yale essay competition 2021

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Essay topics.

All first-year applicants will complete a few Yale-specific short answer questions. These required questions are slightly different based on the application platform an applicant chooses. The 2024-2025 Yale-specific questions for the Coalition Application, Common Application, and QuestBridge Application are detailed below.

Short Answer Questions

Applicants submitting the Coalition Application , Common Application , or QuestBridge Application  will respond to the following short answer questions:

• Students at Yale have time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. Many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. As of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably? Please indicate up to three from the  list provided.
• Tell us about a topic or idea that excites you and is related to one or more academic areas you selected above. Why are you drawn to it? (200 words or fewer)
• What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words or fewer)

Applicants applying with the QuestBridge Application will complete the questions above via the Yale QuestBridge Questionnaire, available on the Yale Admissions Status Portal after an application has been received.

Applicants submitting the Coalition Application or Common Application  will also respond to the following short answer questions, in no more than 200 characters (approximately 35 words):

• What inspires you?
• If you could teach any college course, write a book, or create an original piece of art of any kind, what would it be?
• Other than a family member, who is someone who has had a significant influence on you? What has been the impact of their influence? 
• What is something about you that is not included anywhere else in your application?

Applicants submitting the Coalition Application or Common Application will respond to one of the following prompts in 400 words or fewer. 

1. Reflect on a time you discussed an issue important to you with someone holding an opposing view. Why did you find the experience meaningful?

2. Reflect on your membership in a community to which you feel connected. Why is this community meaningful to you? You may define community however you like.

3. Reflect on an element of your personal experience that you feel will enrich your college. How has it shaped you?

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

How to Write the Yale University Essays 2020-2021

We’ve updated this post! Read the 2021-2022 Yale essay guide .

One of the first colleges in America, Yale has since secured its position as one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world. As a member of the Ivy League, Yale sits at #3 (tie) on the US News National University Rankings .

Yale’s class of 5,500 undergraduates study in the city of New Haven, Connecticut. Each student lives in one of the fourteen residential colleges across the 345-acre campus. With over 35,220 first-year applicants for the Class of 2024, only 6.5% of students were accepted.

Yale offers three ways to apply: the Common Application, the Coalition Application, and the QuestBridge National College Match Application. Let’s take a look at the Yale-specific questions that accompany each of these. Want to know your chances at Yale? Calculate your chances for free right now.

Want to learn what Yale University will actually cost you based on your income? And how long your application to the school should take? Here’s what every student considering Yale University needs to know.

Yale University Supplemental Essay Prompts

Short answer questions (200 characters, ~35 words).

These are for applicants using the Common App and Coalition Application only, not Questbridge.

• What inspires you?
• Yale’s residential colleges regularly host conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What question would you ask?
• You are teaching a Yale course. What is it called?
• Most first-year Yale students live in suites of four to six students. What do you hope to add to your suitemates’ experience? What do you hope they will add to yours?

For all applicants, including Questbridge:

• Students at Yale have plenty of time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. Many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. As of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably? Please indicate up to three from the  list  provided.

Why do these areas appeal to you? (125 words or fewer)

What is it about yale that has led you to apply (125 words or fewer), essays  (250 words, for all applicants).

Prompt 1 : Yale’s extensive course offerings and vibrant conversations beyond the classroom encourage students to follow their developing intellectual interests wherever they lead. Tell us about your engagement with a topic or idea that excites you. Why are you drawn to it?

Prompt 2: Respond to one of the following prompts.

• Option A : Reflect on your membership in a community. Why is your involvement important to you? How has it shaped you?  You may define community however you like.
• Option B : Yale students, faculty, and alumni engage issues of local, national, and international significance. Discuss an issue that is important to you and how your college experience could help you address it.
• Option C : Tell us about your relationship with a role model or mentor who has been influential in your life. How has their guidance been instrumental to your growth?

Engineering Applicants Only :

For the Common App and Coalition Application, and not Questbridge.

Please tell us more about what has led you to an interest in this field of study, what experiences (if any) you have had in engineering, and what it is about Yale’s engineering program that appeals to you. (250 words)

Required Short Answer Questions

The short answer questions give you an easy way to make your application memorable. However, too often, many students write something boring or cliché . While your mom might be the most important person in your life and scoring the game-winning goal might be your most memorable experience, the same is likely true for hundreds of other applicants. How can you avoid this? Let’s take a look at the questions.

What inspires you? (35 words)

This sounds a lot like “vision statements” that many business professionals write for themselves. The idea here is to give a concise summary of what drives you every day.

While brainstorming an answer to this question, it’s a good idea to think about how you would summarize your application in a few sentences. What are your recommenders saying about you? What do your classwork and extracurriculars demonstrate an interest in? What sentence instantly helps to combine the disparate elements of your application into a cohesive narrative? This should help guide an answer to the question that’s consistent with your overall application.

For example, maybe you’re passionate about competitive weightlifting and computer programming. You love the two very different activities because they allow you to constantly push your limits. You can always lift more, and create a more efficient program. Your response to this prompt might focus on your desire to continually improve yourself and what you’ve built.

Or, maybe the focus of your high school career was leadership and service. You served in Student Government, participated in Model UN, and started an organization to combat the food desert in your local community. In this case, you might write that working with governing bodies to enact meaningful change is what motivates you.

Yale’s residential colleges regularly host intimate conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What question would you ask? (35 words)

The stereotypical answer to this question is along the lines of Mahatma Gandhi or former President Obama. Of course, these are interesting people that anyone would like to have a conversation with, including hundreds of Yale applicants. On the other hand, very few applicants will write about people like Paul Baran or Joseph Campbell. You can make your application stand out by mentioning someone unique.

Once again, this question gives you the opportunity to reference back to the rest of your application. If you’re trying to show you really love math, maybe write about Pierre de Fermat. Or, if you have already written two essays about math, showcase your other big passion for storytelling by writing about Brandon Stanton, the founder of Humans of New York .

The second part of this question is about what you’d like to ask the selected individual. Admissions officers see questions like “what is the biggest challenge you’ve faced?” all the time. Be original and specific! Think about how the person you’ve selected interacts with your application. Remember, the question you would ask them reflects upon yourself too.

For instance, say you decide to write about Brandon Stanton. If he were invited to speak, you could ask him what he thinks draws so many people to his platform, and what makes storytelling so powerful. You might ask about the ways it can change lives. These are all specific questions that demonstrate thoughtfulness and an ability to engage in higher-level thinking.

You are teaching a Yale course. What is it called? (35 words)

This is just a proxy to ask “what interests you?” That is, what interests you enough that you’d want to share that passion with a handful of Yale students? You can let your creativity run wild here; if you have a niche interest, this is the perfect place to mention it. An answer like “Designing and Testing Role Playing Games” is a lot better than “Economics 101.”

Alternatively, think about two interests you have. For example, if you like cartoon shows and politics, a class called “The Politics of Cartoon Shows” will definitely catch the eye of an admissions officer.

With your remaining space, you might give a brief description of the course, such as the works you’ll study and the themes covered.

Most first-year Yale students live in suites of four to six people. What would you contribute to the dynamic of your suite? (35 words)

In one of our team members’ successful Yale applications, he made a long list of things he liked, spicing it up with humorous items like “dank memes.” A list of things is a great way to answer this question; you can easily show your diverse interests in one sentence.

