Yale High School Ethics Writing Contest
Promoting High School Ethics Learning
Contest Details
The Yale High School Ethics Writing Contest is an opportunity for American high school students who are interested in philosophy and civic thought to think deeply, write persuasively, and be recognized for ethical reasoning at its best. Students who participate will take on serious moral questions through essay writing and gain experience with the intellectually demanding argumentation that defines advanced work in the humanities.
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YUSE is committed to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to compete regardless of socio-economic background. To support accessibility, we offer tiered submission fees, with a reduced fee for earlier submissions. Importantly, the date of submission has no impact on judging or competitive standing—it affects cost only.
Prizes:
Cash prizes will be awarded to first and second place contestants. All contestants who place in the top three, along with honorable mentions, will receive certificates and the opportunity to collaborate with current Yale students in publishing edited works on our website.
1st Place
$300 dollars
Certificate
Assigned one-on-one Yale mentor in editing essay
Opportunity to publish work
2nd Place
$150 dollars
Certificate
Assigned one-on-one Yale mentor in editing essay
Opportunity to publish work
3rd Place
Certificate
Assigned one-on-one Yale mentor in editing essay
Opportunity to publish work
Prompts:
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Choose one of the following prompts to respond to. All prompts are judged equally, so writers are encouraged to pick which prompt interests them most, not what they feel will give them a competitive advantage.
Optional readings can be found attached to each prompt. These are not required, nor will reference to these readings improve your performance.
1
Moral Standing
Should animals have rights? How ought we treat the unborn? Are there certain considerations we should make for the dead? How do we weigh the lives of future generations who have not yet come to be against those who are living now? Could an advanced artificial intelligence be as deserving of our moral concern as organic life? Should the way we act towards these groups differ from how we treat our fellow man, and if so, in what way? Consider any topic related to the question of who (or what) is worthy of moral consideration and defend your position.
2
Moral Responsibility
When and how much can we hold people accountable for their actions? How much should we judge the morality of an action by the state of mind of the actor, the circumstances that led them to act, or the consequences that follow? What does it mean for a child to be morally culpable? What is the purpose of punishment and what is the purpose of forgiveness, if there is a purpose at all? Consider any topic related to culpability, punishment, forgiveness, or what factors are most relevant to judge others by, and defend your position.
3
Freedom
What makes a government structure ethical? What, if anything, justifies an authority’s rule? What civil liberties should be given to citizens, and should they be absolute or is it acceptable to remove them in certain circumstances? Ought there be a limit to our freedom of expression? To what end is freedom good, if freedom is desirable at all? Consider any topic related to freedom, civil liberties, authority, or government power, and defend your position.
Submission Guidelines and Advice:
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Submissions must be PDFs shared publicly as a Google Drive link. Please make sure we can access your work!
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All essays must be between 1000 and 1500 words. Essays that do not fall within this range will not be considered.
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Essays should be typed in a 12-point academic font and double-spaced.
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Do not include your name or your school’s name within your submission.
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You may choose to cite philosophers or name ethical frameworks in your essay, but this is not a requirement. Essays will be judged by their ability to make the core ethical principles underlying their arguments clear and discuss them thoroughly, not by how much background knowledge of philosophy they display.
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If you choose to use statistics or other empirical evidence in your argument it must be cited (MLA format). However, essays by no means have to cite evidence, and good essays defend normative claims well, not purely descriptive ones.
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Sometimes great essays purport views that are radical, and sometimes they are agreeable to nearly all. Our advice is not to attempt to argue for something more extreme for the sake of it, nor to shy away from controversy, but to instead choose a position that you agree with and defend it with sincerity. Essays will be evaluated by the rigor of their arguments, not by how much the judges hold the same views as the writer nor by how shocked they were by its conclusions.
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A good essay must consider other viewpoints and respond to possible objections to its arguments. For more on what our judges are looking for in a winning essay, see a full rubric for grading essays attached here.
Early Deadline
April 13th, 2026, 11:59 pm EST​
$10
Regular Deadline
April 20th, 2026, 11:59 pm EST
$20
Late Deadline
April 27th, 2026, 11:59 pm EST
$30