Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Southern California
In June 2026, three Ph.D. students in USC's Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science were selected for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which carries three years of support. One develops membrane systems that let researchers study membrane proteins, including one involved in Parkinson's disease, in settings that more closely mimic living cells. Another tests ultra-high-temperature ceramics for aerospace use, and the third works on chalcogenide perovskites with possible uses in solar cells and photodetectors.
Prizes for Writing and Research
The Office of Academic Programs and The Writing Program hold the Undergraduate Writers' Conference, which met on April 6 in 2026. That year its prize competition paid $1,000 for first and $500 for second in four categories: fiction and memoir, poetry, and two academic writing categories, one for humanities and journalism and one for the social and hard sciences and business. Entrants submit one piece with a 300 to 500 word writer's statement. To stay eligible they attend at least two conference sessions and the awards lunch.
Research gets the same treatment at the Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and Creative Work. Every project needs a USC faculty sponsor, and presenters bring an electronic poster, a video summary of up to two minutes and a three-minute live talk. For the April 2025 symposium, each of five academic categories offered a $1,000 first prize and a $500 second prize. Both events add Schwarzenegger Institute and sustainability prizes.
Summer Funding and a Student Journal
Dornsife majors with at least a 3.0 GPA can work as research assistants for a Dornsife faculty member through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fund (SURF) and the Summer Humanities Undergraduate Research Experience (SHURE). For summer 2027 the award is a flat stipend of up to $3,000. The program suggests 20 hours a week for at least eight weeks, on the faculty member's project, and ends with a one-page report signed by the mentor.
Scribe is an online academic journal that USC undergraduates have edited at Dornsife since spring 2004. Most of its articles come out of Writing 340: Advanced Writing, the course that meets USC's upper-division writing requirement.
Fellowships
The Academic Honors and Fellowships office advises students applying for the Fulbright, Goldwater, Truman, Marshall and Rhodes, among others. Its 2026 list of recipients includes 18 Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards and five NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.
For Ph.D. students, the Graduate School coordinates external fellowships such as the NSF award, the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral and Dissertation Completion Fellowships and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships. Some are institutionally limited, with a cap on applicants or a required approval from a university official. Its External Fellowship Boot Camp is a writing workshop for funding applications, and a participant who submits a complete proposal may receive a research award of up to $1,000. Holders of designated national awards can also get a stipend top-off.
The Writing Center and Thesis Center
The Writing Center gives current students, faculty and staff free feedback on any kind of writing, from essays to job application materials and scholarship applications. Sessions run online or in person.
Theses and dissertations go through the Graduate School's online Thesis Center. After the defense, the submission guidelines allow only the formatting changes the Thesis Coordinator requests. The coordinator reviews format and presentation, the student uploads one PDF, and the approved manuscript passes to the USC Digital Library. A processing fee of $150 for doctoral students and $135 for master's students goes on the fee bill. Citation style is set by each program. The manuscript formatting guidelines cite the SCampus Student Guidebook in listing as an example of plagiarism "the submission of material subjected to editorial revision by another person that results in substantive changes in content or major alteration of writing style."
Within the Graduate School's rule, our editors give contest entries, fellowship essays and dissertations a final edit for grammar, consistency and format, and the content and writing style stay the author's. See our University of Southern California dissertation and thesis editing and University of Southern California 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 Southern California, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your USC writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.