Another way to answer this question is by describing activities you envision doing together with your suitemates. Maybe you’ll bring the popcorn for horror movie nights, or you’ll lead yoga sessions to help everyone de-stress before finals. Or, you might share your unusual cooking creations, like a chocolate avocado smoothie. The goal is to share how you might interact with those you live with.

Students at Yale have plenty of time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. Many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. As of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably? Please indicate up to three from the list provided.

This prompt is similar to a traditional “ Why This Major ” prompt, however, 125 words is a very tight amount of space, so you need to be comprehensive and clear. Whether or not you plan on majoring in physics, economics, or neuroscience, the same basic strategy can be applied across the board.

As directly as possible, you need to describe how your academic interests developed, what exactly is compelling about your intended major, and what your professional goals are. 

For example, maybe you’re interested in Linguistics because you’re a third culture kind, and have always struggled to get rid of your American accent in Portuguese, but your younger brother speaks without an accent. You want to explore the science behind language acquisition, as well as the human impact of language (culture, identity, language preservation). You’re potentially interested in becoming a translator one day, primarily to expand great works of literature across language barriers.

Or, maybe you’re interested in Psychology and Political Science because you’re fascinated by today’s polarized political climate. You want to understand why people hold the beliefs they do, and why voters act the way they do. One day, you hope to work on the campaigns of progressive candidates who support the causes you care about.

Whatever your interest is, waste no space in diving right into the most specific details. Then, work to connect the details to future goals and interests. While a traditional “Why This Major” essay should include why you want to study that major at that specific school, you may not have any space, given the small word count. Luckily, the next question allows you to discuss how Yale can support your academic goals.

This is a classic example of the “ Why This College ” essay. For this prompt, you’ll want to cite specific reasons Yale is a good fit to support your academic goals. You may also want to include any compelling extracurricular reasons, as college is not only about what you do in the classroom.

Let’s go back to the example of the student who’s passionate about Psych and PoliSci. A specific Yale resource they might want to highlight is the PoliSci Department’s funding for students working on election campaigns . This funding allows students to develop and implement a campaign strategy related to their unique skills. For example, they might choose to create a social media campaign, using their knowledge of voter psychology. 

Aim to get just as granular in your essay, and do extensive research on resources at Yale. See our post How to Research a School for the “Why This College” essay if you don’t know where to start.

In an essay of only 125 words, you’ll likely only be able to mention 2-4 aspects of Yale that resonate with you. That’s totally okay! It’s better to show a deeper understanding of what Yale offers than to list a bunch of general characteristics. 

Under no circumstances should you mention anything vague that could apply to other schools, such as the location, prestige, or even a strong academic department. If you could copy and paste your essay for another school and just switch out the school name, that’s a sign that your essay isn’t specific enough. Take it to the next level; what courses, programs, organizations, or grants could support your goals? 

Required Longer Responses (250 words)

Yale’s extensive course offerings and vibrant conversations beyond the classroom encourage students to follow their developing intellectual interests wherever they lead. tell us about your engagement with a topic or idea that excites you. why are you drawn to it.

What makes you tick? What keeps you up at night? Yale is looking for students driven by a passion for learning; they want to see the ability to succeed within a focused field of study (i.e., the college major). Therefore, your answer to this question should convey your love for a certain field of study. Keep in mind that your answer isn’t constrained to classroom subjects — if you read books about sports statistics on your own time, that’s a perfectly valid answer!

It is best to make your response specific, as the prompt asks for an idea or topic –– not a subject. For example, instead of reflecting on a general interest in biology, you should write about a passion for genetics. Writing about a specific interest will allow you to better convey exactly why you are drawn to the topic. For instance, there may be many reasons that you are interested in biology, as biology covers a number of subjects. However, you might be specifically interested in genetics because your brother has a hereditary disorder or because you uncovered family secrets through a DNA testing service.

Example 1: A broad answer like “physics.” If you choose such a vast topic, make sure you focus on what specifically excites you about it. Since answers like “physics” are going to be common, you need to convey your passion in a unique, memorable way. Tell Yale what part of quantum mechanics excites you and how you look forward to certain lab experiments. However, try to avoid really broad topics like “science.” If your transcript distinguishes between different sciences, your essay should too.

Example 2: A very specific answer like “15th-century European history.” There aren’t going to be many (if any!) other applicants with that answer, so you’ve already made yourself memorable. The challenge here is to tell a broader narrative of what excites you about this distinct topic. You could talk about how you got interested in it and why it excites you more than, say, European history as a whole. A word of caution though: don’t claim an interest that the rest of your application doesn’t support! Between your transcript and recommendation letters, it could be very clear that your professed passion is not as intense as it seems.

No matter what you talk about, make sure your essay conveys your intellectual vitality — an interest and desire for learning. The exact thing you talk about matters less than showing a deep passion for a specific interest.

A great way to write this essay is to break it up into parts. First, write about how you were introduced to the topic. Such an introduction will allow you to naturally discuss why it was so compelling to you. Then, discuss your engagement with the subject. Yale wants to accept students who love to learn for the sake of learning and who go above and beyond to do so. Write about the documentaries you watched, books you read, research you conducted, or conversations you had with teachers! By focusing on your involvement with the process of learning, the rest of the essay should fall in place. When describing your excitement about a topic, it is best to use vibrant, varied, and descriptive language; this style will allow you to convey your excitement about the topic to readers.

Prompt 2, Option A 

Reflect on your membership in a community. why is your involvement important to you how has it shaped you you may define community however you like ..

This question is quite open ended and allows applicants to write about a community – whether formal or informal – to which they belong. You can really write about anything, from a formal community (town, soccer team, religious organization, school) to an informal community (group of friends, coworkers, family). Keep in mind that “community” doesn’t have to be defined in the traditional sense, either. Your community could be a group of people who share the same language, values, experiences, or personality traits.

The prompt asks you two questions. First, why is your involvement important? Second, how has this involvement affected you?

You should aim to organize your essay in the following way:

First, define and describe the community you are writing about. Defining the community is especially important for applicants writing about informal communities. For example, if you are writing about your siblings, make sure that this is clear. When describing the community, be sure to describe the culture. How do you interact as a group? For example, your soccer team may be more than teammates – perhaps you have special moments while traveling on the bus for a match. Make sure you discuss the dynamic. As a group, are you sarcastic, silly, or serious? Does your community have a specific kind of humor or tradition?

Second, discuss your engagement with this community. For example, did you create a Snapchat group chat for your debate team that allowed you to bond outside the context of serious competitions, opening up a channel for close friendship among teammates? Did you regularly grab lunch with your co-workers at a local bakery? Or, did you meet survivors of gender-based violence through your work with a local organization?

Finally, reflect on why your involvement was important to you, and how it’s shaped you. For example, did the Snapchat group chat teach you to empathize with your competition, improving your sportsmanship? Did conversations with your coworkers over lunch spark your interest in food science? Or, did volunteering at a non-profit increase your interest in being a human rights lawyer? You could also talk about how being the oldest sibling taught you to be a caretaker and sparked your interest in becoming a doctor. Regardless, you want to write about how you have become who you are through your engagement with this community.

In this video, we read a successful Yale essay for a similar prompt: “What is a community to which you belong?”

