NOW OPEN: The Buckley Institute’s 2025 Yale Undergraduate and High School Essay Contests are Now Open
The Buckley Institute is excited to announce that the 2025 Yale undergraduate and high school essay contests are now open!
Yale undergraduates and American high school students can submit an essay to possibly win $250, $500, or even $1,000. Winning writers will receive their awards at our annual conference in New Haven on November 14, 2025. Past conference speakers include Vivek Ramaswamy, Bret Stephens, and Henry Kissinger.
This year’s contest focuses on preserving America’s core institutions and values even as rapid social progress erodes and overwhelms them. The essay contest topic honors the 100th anniversary of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s birth. Check out the full prompt below.
Essays for both Yale undergraduates and American high school students are due by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, October 5, 2025.
The high school contest is open to all students in Grades 9 to 12 who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Prompt
William F. Buckley, Jr.’s founding of National Review in 1955 successfully empowered a new conservative movement that
stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it
Buckley called upon conservatives (though it need not solely be their task) to preserve history’s worthiest traditions and values amidst America’s rapid social developments. What about today? How do citizens of all parties balance this preservation with lightning social developments, and what do we risk with unfettered progress? What cultural, social, or political ideals should be held sacred against innovation, and are our social institutions strong enough to survive the pressures of warranted and necessary progress? Whether conservative, progressive, or independent, what does it mean to yell Stop today?
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Read the full guidelines for both contests and submit essays here.
Please share with any Yale undergraduates and high school students you think would be interested!