Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Maryland, Baltimore
In July 2026 the School of Nursing reported that one of its Bachelor of Science in Nursing students had won a 2026 USM Board of Regents Student Excellence Scholarship, the board's highest honor for student achievement, in the Outreach and Engagement category. Twelve students across the University System of Maryland were chosen. The same student belongs to the school's inaugural Nursing Policy Academy and was selected through a competitive application to attend the American Association of Colleges of Nursing's 2026 Student Policy Summit in Washington, D.C.
Graduate Student Association Grants
The Graduate Student Association gives a $1,000 Research Award to help doctoral students finish dissertation work when laboratory funds are in jeopardy or unavailable. The money buys research supplies only. A committee of peers and faculty weighs financial need and professional merit, and the award is made twice a year, once each semester.
Students who present a paper or poster at a professional meeting can apply for a GSA Travel Fellowship, which reimburses food, lodging, transportation and registration up to $400, though most awards are smaller. A student can receive one per academic year and three in all. Professional Development Awards of up to $500 cover workshops, seminars, certificate training and conferences, with receipts required for every request.
Presenting Research and Winning Prizes
The GSA's annual Graduate Research and Career Advancement Summit brings students and postdoctoral fellows from every UMB school together for oral and poster presentations. The 48th summit ran April 9 and 10, 2026, with a virtual first day and a second day in the SMC Campus Center. Faculty judges name a top poster and a top oral presenter in each session, and UM Ventures Student Programs and GGEAR give special awards.
Graduating medical students can apply for the School of Medicine's Dean's Award for Excellence in Research, which recognizes biomedical or clinical and translational research completed during medical training. It has traditionally been a plaque and a cash prize presented at the Student Awards Ceremony.
Writing Competitions at Maryland Carey Law
The law school's Legal Writing Center posts current writing competitions on the bulletin boards outside room 400 and on its Blackboard page. Its own Paul Cordish Memorial Writing Competition is open only to Maryland Carey Law students. Supported by the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters and the Paul Cordish Memorial Fund, it awards first, second and third prizes for the best papers on ethical or legal issues in public insurance adjusting.
Writing Center and Thesis Standards
The UMB Writing Center serves student writers and faculty across all seven schools. Its Writing Center Fellows hold consultations online, in person in Room 307 of the SMC Campus Center at 621 W. Lombard Street, or as eTutoring, where you send the paper ahead and receive written comments. A 45-minute session covers writing strategy, revision and APA or AMA citation, and the editing and proofreading stay with the writer. Doctoral students working on a proposal or dissertation can book Advanced Writing Support with the center's associate director, and the Writing Accountability Group meets on Zoom for two-hour sessions of shared writing time.
The School of Graduate Studies reviews each thesis and dissertation for format against its Electronic Dissertation and Thesis Style Guide, which takes precedence over other style manuals. Final work is submitted to ProQuest and made available in the UMB Digital Archive.
Before a dissertation goes to the School of Graduate Studies or a seminar paper goes into a competition, our editors can check grammar, consistency and format. See our UMB dissertation and thesis editing and UMB 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 November 2026.
Editors For Students is an independent editorial service and is not affiliated with the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your UMB writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.