Prompt 2, Option B

Yale students, faculty, and alumni engage issues of local, national, and international importance. discuss an issue that is significant to you and how your college experience could help you address it..

Yale wants to accept students who will make the most of their education. That is, using all that they have learned to improve the world. Further, Yale wants to accept students who want to change the world.

This prompt asks you to describe an issue that is important to you and reflect on how you would make use of a college education in order to address this problem. Your response to this question should be broken down into two main parts. First, describing the issue and why it is of personal significance. Second, discussing what kinds of things you would want or need to learn to move closer to your goal of addressing this issue. Let’s break down what each of those parts specifically require.

First, describing the issue and why it is of personal significance. As with most college essays, it is best if you can make your response unique. Most students could write generally about why solving world hunger or cancer is important. Few students would be able to describe why such a grand issue is personally significant. As such, there exist two main approaches. First, you can pick a grand issue (like cancer, world hunger, or homelessness) and connect it to your life. Perhaps your mother was recently diagnosed with cancer, or you grew up regularly not having enough to eat. Establishing an emotional connection is important for any topic, but especially national or international topics that many students might also write about. Your other option is to discuss a local issue. Maybe your public high school lacks a diverse teaching staff or you come from a town facing the opioid crisis. Writing about an issue of local importance will be more accessible for most students. It will also make it easier to establish personal significance; you can write about noticing how you couldn’t relate to your teachers, or how your neighbor’s daughter was impacted by drug addiction. These stories will easily allow you to develop a connection, as a local issue is inherently already personal.

Second, discussing what kinds of things you would want or need to learn to move closer to your goal of addressing this issue. This part of the prompt is slightly more challenging. As a high school student, it may feel impossible to imagine what a college experience or education will consist of. However, there are a few core experiences that you should consider connecting to the prompt:

• Discuss the majors or courses that are of interest to you. For example, you may wish to take a course on psychopharmacology in order to understand how the brain interacts with drugs. 
• Connect the problem you hope to solve with Yale’s liberal arts education. How will taking courses in a variety of disciplines allow you to address the issue at hand? You might complement your studies in psychopharmacology with political science courses on public health policy, or seminars on the history of science and medicine.
• Reflect on the people you’ll meet, whether those are peers, professors, or visitors who give talks. 
• Discuss the opportunity to contribute to the academic understanding of a subject through research; for example, assisting a professor who specializes in health economics. Fifth, you can look into the various grants that Yale has for supporting creative arts projects, research, international and public service internships, and more!

At the end of your essay, you should be sure to tie together all of the components you discussed. Remind Yale that accepting you would add value not only to your life, but to the broader community, as you would use Yale’s resources to address problems.

Prompt 2, Option C

Tell us about your relationship with a role model or mentor who has been influential in your life. how has their guidance been instrumental to your growth.

The biggest mistake students make with a prompt like this is to focus too much on the role model. Every college essay is meant to reveal more about who you are, so even if the topic asks about your role model, you should use that as an avenue to discuss how that mentor impacted your personal growth. 

The first step with this prompt is to pick a figure who has had a substantial role in your life and development. It doesn’t have to be a family member–this is probably actually one of the more cliche responses, unless you have truly meaningful anecdotes to include in your essay. You should also avoid historical figures or celebrities with whom you didn’t have an actual relationship. It’s important to pick someone who got to know you well, and who you got to know well. After all, the prompt specifically asks you to discuss your relationship with your mentor.

As you’re brainstorming, think about the people who pushed you to become a better person and to tackle challenges you didn’t think you could handle (but your mentor always believed you could). Think about your teachers, tutors, coaches, supervisors, bosses, religious leaders, professionals you shadowed, and older peers. Another avenue is to reflect on your most valuable personal qualities, like your tenacity or compassion. Which people helped you nurture those qualities?

Here’s an example: maybe you had a good relationship with the owner of the coffee shop where you worked weekends. You always looked forward to your chats on life and the realities of owning a business. Maybe you considered the owner a role model, as they also came from a lower-income background, like you, but they ultimately were able to create a successful business, one that sources ethical coffee and gives back to underserved communities. Even though you were timid, the owner encouraged you to develop initiatives for the coffee shop, such as an outdoor concert of local musicians that would benefit a non-profit giving free music lessons to low-income students. Because of your mentor, you became more confident, and discovered your passion for social entrepreneurship. 

This would be a strong response because you had a meaningful relationship, and because you can focus on your own growth, particularly through organizing the concert. It also allows you to provide more context on things you may have listed in your application, but didn’t get a chance to fully explain.

Engineering Students Only

Please tell us more about what has led you to an interest in this field of study, what experiences (if any) you have had in engineering, and what it is about Yale’s engineering program that appeals to you (250 words)

This prompt essentially calls for an extended “Why This Major” essay. Since you will have already discussed your interest in engineering in a previous essay, be sure to cover any points that you haven’t mentioned yet. In the previous “Why This Major” prompt, you only had 125 words. This is your chance to share more anecdotes, provide more context for your interest, and discuss your relevant experience.

For example, maybe you’re interested in Chemical Engineering since you’re passionate about sustainable fashion. You want to be able to engineer production processes that are safe for the environment and garment workers, while also being cost- and resource-efficient. You became interested in sustainable clothing production after living in a town with a garment factory that polluted the river and killed wildlife. In this extended essay, you might share a story of how the environmental pollution impacted you, and discuss your experience working at a sustainable fashion small business.

The latter part of the question asks about Yale’s program specifically. You’ll want to approach this the same way you approach the “Why Yale?” question—very specifically and only after thorough research. 

For example, the same student might write about the Center for Engineering Innovation & Design , which offers collaborative and experiential courses that focus on applying engineering skills to the real world. They could discuss their interest in taking the course Green Engineering and Environmental Design , which covers “ current design, manufacturing, disposal processes, toxicity, benign alternatives, and policy implication.” These are all topics that would be highly-relevant to the student’s goals, and this course is also a very specific way Yale can support the student.

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

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From devastating natural disasters to a global pandemic, the effects of climate change continue to be more pressing, extreme, and far-reaching than ever before. Through offering them the opportunity to converse with top scholars an key policy-makers in the field, SMART Talks on Climate Change aims to endow leaders of the next generation with useful insights to tackle the problem. Join us, get prepared to lead for change.

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Program Structure

Think Smart

Combating climate change will require experts from around the world and across multiple fields working together to come up with creative solutions to a host of problems. Join scientists, engineers, philosophers, scholars, lawyers, policy experts, and economists as we look at the vast implications that climate change has for our world and how we can best work together to fight for a better future.

For years, the reality of climate change and its consequences have been clear not just to scientists, but to all of us dealing with the unpredictable ramifications of climate change. It's become apparent that new voices dealing with these issues don't just need to be driven by data and science, but they need to be emotionally appealing and drive us all to action. In these sessions, award-winning journalists, writers, and teachers will guide you as you shape your own persuasive arguments for combating climate change.

Program Material 

In this category, you will find some recommended reading materials from both Yale speakers and Caixin Global experts. These reading recommendations include news articles, books, videos, essays and websites, all linked to climate change.

Essay Competition

Essay competition aims to spark thoughts and exchange of perspectives on possible strategies against climate change. Contribute your proposal and win the opportunity to join and speak as the Young Leaders' Representative at the annual Caixin Summit.

