns so writers build self-editing habits, and the Workshop's FAQ refers thorough editing of theses and dissertations to hired editors. Graduate students can join writing groups and retreats, and the retreats usually fall during school breaks.
The Graduate College's Thesis Office offers a title page pre-check, one-on-one appointments and a Canvas Thesis Workspace where students trade advice. Its format requirements come with Word and LaTeX templates. Deposited work goes to the IDEALS collection Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois.
Our editors give theses, dissertations and course papers a final edit for grammar, consistency and Graduate College format. See our University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dissertation and thesis editing and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 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 Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your Illinois writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.