About

Each year, the Western Association of Graduate Schools (WAGS) partners with ProQuest to solicit nominees in four award categories. This prestigious regional competition is an important opportunity for your institution to showcase innovation and creativity by your graduate students. WAGS member institutions may only submit one nomination for each of the award categories. We encourage you to take the time to prepare a nomination for any of the four awards.

Categories

• Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award in STEM disciplines

  • This award recognizes distinguished scholarly achievement at the master’s level in STEM disciplines: biological sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences, life sciences and engineering. 
  • DistinguishedMastersThesisAward_STEM.pdf

• Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award in humanities, social sciences, education, and business disciplines

  • This award recognizes distinguished scholarly achievement at the master’s level the humanities, social sciences, education, and business disciplines.
  • DistinguishedMastersThesisAward_HumanitiesSocialSciencesEducationBusiness.pdf

• Distinguished Master’s Thesis and/or Final Master’s Capstone Project Award in the creative, visual and performing arts

  • This award recognizes distinguished scholarly and creative arts’ achievement at the master’s level in creative, visual, and performing arts disciplines.
  • DistinguishedMastersThesis_FinalMastersCapstoneProjAwdCreativeVisualPerformingArts.pdf

Award Details

The 2021-2022 recipient for each award will receive $1,000, a Certificate of Award, and travel expenses for the recipient to attend the WAGS Annual Conference and Awards luncheon to be held in Denver, Colorado on March 20-23, 2022.

Eligibility

• Nominees must have successfully defended and submitted the final copy of their thesis or dissertation towards the master’s or doctoral degree within the period of July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021
• Nominees must be from a WAGS member institution (UC San Diego is a member institution)
• Check specific award type for additional eligibility requirements

Evaluation Criteria

• Originality of the study
• Scope and significance of the study
• Contribution to the discipline and/or profession
• Overall quality of the summary and abstract of the thesis or dissertation
• Check specific award type for additional evaluation criteria

Nomination Packet

• Nominators will be required to prepare/upload the following materials as one PDF document
• Must use the following name convention: "Nominee's Last Name_Nominee's Institution_WAGSCreative.pdf"
• Check specific award type for additional nomination material criteria

1. A non-technical summary prepared by the nominee (1000-1500 words) describing the research and its significance.  This summary is intended for a general academic audience of non-specialists. 
2. An abstract of the nominee's research (not to exceed 10 double-spaced pages).  Appendices containing non-textual material, such as charts or table, may be included as additional pages.  All pages should be numbered, and each should bear the name of the nominee.
3. Two (2) nomination letters (not to exceed 1 page per letter).  One letter from the department head or major professor and one letter from an additional faculty member.  The letters shoudl include information regarding the significance of the thesis, the contibution of the thesis to the program of the degree granting unit, and the impact of the thesis on the knowledge base of the discipline.
4. The nominee's curriculum vitae or resume (not to exceed five pages).

Nominations

• Graduate Departments/Programs can each submit up to two nominations for each award ( to be confirmed)
• All nominations must be submitted to the UC San Diego WAGS Applicant Intake Form for Graduate Students no later than August 25, 2021 at 5:00 p.m PST.
• The Graduate Division will review all submissions and select one application to nominate for each award category. (to be confirmed)
• Each WAGS member institution may submit only one nomination for each of the four award Categories.  
• Awards will be determined by WAGS in December 2021. 

Deadlines

The submission deadline for all nominations is August 25, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. PST.

Past Recipients

List coming soon!