Program Schedule

The language of the program will be English .

Participants

16-25 years old English language proficiency for meaningful participation during discussions

For more information, please scan the QR code or search the link below: https://www.caixinglobal.com/climate-change/

Contact: 010-5909 0200

Caixin Global is one of the most respected sources for macroeconomic, financial and business news and information about China. Built on Caixin Media’s award winning journalism, Caixin Global delivers fast, reliable business and financial news about China to the world. It offers its English news via a 24/7 digital and mobile platform (caixinglobal.com), and runs a print magazine.

Through cooperation with a leading financial services platform — Caixin Insight — Caixin Global also provides policy analysis, industry monitoring, financial database services and more in-depth research and consulting services on China's economic policymaking and its financial markets. It organizes a series of high-level global events, including Caixin Roundtables and the Caixin Summit.

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Yale Library invites students to submit senior essays for three annual prizes

Yale Library has opened its application process for its three senior essay prizes, awarded annually: The Diane Kaplan Memorial Senior Essay Prize, the Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award, and the Library Map Prize.

Each prize winner receives a $500 award, and the winning essays are published on Eli Scholar, the library’s open-access publishing platform for Yale researchers. Any senior essay submitted to a Yale academic department during the 2023–24 academic year is eligible for consideration. Applications are due in early May.

• The Diane Kaplan Memorial Senior Essay Prize is awarded for an essay based on research in any of Yale Library’s special collections. These include the Beinecke Library (including Manuscripts and Archives), Arts Library Special Collections, Divinity Library Special Collections, Lewis Walpole Library, Medical Historical Library, Music Library Special Collections, and the Yale Film Archive. Faculty and others may encourage students to apply, but students must submit the essays themselves.  Review the Kaplan Prize submission guidelines  and submit the essay by Monday, May 1 .  
• The Harvey M.   Applebaum ’59 Award  is awarded to a senior essay that relies on materials from any of the government depository collections. These collections encompass government documents and information for Canada, the European Union, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the United Nations, and the United States. Essays may be submitted by the student author or a faculty advisor.  Review the Applebaum Award submission guidelines  and submit the essay by Wednesday, May 10 .  
• The   Library Map Prize is awarded for the best use of maps in a senior essay or its equivalent. Essays may be submitted by the student author or a faculty advisor.  Review the Map Prize submission guidelines  and submit the essay by Wednesday, May 10 .

The Yale Library senior essay prizes are presented during Commencement ceremonies at the residential colleges. 

Read more about last year’s winners of the Kaplan Prize , the Applebaum Award , and the  Map Prize .

—Deborah Cannarella

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Essay prizes.

The Elizabethan Club at Yale University awards prizes for the best undergraduate or graduate essay or dissertation on subjects of interest to the Club:

• Outstanding work on literature, arts, or culture of the Renaissance
• Outstanding work on interpretations, re-creation, or criticism relating to literature, arts, and culture of the Renaissance.
• Outstanding work based on research done in the Elizabethan Club Library (used at the Beinecke Library).

A call for submissions can be found at this link. The deadline is April 22, 2024. Work from any department is eligible and nominations can come from faculty, advisors, or the students themselves. The competition is open to all Yale students, regardless of department. They do not need to be members of the Club.

Past Awardees

Benjamin Card “Reading for Heresy in the Career of Thomas Barlow” [graduate essay]

Anna Fleming “Translation as Creation” [undergraduate essay]

Sophia Richardson “Reading the Surface in Early Modern English Literature” [graduate essay]

Sarah Ana Seligman “A Mystical Apotheosis in the Court of the Sun King” [graduate essay, honorable mention]

Melia Young “Helen Cam, Marie Borroff, and Reform in American Medieval Studies During theTwentieth Century” [undergraduate essay]

Giacomo Berchi “The Son and the Sea” [graduate essay, honorable mention]

Eve Elizabeth Houghton “ ‘I am always so sorry to antagonize collectors:’ Henrietta Bartlett and the 1916 Census of Shakespeare Quartos.” [graduate essay]

Kyung Mi Lee “Hester Pulter’s Double Lives.” [undergraduate essay]

Charlie Mayhew “Erra Pater and the Early Modern English Tradition of Lowbow Astrology: A History from Wisdom to Punchline.” [undergraduate essay]

Clio Doyle “Enough of the Oak” [graduate essay]

Julia Gourary “Imagining the Intimate: The Female Body in Charles Estienne’s Anatomy” [undergraduate essay]

Sophia Richardson “Venus’s Glass: Hero and Leander and the Erotics of Resemblance” [graduate essay]

Max M. Graham “‘Tending to Wild’: Wilderness and the Trouble with Ecology in Paradise Lost” [undergraduate essay]

Mohit Manohar “A Monumental Gift from a Slave to his Master: The Chand Minar at Daulatabad” [graduate essay]

Andrew Stewart Brown “Our Own Great Deputy: Speaking for the Sovereign in Measure for Measure and King John” in “Artificial Persons: Fictions of Representation in Early Modern Drama.” [graduate essay, chapter of dissertation]

Luke Ciancarelli “A Time to Love: Toward a Dialectical Reading of Paradise Lost.” [undergraduate essay]

Daniel Flesch “Time their troubler: Stasis, decay, and seduction in the song of Acrasia’s Bower.” [undergraduate essay, honorable mention]

Sharmaine Koh Mingli “Bad and Beautiful: Reading Eve’s Twofold Beauty as an Alternative Account of Theodicy.” [undergraduate essay]

Baricz, Carla. “Early Modern Two-Part and Sequel Drama, 1490-1590.” [dissertation]

Lichtenberg, Drew. “Thrilling Juxtapositions: Thoughts on Half the Canon.” [graduate essay]

Norman, Max. “Early Modern Essays and the Limits of Knowledge: Montaigne, Browne, and the Essay Form.” [undergraduate essay]

Romm, Jacob. “‘Sonnets As My Martyrdom’: Agrippa d’Aubigné’s Hécatombe à Diane.” [undergraduate essay]

Tang, Oriana. “Vision, Voice, and Women in The Winter’s Tale.” [undergraduate essay, honorable mention]

Holden, Robert Bradley. “Milton between the Reformation and Enlightenment: Religion in the Age of Revolution” [dissertation]

Houghton, Eve. “Pretending to Read: Humanist Culture and the Anxieties of Abridgment” [undergraduate essay]

Raizen, Karen Tova. “Adaptations in Arcadia: Orlando furioso on the Eighteenth-century Operatic Stage” [dissertation]

Harper, Elizabeth. “Filial Sacrifice and the Dark Heart of Sacred Tragedy: Théodore de Bèze’s Abraham sacrifiant (1550) and Buchanan’s Jephthes sive votum (1554)” [grad essay]

Hunter, Matt. “The Pursuit of Style in Shakespeare’s Drama” [dissertation]

Rush, Rebecca. “Licentious Rhymers: John Donne and the Late-Elizabethan Couplet Revival” [grad essay]

Scholz, Maximilian Miguel. “Exile and the Recasting of the Reformation: Frankfurt am Main, 1554 – 1608” [dissertation]

Tomlin, Duncan. “Santa Croce Basilica and the Florentine Coup d’Style” [undergraduate essay]

Harper, Elizabeth. “The future that never is: Troy’s lost children in Euripides, Seneca and Racine”

