Field of StudyLong shot

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Offered by Alliance for Young Artists & Writers · Free to apply

These awards are run by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, whose mission is to identify and celebrate the emerging creative talent of teenagers. The awards date to 1923, when Maurice R. Robinson of Scholastic established them, and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers was created in 1994 to administer the program. Alumni include Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, and Robert Redford. Creative students in grades 7 through 12 submit work in 28 categories, from poetry and journalism to painting, photography, and film, in the country's longest running program of its kind. Judging is blind and rewards originality, technical skill, and personal voice: regional Gold Keys carry real weight on a college application, and work that advances nationally can bring scholarships up to $12,500. Entries cost $10 per work and $30 per portfolio, with fee waivers offered during submission, and the work must be the student's own and not AI generated. Submissions open in September, and the closing date is set by the student's regional affiliate, falling somewhere between mid-December and January. Find your region's date first, because the national round only sees work that cleared it.

Other deadlines near this one

How hard is the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards to win?

A large applicant pool chases this award. Apply if the student is a genuinely strong fit, but build the plan around better-odds awards first.

Published odds: roughly 1 in 39 applicants
Reported applicant field: ~110,000 students
Awards each cycle: 2,800
Payoff per hour of work: $21 / hr

What drives the odds here

Odds on a scholarship are mostly a question of how many students can enter. Each rule below changes the size of that field.

More rivalsOpen nationwide, so the field is large
More rivalsA five-figure award attracts a bigger field

Where this number comes from: This provider publishes its real applicant and winner counts, so the rate above is the actual published rate from a recent cycle, not a Solyo model. Rates shift a little from cycle to cycle, and nobody can promise a win, but this is as real as scholarship odds get.

Who can apply for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards?

These are the eligibility rules Solyo verified against the official award page, translated into plain English. Your student must meet each one.

Open to high school freshmen, high school sophomores, high school juniors, and high school seniors
Age 13 or older

Confirm these before applying

Entry fees apply per work and per portfolio, with fee waivers available during submission
Regional deadlines vary by location; submissions open in the fall

Good to know

Must be age 13 or older as of the date of entry
Also open to grades 7-8
Must reside in the U.S., U.S. territories or military bases, or Canada, or attend an American school abroad
Work must be original, based on the student's own ideas, and not AI-generated

Personalized matching

Does your student actually qualify?

Not sure your student clears every rule above? Solyo checks 20+ criteria against their real profile: GPA, state, grade level, intended major, and more, across every award in this directory at once.

Match my student to scholarships

What the application takes

No essay, recommendation letters, or transcript are required. This is one of the lighter applications in the directory.

Deadline and application cycle

The current deadline is December 1, 2026. This award runs on an annual cycle, with deadlines around December 1 each year. Applications open October 1. Your region sets the actual submission date, so check the regional listing on artandwriting.org in the fall; some regions close in January.

Entries open: October 1, 2026
Your region sets the real cutoff; some run to January 4: December 1, 2026
Check the Region Locator for your art and writing deadlines: Varies by region, December 1 to January 4
Results announced: Regional results January 27, national March 31

Remind me before Dec 1 Apply on the official site

Free to apply. Legitimate scholarships never charge a fee. We use your student's information only to build their plan.

Common questions about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

When is the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards deadline?

There is no single deadline: entries for the 2027 Awards open October 1, 2026, and each region sets its own cutoff, with the earliest on December 1, 2026 and some as late as January 4, 2027. Your student's region is assigned automatically by school zip code (home zip for homeschoolers and virtual schoolers), and the art region and writing region can differ, with different deadlines, so check both with the Region Locator at artandwriting.org/regions before Thanksgiving rather than deadline week. The fine print families miss: the Alliance warns of extremely high portal traffic in the final 24 hours before major regional deadlines, and no alternative submission method is accepted, so a crashed upload at 11 pm is simply a missed year.

