Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Montana
Two UM juniors were named Harry S. Truman Scholars in April 2026, two of 55 chosen from 781 candidates nationwide, and became the 17th and 18th UM students to win the award. One studies environmental science and journalism and ran a composting project that put 150 countertop bins in off-campus student housing. The other, a communicative sciences and disorders major, is headed for a master's in speech-language pathology and wants to widen access to care in rural communities. Each receives $30,000 toward graduate study.
Paying for Undergraduate Projects
The Office of Undergraduate Research lists two campus-wide funds. ASUM's Experiential Learning Scholarship Fund, created by a 2015 student referendum and paid for with student fees and contributions from campus partners, gives undergraduate and graduate students up to $2,000 for research, creative work, travel, internships and service. The Watkins Scholarship generally awards $2,000 each to ten seniors a year. It goes to students with at least 90 credits and a 3.4 GPA who plan a senior research or creative project directed by a College of Humanities and Sciences faculty member.
Students aiming at national awards such as the Truman can work with the Office of External Scholarships and Fellowships. Its staff mentor students one on one and in groups, from first interest through submission, and help with the writing.
UMCUR, The Oval and a New Journal
The UM Conference on Undergraduate Research is open to every undergraduate and reaches its 26th anniversary in 2027. Students bring works in progress, senior theses, capstones, class projects, performances and art before a mixed audience from all disciplines. Each presenter registers an abstract or artist's statement on ScholarWorks and attends workshop sessions first, and the conference names award winners.
The Oval, an undergraduate art and literary magazine with an all-student staff, comes out each spring and takes fiction, nonfiction, poems and visual art from current UM undergraduates. The Office of Undergraduate Research and the Mansfield Library are also building the Montana Undergraduate Research Journal, a student-led publication set to launch in 2027.
A Writing Prize and Graduate Fellowships
Since 1982 the Merriam-Frontier Award, established by the late English professor H.G. Merriam, has honored UM's top student writers. In 2026 it went to a poetry collection by a student in the MFA program and carried $2,500 and a spring reading from the winning manuscript.
The Graduate School's scholarships and fellowships include up to three Bertha Morton fellowships and about 20 Bertha Morton scholarships each year. Departments nominate, and the Graduate Council ranks the nominees. Doctoral candidates in biomedical science doing basic, non-clinical research can apply for the Stella Duncan Memorial Fellowship, typically around $28,000. Programs in the biological sciences, chemistry, geology, mathematical sciences and physics nominate students for the Besancon Scholarship, typically around $24,000, and the UM Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership offers Indigenous students in STEM up to $20,000 for a master's degree and up to $40,000 for a doctorate.
Consultations, Jump Start and ScholarWorks
The Writing Center, in room 322 of Mansfield Library, books 30- and 60-minute consultations with professional tutors and Graduate Writing Fellows, online or in person, for theses, dissertations, grant proposals and conference talks. Its Jump Start retreat gives graduate writers four days of intensive writing over winter and spring breaks, with a two-day version before fall semester.
A week before the defense, students email a draft to the Graduate School for a formatting check. After the defense and revisions, the committee chair sends the final file. Master's theses and professional papers are then deposited in ScholarWorks, which holds more than 12,000 UM theses, dissertations and professional papers dating to 1899 (see the thesis steps). Doctoral students also submit to ProQuest, which sends the dissertation on to the Mansfield Library.
Before a draft goes to the Graduate School for its formatting check, our editors can give it a final edit for grammar, consistency and format. See our University of Montana dissertation and thesis editing and University of Montana 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 Montana, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your UM writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.