Levy-Eichel, Mordechai.  “‘Into the Mathematical Ocean’: Navigation, Education, and the Expansion of Numeracy in Early Modern England and the Atlantic World.” [dissertation]

Weinreich, Spencer J. “ “Appropriation and Adaptation in Francisco Zumel’s De vitis patrum (Salamanca, 1588).” [undergraduate essay]

Kenny, Dylan. “Workaday Worlds: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Technology, and the Work of Art” [undergraduate essay]

Rush, Rebecca. “Jonson’s Innocent Muse: Female Figures and Anxieties of Control in Early Modern Drama.” [graduate essay]

Weiskott, Eric. “The Durable Alliterative Tradition.” [dissertation]

Pérez, Nicolás Medina Mora. “Negations of Nostalgia:  Nabokov, Kundera, Bolaño” [undergraduate essay]

Prakas, Tessie. “‘Thou art a figurative, a metaphorical God too’: John Donne and the Aesthetics of Exegesis’” [graduate essay]

Rush, Rebecca. ” ‘This sweet Laborinth’: Fabrication in John Davies’ Orchestra” [graduate essay]

Stein, Daniel. “Cicero’s Oratory and the Roman Forum:  An Erasure of Public Space” [undergraduate essay]

Baricz, Carla. “Satan Reads Milton: Modes of Romance in Paradise Lost” [graduate essay]

Holden, Robert (Brad). “Homer and Heterodoxy: The Epic Tradition and Milton’s Heretical Atonement” [graduate essay]

Moore, Jeania Ree. “Grounding the American Firmament:  The National Mall and the Evolution of American Civil Religion” [undergraduate essay]

Snider, Sage.  “Realizing the Fascist Vision:  Mussolini’s Construction of Roman History at the Universal Exposition of Rome” [undergraduate essay]

Thun-Hohenstein, Charlotte. ““Mapmakers, Poets, and Playwrights:  Imagining the World as Round” [undergraduate essay]

Currell, David. “Matter of Scorn: Milton and Satire” [graduate essay]

Currell, David. “Tamburlaine’s Other Children: Anatomies of War and Heroic Mockery in Shakespearean Drama” [graduate essay]

Kau, Andrew. “Boileau and the Fate of the Epic” [graduate essay]

Komorowski, Michael. “Politic History, Impolitic Laws: Tacitism and the Common Law Mind in Measure for Measure” [graduate essay]

Menges, Hilary. “Monuments, Books, and Readers in Milton’s Early Poetry and Prose” [graduate essay]

Currell, David. “Counterfactual and Contingency in Paradise Lost” [graduate essay]

Komorowski, Michael. “Private Property and the Nature of Marvell’s Republicanism” [graduate essay, honorable mention]

Currell, David. “The Verbal Purview of Macbeth” [graduate essay]

Saetveit Miles, Laura. “ ‘With a Female Ambition’: Milton’s Righting and Re-Writing of Women in the History of Britain” [graduate essay]

Bond, Christopher. “ ‘Prosperin gathering flowers’: A Miltonic Simile in its Mythic Context” [graduate essay]

Foster, Brett. “ ‘Whirling Round with This Circumference’: Reading the Stage in Doctor Faustus” [graduate essay]

Wilder, Lina Perkins. “Memory’s Performance” [graduate essay]

Global Justice Program

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Chia-yun po.

Chia-Yun Po is a fellow at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Her academic interests include Russia, China, human rights law, and corporate governance. She won First Prize in the 8th Amartya Sen Essay Prize Competition (2021) held by Global Financial Integrity and Yale’s Global Justice Program. Her winning essay is published in Journal Academics Stand Against Poverty . Po has also published in the Business and Human Rights Journal of Cambridge University Press.

Essay Contest

Since 2013, the Buckley Institute has held an annual essay contest inviting Yale undergraduates and high school students from across the country to comment on a question of major political significance. The top three essayists in both the high school and Yale undergraduate contests are awarded $1,000, $500, or $250, and are invited to receive their award at the Buckley Institute’s annual conference.

Past Topics

• Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom
• James Burnham’s Suicide of the West
• What is the Greatest Threat to Free Speech?

Current Essay Contest

The Buckley Institute is currently accepting submissions for its 2024 essay contest focusing on free speech and the Woodward Report , the seminal document underlining the importance of free speech in general and on college campuses in particular.

This year, the Buckley Institute is pleased to announce that there will be 3 separate contests; an American high school student contest, a Yale undergraduate contest, and a national undergraduate contest. The first, second, and third place winners will be awarded $1,000, $500, and $250 respectively, and are invited to the Buckley Institute’s annual conference in New Haven on November 8, 2024, to accept their prize.

Submissions are due by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, October 6, 2024.

Essay Contest Photos

Category: High School Essay Contest

From Rising Sun to New Dawn: Japan’s Efforts in Cambodia’s Reconstruction

This essay won an honorable mention in the 2024 YRIS High School Essay Contest for its response to the following prompt: “Evaluate an example of a foreign polic...

The Ignored Cries of Tigray’s Women in Ethiopia

This essay won 1st place in the 2023 YRIS High School Essay Contest for its response to the following prompt: “What is a current issue in internationa...

As China Saves Water, It Drains South Asia

This essay won 2nd place in the 2023 YRIS High School Essay Contest for its response to the following prompt: “What is a current issue in international relation...

Beyond the Headlines: The Underreported Tragedy of the Anglophone Crisis

This essay won 3rd place in the 2023 YRIS High School Essay Contest for its response to the following prompt: “What is a current issue in international relation...

A Technological Travesty: E-waste in the Philippines

This essay won an Honorable Mention in the 2023 YRIS High School Essay Contest for its response to the following prompt: “What is a current ...

Invisible Children: How the media has failed to draw attention to one of Russia’s most pernicious war tactics

The Coalition to Protect Against Misinformation: an answer to a wholly global issue

3rd Place, High School Essay Contest 2022 “Peanut butter cups can cause cancer!” proclaimed conspiracy theorist David Wolfe on Facebook in 2017. The claim is ob...

Coming to Consensus: Ensuring Privacy at the Global Level

2nd Place, High School Essay Contest 2022 From 1999 to 2019, the world underwent a 1125% increase in the percent of the global population using the internet[1]....

Ensuring Cooperation for Central Asia’s Water Woes

1st Place, High School Essay Contest 2022 On April 28, 2021, border personnel from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan fired on each other, marking the beginning of a bor...

Japanese Culture and Government: How Culture Influences Politics, Governance, and Priorities

3rd Place, High School Essay Contest 2021 臭い物に蓋 — Put a lid on what smells bad. This Japanese saying reflects the nation’s culture of desiring to melt...

Yale University Supplemental Essays Guide: 2021-2022

Yale supplemental essays are an important part of your Yale University application. Not sure how to approach the Yale essay prompts? With tips from Ivy League graduate Laura Frustaci, CollegeAdvisor.com’s guide to the Yale supplemental essays will show you exactly how to write engaging Yale essays and maximize your chances of admission.

For more CollegeAdvisor.com resources on Yale,  click here . Want help crafting your Yale supplemental essays? Create your  free account  or  schedule a free consultation  by calling (844) 505-4682.

