Grants and Writing Resources for the University of Texas at Austin
Every prize at the 2026 Empower Your Research Pitch, a three-round redesign of the 3-Minute Thesis format held on April 15, 2026, went to a UT Austin doctoral student. Out of twelve finalists, judges gave $1,000 awards to Ph.D. students in electrical and computer engineering, materials science and engineering, and neuroscience. The audience vote and its $500 prize went to a comparative literature Ph.D. student.
A Prize for Undergraduate Work
The provost's office gives the UT Co-op George H. Mitchell Award for superior scholarly or creative achievement by undergraduates, with support from the University Co-op. In the 2026 cycle, four recipients receive $5,000 each and two receive $7,000. Currently enrolled juniors and seniors apply with finished or nearly finished work, such as a complete thesis draft. Teams may submit together on one application with one recommendation letter, and a faculty committee picks the winners.
Fellowships and Graduate Awards
University fellowships from the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies start with a nomination from the graduate program. Among the continuing fellowships for current students, the Outstanding Graduate Research Fellowship pays $38,000 for 12 months, with health insurance assistance and in-state tuition assistance. Twenty named endowments fund some of those awards. A small number of doctoral candidates nominated for it receive the one-year Harrington Dissertation Fellowship, which includes a 12-month stipend, tuition and required fees, a medical insurance allowance and $2,000 for miscellaneous expenses. Dissertation Writing Fellowships go to candidates expected to graduate in the same academic year as the award.
A student presenting an original paper at a major professional meeting, based on research done at UT Austin, can be nominated for a Professional Development Award. The recommended range is $100 to $1,000. Completed dissertations compete for the Outstanding Dissertation Award, established in 1979 and judged in three areas: humanities and fine arts; social sciences, business and education; and mathematics, engineering and the sciences. The 2026 winners receive the Michael H. Granof Awards, which the graduate office calls the top graduate student awards.
Writing Help and Hiring an Editor
The University Writing Center sits in the UT Learning Commons at the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL 2.330) and works with undergraduates and graduate students. For graduate students, trained graduate peer consultants give 45-minute appointments on up to eight pages of writing at a time, from seminar papers to dissertations. Weekly writing groups and all-day writing retreats are free as well.
The center also publishes guidance on hiring an editor. UT has no official policy against hiring editors, it says, though individual faculty members may object. Students should ask a professor or faculty supervisor for permission before hiring a copy-editor. A student who hires one after a supervisor has said no would be in violation of the institutional rule on complying with instructions.
Submitting a Thesis or Dissertation
Master's and doctoral graduates publish the thesis, report, dissertation or treatise digitally under the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Format Guidelines. The Digital Submission Requirement page supplies Word templates and recommends a format check before submission. Writers who prefer LaTeX can download the office's LaTeX template package, and graduate students get free Overleaf Professional access.
The office suggests running a draft through iThenticate and going over the results with a supervisor. The finished document goes to the Texas Digital Library as a single PDF. After upload, the only revisions allowed are those the Graduate Dean requires.
Once a supervisor has agreed to outside help, our editors can give a thesis, dissertation or paper a final edit for grammar, consistency and format. See our UT Austin dissertation and thesis editing and UT Austin 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 Texas at Austin, and your faculty may endorse our services individually. We look forward to helping you bring your UT Austin writing to its strongest, submission-ready form.