Competitions
Engaging in academic competitions is a unique avenue for enhancing your college application. Whether on a local or national scale, these contests offer a tangible platform to display your initiative, expertise (or talent), and commitment to personal growth.
ART COMPETITIONS
Celebrate the West Art Competition
EarthX Planet911 Youth Film Challenge
FilmFreeway Film Festivals & Screenplay Contests
International Photography Awards (IPA)
Living Oceans Foundation Science Without Borders Art Challenge
NASA Langley Student Art Contest
Never Such Innocence Competition in Poetry, Artwork, Speeches, and Songs
Scholastic Art & Writing Awards by Alliance for Young Artists & Writers
United Nations Competitions & Contests
YoungArts National Arts Competition
BUSINESS COMPETITIONS
Stevens Institute of Technology Trading Day
The Wolves of Wall Street Competition
CODING COMPETITIONS
Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot
American Computer Science League (ACSL) Contests
Apple WWDC Scholars Swift Student Challenge
Congressional App Challenge (CAC)
Girls Programming League Challenge
Harker Programming Invitational (HPI)
Hewlett Packard (HP) Code Wars
International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI)
picoCTF sponsored by Carnegie Mellon (noncompetitive practice + annual competition)
USA Computing Olympiad (USACO)
HISTORY
National History Day Competition
LEGAL, CIVIC, LEADERSHIP COMPETITIONS
Bill of Rights Institute We The Students Essay Contest
Bill of Rights Institute’s MyImpact Challenge (individual or team-based)
John Locke Critical Thinking Essay Competition (subject categories: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology or Law)
Profile in Courage Essay Writing Contest by JFK Presidential Library
United States Institute of Peace National High School Essay Contest
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Voice of Democracy Scholarship (audio-essay contest)
MATH COMPETITIONS
Mathematical Association of America’s (MAA) American Mathematics Competitions (AMC)
MathWorks Math Modeling (M3) Challenge (team-based)
STEM & SCIENCE COMPETITIONS
California Science & Engineering Fair (requires local advancement)
Department of Defense (DoD) Junior Science & Humanities Symposium STEM Competition
Engineer Girl Annual Essay Contest
Future Engineers Student Challenges
Orange County Science & Engineering Fair
Rube Goldberg Machine Contests
The New York Academy of Sciences Innovation Challenges
See also Institute of Competition Sciences (ICS) (site aggregator for competitions)
WRITING COMPETITIONS
Bennington College Young Writers Awards
Bill of Rights Institute We The Students Essay Contest
Engineer Girl Annual Essay Contest
Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Essay Contest
John Locke Critical Thinking Essay Competition (subject categories: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology or Law)
Journalism Education Association (JEA) High School Essay Contest
National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Achievement Awards in Writing (nomination by English teacher)
Princeton Poetry & Playwriting Contests
Profile in Courage Essay Writing Contest by JFK Presidential Library
Rachel Carson Intergenerational Sense of Wonder / Sense of the Wild Writing Contest
Scholastic Art & Writing Awards by Alliance for Young Artists & Writers
United States Institute of Peace National High School Essay Contest
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Voice of Democracy Audio-Essay Scholarship Contest
Competitive opportunities are constantly evolving, and CMCA strives to provide up-to-date resources. If you’d like to recommend a competition, notice a discontinued offering, or encounter a broken link, share your feedback here.