Yale  Supplemental Essays Guide Quick Facts:

• Yale has an acceptance rate of 6%— U.S. News  ranks Yale as a  highly competitive  school.
• We recommend answering all Yale supplemental essays comprehensively and thoughtfully.

Does Yale require supplemental essays?

Yes. In addition to the  Common App  personal essay, there are several Yale supplemental essay questions. Some of these Yale essay prompts are longer than others, while the shortest Yale essays only require 35 words!

Need tips on writing your Common App essay? Check out our  blog article .

How many supplemental essays does Yale have?

There are a total of eight Yale supplementals: two Yale essays of 250 words maximum, two Yale supplements of 125 words maximum, and four Yale essay prompts called “Short Takes,” which are just 200 characters maximum (about 35 words). That’s around the length of a tweet!

What are Yale’s supplemental essays?

The  Yale supplemental essays 2021-2022  are on the Common App site, but you can also visit  the main Yale website  for a full list of application requirements.

Let’s start with the first type of Yale supplemental essay— the short essay.

Short Essays:

Yale supplemental essays—short essay question 1 (required):.

Yale’s extensive course offerings and vibrant conversations beyond the classroom encourage students to follow their developing intellectual interests wherever they lead. Tell us about your engagement with a topic or idea that excites you. Why are you drawn to it? (250 words max.)

How do I approach a Yale supplemental essay?

At 250 words, the “short” Yale essays are the longest you’ll write for the Yale supplements. Due to the limited space on Yale essay prompts, you should brainstorm specifically what to cover beforehand.

With Yale supplemental essays like this, try listing out 3-5 topics that really excite you, and then think about specific anecdotes for each topic. What got you interested in this activity? How do you pursue it? Whom do you talk about it with or engage in it with? Once you have topics and detailed anecdotes written down, choose the one which you feel you can discuss the most comprehensively and passionately for this Yale supplemental essay.

This Yale supplemental essay specifically references Yale’s “extensive course offerings” and Yale’s “vibrant conversations beyond the classroom.” Rather than just writing about how much you like to read, for example, try offering a specific aspect of reading that you love. Maybe it’s absurdist modern fiction, maybe it’s the novella, maybe it’s the translation of a text from one language to another. Whatever topic you decide to write about for this essay, try to get very specific about what  exactly  you like about it.

Unlike the longer Yale supplemental essays, shorter Yale essay prompts require you to pay strict attention to your descriptive language. Don’t use more words than necessary to describe the topic. Rather, you want to focus on how much the topic means to you, and especially  why.

Yale Essay Draft Key Questions:

• Does your draft clearly communicate the topic which excites you?
• Do you articulate why your chosen activity matters to you, and how it has influenced your growth and identity?
• Does your supplement provide information not present in the rest of your application?

Yale Supplemental Essays—Short Essay Question 2 (Required):

Respond to one of the following prompts:

2A. Reflect on a community to which you feel connected. Why is it meaningful to you? You may define community however you like.

2B. Reflect on something that has given you great satisfaction. Why has it been important to you? (250 words max.)

This is the only of the Yale essay prompts where you have options. If you’re struggling to decide which of these Yale supplements to answer, try  this writing exercise . Set a timer for 10 minutes and write as much as you can about the first prompt. Then do the same for the other. Which answer came more naturally to you? Go with that one!

For 2A, this Yale supplemental essay specifies that you can define community in any way. You could write about your family, a club at school that has been meaningful to you, or perhaps your coworkers at a part-time job. Anywhere you feel bonded with those surrounding you is a community.

Once you’ve defined your community, you’ll want to spend the majority of this Yale supplemental essay talking about why this community is important and how it has contributed to your understanding of the world around you. Perhaps this community changed your mind about a personal belief you once had. Describe specifically  how  you have been impacted by this community if you respond to this Yale supplemental essay.

For 2B, you should first define  what  satisfaction means to you. Then, describe why your chosen event, relationship, action, or accomplishment was so impactful to you. Maybe it’s a relationship with someone who is very important to you or a possession that represents something you value about yourself. Maybe you organized a bake sale that raised money for a charity that was important to you.

Like most universities, Yale is looking to build a creative, diverse community on its campus. Yale supplemental essays, and particularly this one, should reflect an individual who understands the meaning of community and how to function successfully in one. Success can look like many different things; just make sure you don’t spend too much time with descriptive language. Describe the  why  instead of just the  what.

• Do you focus on the  why  and not just the  what ?
• In 2A, do you clearly define the community you are writing about?
• Are your details concrete in 2B about what satisfied you and how?
• Does your response teach the reader something new about you?

Yale Supplemental Essays—Short Answer Question 1: Two Parts (Required):

Students at Yale have time to explore their academic interests before committing to one or more major fields of study. Many students either modify their original academic direction or change their minds entirely. As of this moment, what academic areas seem to fit your interests or goals most comfortably? Please indicate up to three from the  list  provided.

Why do these areas appeal to you? (125 words max.)

These Yale essay prompts comprise a joint question. First, you’ll want to read the list linked in Part One of this Yale supplemental essay question thoroughly and write down any academic areas that interest you. Then, eliminate until you have three areas remaining.

It would be best to not choose just one, since Yale essays place a specific emphasis on the school’s interdisciplinary nature. Instead, choose two or three areas and discuss them together. Explore their similarities and differences and consider what about each of them interests you.

This is an opportunity to discuss your academic goals at Yale. This Yale supplemental essay gives you space to indicate why Yale is the best option for you and how you will contribute to Yale student academic life. Try not to regurgitate the question back to the Admissions Officers. They already know that Yale encourages students to explore multiple intellectual pursuits, so try to avoid sentences like “Yale’s academic flexibility is so beneficial because it allows students to explore many different subjects; the three subjects I would be most interested in are…” Instead, cut the first half of the sentence and dive right into your chosen subjects.

• Is equal time dedicated to each subject you selected?
• Do you explain why each subject sparks your interest?
• Do you address the potential overlap between subjects?
• Does your response supplement and/or complicate the other aspects of your application, with special regard to academic preferences?

Does Yale have a “Why Yale” essay?

Yes. This is the classic supplemental essay question, and Yale supplements are no exception—all colleges want to know what makes them special to you. Yale supplemental essays are your chance to showcase any research you have done about Yale. This Yale essay prompt in particular is the perfect space to lay out your motivations for wanting to attend Yale.

Check out the following section for more details on the “Why Yale” supplemental essay.

Yale Supplemental Essays—Short Answer Question 2 (Required):

What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? (125 words max.)

Your responses to the Yale supplemental essays should both introduce you to the admissions officer, AND create a strong case for why you should attend Yale. For this question, avoid over-generalizing with statements like “Yale’s campus is beautiful” or “I just feel like I belong there.” Instead, offer concrete examples of  why  you belong there. Maybe you’re a literature fiend and you’re dying to perform research in Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Maybe there’s a specific Professor you really want to learn from.

This is the space to name-drop courses, clubs, professors, and research opportunities only available at Yale. Colleges can tell when you swap out their name for another University and submit the same “Why here?” answer. Your application will be stronger if your answer to this Yale supplemental essay could  not  be swapped interchangeably with any other schools.

Yale Essay Draft Tips:

• Do you prove that you’ve done research on the school?
• Do you explain what unique opportunities Yale would provide you that you could not get anywhere else?
• Does your draft provide specific details about what you hope to do while on Yale’s campus?

