Student Prize Guidelines

Gordon McClure Memorial Communications Prizes

Prize amount: $500.00/per category
Based on student submissions received by May 8, 2026
Winner announced at the end of spring term

Eligibility and Submission Guidelines:

• The current approach to the prize is to make the award on the basis of a submitted essay.
• Students are only eligible to win this prize once during their time at Caltech.
• Students remain eligible for versions of this prize they have not previously won. For example, winners of the McClure Prize in English can still win the McClure Prize in Philosophy.
• Submissions must be written during students' time of enrollment at Caltech.
• Papers can only be submitted once to a prize and cannot be resubmitted in multiple years.
• Essays written for courses may be revised before submission. No word limit.
• Students may only submit one paper per category.
• All essays must be written in a Caltech HSS course.
• Students may submit work from courses taken in the current term and the prior 3 terms. (Prize submissions take place in spring, so submissions can come from the current spring term as well as the most recent past winter, fall, and spring terms.) Students must be in good academic standing during the term in which the prize submissions take place. Students who graduated in the most recent winter or fall term may also submit work.
• As a part of the submission process, writers will be asked for details about whether and how they used Generative AI tools to compose their submitted work. Judges will be given access to that information and may take it into consideration as they deliberate.
• All submissions for the McClure English Prize are also considered for the Hallett Smith Prize.

Formatting:

• Entries should be double-spaced PDFs.
• Please combine prompt with essay in one file that includes your name, course number, term (ex: Winter 2022), and professor's name. If there is no prompt, please specify this.

To see past McClure Prize winners' work, please click here.

Mary A. Earl McKinney Prize in Literature

Prize amount: $500.00/per category
Based on student submissions received by May 8, 2026
Winner announced at the end of spring term

Eligibility and Submission Guidelines:

• Students must be in good academic standing during the term in which the prize submissions take place. Students who graduated in the most recent winter or fall term may also submit work.
• The current approach to the prize is to offer one award for fiction and one award for poetry each year.
• Students are only eligible to win this prize once during their time at Caltech.
• Students remain eligible for versions of this prize they have not previously won. For example, winners of the literature category can still win the poetry prize.
• Papers can only be submitted once to a prize and cannot be resubmitted in multiple years.
• Fiction should not exceed 12,000 words (one submission).
• Poetry – May submit up to a total of three poems.

Formatting:

• Please include name and work title on paper.
• Submissions should be made in PDF. Prose should be double-spaced.

To see past McKinney Prize winners' work, please click here.

Hallett Smith Prize

Prize amount: $500.00
Based on student submissions received by May 8, 2026
Winner announced at the end of spring term

Eligibility and Submission Guidelines:

• Submissions must be written during students' time of enrollment at Caltech.
• Students are only eligible to win this prize once during their time at Caltech.
• Papers can only be submitted once to a prize and cannot be resubmitted in multiple years.
• All essays must be written in a Caltech English course.
• Essays written for courses may be revised before submission. No word limit.
• Students may submit work from courses taken in the current term and the prior 3 terms. (Prize submissions take place in spring, so submissions can come from the current spring term as well as the most recent past winter, fall, and spring terms.) Students must be in good academic standing during the term in which the prize submissions take place. Students who graduated in the most recent winter or fall term may also submit work.
• As a part of the submission process, writers will be asked for details about whether and how they used Generative AI tools to compose their submitted work. Judges will be given access to that information and may take it into consideration as they deliberate.
• All submissions for the Hallett Smith Prize are also considered for the McClure English Prize.

Formatting:

• Entries should be double-spaced PDFs.
• Please combine prompt with essay in one file that includes your name, course number, term (ex: Winter 2022), and professor's name. If there is no prompt, please specify this.

To see past Hallett Smith Prize winner's work, please click here.

Rodman W. Paul History Prize

Prize amount: $500.00
Based on faculty nominations
Winner announced at the end of spring term

To nominate a student for this prize, instructors should provide the student's name along with a brief summary explaining the nomination. Submission of the student's essay is not required.

Eleanor Searle Prize in Law, Politics, and Institutions

Prize amount: $500.00
Based on faculty nominations
Winner announced at the end of spring term

To nominate a student for this prize, instructors should provide the student's name along with a brief summary explaining the nomination. Submission of the student's essay is not required.

David M. Grether Prize in Social Science

Prize amount: $500.00
Based on faculty nominations
Winner announced at the end of spring term

To nominate a student for this prize, instructors should provide the student's name along with a brief summary explaining the nomination. Submission of the student's essay is not required.

Alexander P. and Adelaide F. Hixon Prize for Writing

Prize amount: $1,500.00
Based on faculty nominations
Winner announced mid-summer

Instructors of first-year humanities courses are invited to nominate essays from their courses for this prize. Nominations can be submitted to the director of the Hixon Writing Center anytime during the academic year in which the prize is awarded.

Nominated writers will be asked for details about whether and how they used Generative AI tools to compose their nominated work. Judges will be given access to that information and may take it into consideration as they deliberate.

John O. Ledyard Prize for Graduate Research in Social Science

Prize amount: $1,000.00
Determined by a committee of social science faculty
Winner announced fall term