Grants and Writing Resources for Yale University

Thirty-nine recent Yale College graduates and six students and recent alumni of the graduate and professional schools were offered Fulbright awards for 2026-27, the highest number of recipients in Yale's history. Their host countries include Ethiopia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Senegal. The previous November, three seniors with majors in history, philosophy, anthropology and sociology were among the 32 Americans named Rhodes Scholars, and were set to begin graduate study at Oxford in October 2026.

Research Money for Undergraduates

The Yale College Dean's Research Fellowship pays a $5,000 stipend for at least ten weeks of full-time summer research at Yale in the natural sciences, engineering, mathematics or computer science. It is meant for sophomores and juniors with little or no research experience, and the work runs under a Yale faculty mentor who helps shape the proposal.

For everything else, start with the Office of Fellowships and Funding. It funds research, study abroad, public service, unpaid internships and self-designed projects, and it advises on postgraduate fellowships for graduate study. Advisers meet students one on one throughout the calendar year, and the office runs the Fulbright competition for Yale College students and alumni.

Where Student Work Appears

Started in spring 2020, The Yale Undergraduate Research Journal was the first reviewed publication to take in Yale student research from every discipline. It prints humanities, social science and STEM work, online and on paper.

Papers written for writing-requirement courses can go to the Poorvu Center Writing Contest. More than 200 WR courses in 45 departments qualify, students may enter one paper per course, and winning essays go up on the Poorvu Center website as model papers.

Graduate Research and Travel Funding

The MacMillan Center's 2024-25 grant list offered dissertation research grants of up to $18,000 for approved research overseas and pre-dissertation grants of up to $7,000 for work abroad before the prospectus is approved. The center's graduate grants page lists further awards for language study and summer fieldwork, many of them tied to a single region.

PhD students presenting at a professional conference can apply to the Graduate Student Assembly's Conference Travel Fellowship for up to $800 toward registration, transportation and lodging, with priority to students in years three through five. Students who win an external fellowship qualify for a stipend bonus under the Graduate School's Combined Award policy.

Writing Centers and the Dissertation

Undergraduates use the Yale College Writing Center. Every residential college has a writing tutor, many of them professional writers, who meets by appointment. Peer Writing Partners hold drop-in sessions of up to 45 minutes for work at any stage, from an outline to a late draft.

The Graduate Writing Lab has 40 graduate student fellows, so a consultation can be booked with someone in the same discipline. It runs more than 100 free workshops and panels a year, plus dissertation groups of four to seven writers that meet weekly. In 2025-26, 467 students logged 6,729 hours at its All Writes and retreats.

Dissertation submission is electronic, through the Dissertation Progress Reporting and Submission system. Each dissertation has three to five readers, two of whom must be ladder or ladder-track Yale faculty, and readers have 30 days to file reports. Accepted dissertations are published through ProQuest and collected in EliScholar.

Fellowship statements, senior essays and dissertation chapters can come to our editors for a final edit. See our Yale University dissertation and thesis editing and Yale University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• How to Write an Analytical Essay: Analysis vs. Interpretation
• Treating the Personal Statement as a Scholarly Defense
• ProQuest Readiness: The Final Mechanical Audit