Short Takes:

Yale supplemental essays—short takes question 1 (required):.

What inspires you? (200 characters or fewer; approximately 35 words)

These Yale essays are called “Short Takes” for a reason—the college is pushing you to distill your thinking into just a few short sentences.

For this question, you’ll want to give a quick description of what it is that inspires you and then move quickly into why it inspires you or how. That information will tell Admissions Officers a lot more about you than a detailed depiction of just the “what” of this question.

With these Yale supplements, be a ruthless editor. Save your flowery, descriptive language for the other Yale supplemental essays. Any time you see words that could be condensed, edit them down. This might take longer than expected, and it will be especially helpful to have another set of eyes on these shorter Yale supplements. When you’re tweeting, for example, you only say the most important part of your idea because of the character limit. That doesn’t mean your Tweet won’t go viral! It’s the same idea here. Sometimes shorter is better!

Yale Supplemental Essays—Short Takes Question 2 (Required):

Yale’s residential colleges regularly host conversations with guests representing a wide range of experiences and accomplishments. What person, past or present, would you invite to speak? What would you ask them to discuss? (200 characters max; approximately 35 words)

Here is an opportunity for you to talk about someone you really look up to, who has perhaps influenced your academic and career path or inspired you to pursue an extracurricular you really love. Again, you’ll want to mention the name of the person in the first short sentence and then move immediately into what you would have them talk about. This can be a query you’ve long pondered, or perhaps you could ask for an expansion on previous research they’ve done or elaboration on a speech they’ve made. This is another good opportunity to show off your expert research skills.

Yale Supplemental Essays—Short Takes Question 3 (Required):

You are teaching a new Yale course. What is it called? (200 characters max.; approximately 35 words)

This is a chance to mention a subject (or two) that you really care about, ideally something not already offered by the Yale syllabus. Remember, Yale supplemental essays are your chance to showcase the research that you’ve done on the school. Pitching a Yale course that is identical or too similar to a current course is a glaring error. It might be helpful to look at some of their  course offerings  to get an idea of what types of classes Yale already offers. Or, you could combine two of your passions into one niche subject.

Yale Supplemental Essays—Short Takes Question 4 (Required):

Yale students embrace the concept of “and” rather than “or,” pursuing arts and sciences, tradition and innovation, defined goals and surprising detours. What is an example of an “and” that you embrace? (200 characters max.; approximately 35 words)

Here is where Yale emphasizes their desire for interdisciplinary academia. To answer this question, you might think about two disparate pieces of your identity or two subjects you love that are at odds with each other. You can also consider a contradiction you face in an extracurricular club or at an after-school job. This question is a chance to be more creative and abstract—while some of the Yale essays are concrete in what they ask of you, this one is more open-ended. Something to remember for this essay—Yale supplemental essays should tell a story about you as a candidate. Be careful about introducing completely new information that isn’t explored or explained elsewhere in the application.

Yale Supplemental Essays—Concluding Thoughts

Completing the Yale essay prompts can seem daunting, but don’t let that discourage you from applying. The Yale supplements are a great opportunity to demonstrate who you are to Admissions Officers. These Yale essays can boost your application if you have a lower than average GPA or  SAT score .

Use this guide as a step-by-step aid when approaching the Yale supplemental essays 2021-2022, and start earlier than you think you should. Especially with the shortest Yale essay prompts; you might think it will be easy to write 35 words in 35 minutes, but sometimes the shortest prompts can be the most challenging. Don’t be afraid to ask for revisions from someone; it’s helpful to have another set of eyes checking your Yale essay prompts for grammatical errors, tone, and clarity. Good luck!

This 2021-2022 essay guide for Yale University was written by  Laura Frustaci , Harvard  ‘21.  For more CollegeAdvisor.com resources on Yale,  click here . Want help crafting your Yale supplemental essays?  Create your free account  or  schedule a free consultation  by calling (844) 505-4682.

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Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Northeast Network

Facilitating information sharing and collaboration in order to advance teaching and learning about the REEES area

Launched in December 2020, the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Northeast Network (REEESNe) comprises institutions and individuals along the Northeast corridor and neighboring areas. REEESNe facilitates information sharing and collaboration in order to advance teaching and learning about the REEES area, with a primary focus on the undergraduate and master’s levels.

Our Interests

We have particular interests in linking institutions of different types, from established centers to colleges or universities with only one or two specialist faculty, and in expanding knowledge of and access to REEES-related career opportunities outside the academy. See our Members Page for information on membership benefits and to join for free, or sign up to receive announcements of opportunities available to anyone.

In bringing together various programs and people from across the Northeastern United States, we are working to develop and sustain an infrastructure through which institutions might collaborate to achieve, with greater ease and better success, their common goals. First among these we see the training of an expansive and diverse array of professionals who are interested in, knowledgeable about, and linguistically equipped (especially with regard to Russian language) to work in and on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia.

Grants and membership

In 2021, REEESNe received a generous grant to launch new programs that facilitate the exchange of ideas and information through a variety of media as well as in-person and virtual events. Our plans for the coming years comprise: a regular newsletter; webinars on REEES-relevant career paths and opportunities; in-person gatherings for faculty, administrators, and staff focused on strategies to enhance enrollment in REEES courses and programs; in-person conferences and networking opportunities for undergraduate and masters-level students; and more. Visit our events page  to learn about upcoming and past events, or read about our annual cycles of programming on our  newsletter page .

We also encourage members to take advantage of the contacts made accessible through the network and this website in order to share information about such matters as: graduate opportunities within the same region, state, or city; courses available through summer programs, course-sharing, or interinstitutional enrollment; students who are seeking advice beyond their institutional resources on specific subjects or career paths; visiting scholars who are available to give talks; etc.

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Yale drama series rules and submission guidelines.

Books   |   Past Winners

The Yale Drama Series is seeking submissions for its 2025 playwriting competition. The winning play will be selected by the series’ current judge, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The winner of this annual competition will be awarded the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of their manuscript by Yale University Press, and a celebratory event. The prize and publication are contingent on the playwright’s agreeing to the terms of the publishing agreement.

There is no entry fee. Please follow these guidelines in preparing your manuscript:

• This contest is restricted to plays written in the English language. Worldwide submissions are accepted.
• Submissions must be original, unpublished full-length plays, with a minimum of 65 pages. Plays with less than 65 pages will not be considered.
• Translations, adaptations, musicals, and children’s plays are not accepted.
• The Yale Drama Series is intended to support emerging playwrights. Playwrights may win the competition only once.
• Playwrights may submit only one manuscript per year. Only manuscripts authored by one playwright are eligible.
• Plays that have been professionally produced or published are not eligible. Plays that have had a workshop, reading, or non-professional production or that have been published as an actor’s edition will be considered.
• Plays may not be under option, commissioned, or scheduled for professional production or publication at the time of submission.
• Plays must be typed/word-processed and page numbered. Plays with images are not accepted.
• The Yale Drama Series reserves the right to reject any manuscript for any reason.
• The Yale Drama Series reserves the right of the judge to not choose a winner for any given year of the competition and reserves the right to determine the ineligibility of a winner, in keeping with the spirit of the competition, and based upon the accomplishments of the author.

