Ayn Rand Essay Contest Scholarships
This year the Ayn Rand Institute is putting up more than $80,000 in scholarship prizes. No matter what grade you're in, you can enter for a shot at one of over 500 awards, and students from all over the world are eligible. Every essay has to be typed, double-spaced, and run between 800 and 1,600 words. Each student may send in just one entry. Judges look at both style and substance, so they want writing that is clear, well argued, and logically organized, and winning essays must demonstrate a firm grasp of the novel's philosophical meaning.
Visit the Ayn Rand InstituteAnthem Essay Contest
Anthem paints a grim future in which people are robbed of their names, their freedom, and their values. Released a full ten years before George Orwell's 1984, this dystopian story centers on a man who struggles to escape a world where individuality has been wiped out entirely.
- Read the book, then select an essay topic
- Open to 8th, 9th, and 10th graders only
- Hundreds of winners
- $2,000 top prize
The Fountainhead Essay Contest
The Fountainhead has become an enduring piece of literature, read more widely now than when it was first published in 1943. On one level it tracks Howard Roark and his fights as an architect against a successful rival, Peter Keating, and a newspaper columnist, Ellsworth Toohey. But the book also explores larger themes: the strength of the individual, the struggle between good and evil, and the threat of fascism.
- Read the book, then select an essay topic
- Open to 11th and 12th graders only
- Hundreds of winners
- $10,000 top prize
Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest
Atlas Shrugged envisions a dystopian America where leading industrialists and business figures will not allow the government to exploit their work for the common good. The main character, Dagny Taggart, sees society unravel as the government clamps down on every industry, while the country's most productive people, led by the mysterious John Galt, silently disappear one after another.
- Read the book, then select an essay topic
- Open to 12th graders and college students only
- Hundreds of winners
- $10,000 top prize
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Compare Online CollegesEach contest asks you to read the novel first, then pick an essay topic, so start early and give yourself time to draft and revise. Check the grade-level eligibility for the book you choose, and remember that only one entry per student is allowed. With hundreds of winners across the contests, a well-argued essay can be a real path to scholarship money.