Electronic Submissions

The Yale Drama Series Competition strongly urges electronic submission. By electronically submitting your script, you will receive immediate confirmation of your successful submission and the ability to check the status of your entry.

Electronic submissions for the 2025 competition must be submitted no earlier than June 15, 2024, and no later than September 8, 2024. The submission window closes at midnight EST.

If you are submitting your play electronically, please omit your name and contact information from your manuscript and submission file name. The manuscript must begin with a title page that shows the play’s title, a 2-3 sentence keynote description of the play, a list of characters, and a list of acts and scenes. Please enter the title of your play, your name and contact information (including address, phone number, and email address), and a brief biography where indicated in the electronic submission form.

If you would like to submit an electronic copy of your manuscript please go to: https://yup.submittable.com/submit .

Hardcopy Submissions

The Yale Drama Series Competition strongly urges applicants to submit their scripts electronically, but if that is impossible, we will accept hardcopies.

Submissions for the 2025 competition must be postmarked no earlier than June 15, 2024, and no later than September 8, 2024.

If you are submitting a hard copy of your play, the manuscript must begin with a title page that shows the play’s title and your name, address, telephone number, email address (if you have one), and page count; and, a second title page that lists the title of the play only, a 2-3 sentence keynote description of the play, a list of characters, and a list of acts and scenes. Please include a brief biography at the end of the manuscript, on a separate page.

Do not bind or staple the manuscript.

Do not send the only copy of your work. Manuscripts cannot be returned after the competition. If you wish receipt of your manuscript to be acknowledged, please include an email address on the title page or a stamped, self-addressed postcard.

Send the manuscript to Yale Drama Series, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040.

For more information regarding the Yale Drama Series please write to us at:

Yale Drama Series P.O. Box 209040 New Haven, CT 06520-9040

Or email us at  [email protected]

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Five things to know about… new haven perl.

(Photo by Stephen Gamboa-Diaz)

Every year, Yale faculty and students fix their attention on various corners of New Haven and scrutinize critical social questions — including those related to the health of the city and its community.

For instance, what are the public health implications of evictions among New Haven renters? What areas of the city are subjected to the highest summertime heat stress and how can that be mitigated? How can community organizations improve residents’ access to energy efficiency retrofits in their homes?

These and many other research questions are meant to help inform public policy and shed light on the city’s past and present, but the many findings have never been catalogued in any one place and, as a result, haven’t been easily accessible, either to city residents or other researchers.

That’s now changing. The Yale Center for Environmental Justice (YCEJ) just unveiled the New Haven People and the Environment Research Library (PERL), a searchable digital library that houses a broad array of research at the intersection of people and the environment in New Haven. (YCEJ is a joint undertaking between the Yale School of the Environment and Yale Law School, in partnership with Yale’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration.)

“ I have had many students over the years write terrific essays about New Haven’s environmental history,” said Paul Sabin, the Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, faculty director of Yale Environmental Humanities, and a member of PERL’s advisory committee. “I would be thrilled if these could be more accessible to others who want to learn about the city’s transportation history, food systems, and other topics.”

Yale News spent some time digging into this trove of local scholarship. Here are five takeaways.

PERL was two years in the making.

The project grew out of conversations between YCEJ staff and clinical faculty at the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health (which is based at the Yale School of Public Health), said Kristin Barendregt-Ludwig, YCEJ’s program manager.

“ We really saw it as a justice issue — we wanted to expand the access to and equity in research done in New Haven,” she said.

In 2021 YCEJ applied for and received a Yale Planetary Solutions seed grant for the project. They assembled an advisory committee and began looking for examples of what they wanted to accomplish, while also meeting with local stakeholders, including a group of five community consultants from across New Haven. Last year, they partnered with EliScholar, a publicly accessible digital platform for Yale scholarship, to create a pilot website. So far, there are about 200 studies and reports on the site and more features in the pipeline.

PERL is specific to people and the environment but covers more territory than you might think.

The library is not intended to house all the research conducted in New Haven. Rather, it’s exclusively for studies that explore the touch points between people and the environment. But the focus moves well beyond green spaces.

“ The built environment is a really important part of it,” Barendregt-Ludwig said. “Housing, energy, transportation.”

In addition, there’s the lived experience of residents: public safety, gentrification, food security, the effect of pollution on public health.

And within each of these areas are studies that branch out in unexpected directions. Search PERL for research associated with public safety, for example, and the 17 results that appear pertain to topics as diverse as how greater tree canopy is associated with lower crime rates, the stress Black pregnant women feel about the potential for police brutality toward their children, and an exploration of non-traditional transitional housing models for New Haven.

The database is not limited to work conducted by researchers affiliated with Yale.

The PERL team is developing partnerships with other research institutions and organizations, as well as local groups, to encourage them to submit their New Haven-based research and reports. Those partnerships already include the University of Connecticut, Southern Connecticut State University, Albertus Magnus College, Quinnipiac University, and DataHaven , a nonprofit that helps collect and make accessible information that is useful to local communities.

“ New Haven is a much-studied town,” Sabin said. “My hope is that the PERL project will help to build useful knowledge that can contribute to improving the city, while also avoiding duplication and repetition that can impose a burden on community members and waste limited resources, including research time.”

PERL is aimed at multiple audiences.

While a primary aim of PERL is to enable researchers to share their work with the New Haven community, it can also serve as a way for researchers to collaborate with other researchers or with organizations looking to embark on a project, Barendregt-Ludwig said.

“ Community organizations that are interested in a research question — or in having some research done in an area that they’re working in — can find who’s doing research like that locally through this resource,” she said. “We’re hoping it can lead to more of a two-way conversation in terms of informing research questions.”

Students can use the platform to inform upcoming projects and research questions, and to identify existing research partnerships to build on.

Residents might also draw on PERL’s resources to support a case they might be making to the city, to find data to include in grant proposals, or to otherwise inform work being done in the city, she said.

PERL is a living resource.

The website has a portal for researchers to submit their work, which, in addition to academic studies, could include reports, datasets, videos, maps, or audio files. All work must have been produced within the last 10 years. The PERL team will consider work from academics and college students, community organizations, government entities, citizen scientists, and even high school students, with backing from a teacher.

“ We know that there are some tremendous high school teachers out there that are doing field work with their students, and we think it would be great to highlight that,” Barendregt-Ludwig said.

Support from the Rosenkranz Award for Pedagogical Advancement through Yale’s Poorvu Center will help the PERL team maintain, promote, and build on the pilot website.

Over time, as the library’s collection becomes more comprehensive, it should not only make the research being done in New Haven more visible, but also make it clear where the gaps are, Barendregt-Ludwig said.

Learn more about New Haven PERL at the upcoming Yale Community Breakfast at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5 at the Dixwell-Yale Community Learning Center, sponsored by the Yale Office of New Haven Affairs. Register here .

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2020 Yale Law Journal Student-Essay Competition

The Essays that won the third annual Yale Law Journal Student-Essay Competition each address current issues in First Amendment law. They are Justin W. Aimonetti & M. Christian Talley’s How Two Rights Made a Wrong: Sullivan, Anti-SLAPP, and the Underenforcement of Public-Figure Defamation Torts and Meenakshi Krishnan’s The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the Petition Clause: Rethinking the First Amendment Right of Access .

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The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the Petition Clause: Rethinking the First Amendment Right of Access

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