What do Gold Key, Silver Key, and the national medals mean in the Scholastic Awards?

Every entry is first judged regionally for Gold Key, Silver Key, or Honorable Mention, and only Gold Key works advance to national judging, automatically, for Gold Medals, Silver Medals, and scholarship awards. There is nothing extra to file: advancement happens on its own. Regional results post January 27, 2027, national results March 31, 2027, and Gold Medalists are invited to the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall in June. Two details worth knowing: adjudication is anonymous at every level, and the criteria never change: originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. A Silver Key or Honorable Mention ends that work's run, but it is still a credential, and the Alliance itself says colleges take the awards into consideration.

How hard is it to win the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards?

More than 100,000 teens enter each year, and the honest answer depends on the level: regional Keys are attainable for genuinely strong work, while national medals are a much narrower gate, since only Gold Key works even reach national judging. The Alliance does not publish an overall win percentage on its current site, so treat precise odds quoted elsewhere as unofficial. What it does publish is how narrow the money gets: sixteen $12,500 Gold Medal Portfolio scholarships nationwide, eight in art and eight in writing. The practical play for families: enter several strong works, since there is generally no limit on the number of entries, judging is anonymous, and every piece is weighed on originality, skill, and personal voice, not on resume or region.

How much is the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards worth?

Most awards are recognition rather than cash: the money concentrates in specific national awards, topped by sixteen $12,500 Gold Medal Portfolio scholarships (eight art, eight writing) for graduating seniors, with $2,000 for Silver Medal Portfolios. Sponsored awards pay too: the New York Life Award gives $2,500 scholarships or travel stipends for work about grief and loss, the Herblock Award gives $2,000 for editorial cartoons on current events, and American Voices & Visions and Best-in-Grade winners receive $500 each. The Keys and Medals themselves come with certificates and medals, not checks, though some regional programs add their own scholarships. One mechanism families miss: sponsored scholarships require ticking a Cash Awards checkbox during entry plus a personal statement of at least 50 words.

What categories can you enter in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards?

The 2027 Awards accept work in more than twenty categories: 18 art categories running from Drawing, Painting, and Photography to Fashion, Jewelry, Film & Animation, and Editorial Cartoon, plus 9 writing categories including Poetry, Short Story, Journalism, Novel, and Speculative Fiction, and the senior-only Art and Writing Portfolios. Each work goes into exactly one category, and Photography is capped at 16 entries per student. Subject matter is never censored: no work is disqualified for its content. The real trap is originality: any final product that is AI-generated is ineligible, and an award can be revoked afterward if that surfaces. AI as a brainstorming or research tool is permitted, but keep in-progress photos, since they may be requested if a work is flagged.

Is the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards free to apply?

No, but close to it: entry fees are $15 per individual work and $40 per portfolio as of October 1, 2026, and every region offers fee waivers for teens who cannot afford them. The waiver runs on the honor system: no proof of financial need is required in the portal, though some regional affiliates may ask for more information, and the Alliance reserves the right to follow up on questionable use. Payment logistics vary by region: all regions take online payment via Stripe, some accept cash or checks, and some let schools pay in bulk for their students. One workflow detail worth knowing: students connect each entry to an educator, and once connected the educator can edit the work and complete payment. If your family can afford the fee, the nonprofit asks that you pay it.

Should my senior submit a Scholastic Awards portfolio or individual works?

Both, if the work supports it: the portfolio (six works, grade 12 only, $40) is the only route to the sixteen $12,500 Gold Medal Portfolio scholarships, and the same pieces can also be entered individually at $15 each, which requires creating separate entries for them. Portfolios can mix categories, though art stays with art and writing with writing, and a student may enter up to two art and two writing portfolios with no work repeated across them. Every completed portfolio is automatically considered for the scholarships, with no extra application. Do not treat the personal statement as filler: the scholarship committee reads it alongside the six works. And the senior-only rule is absolute, so juniors should spend this year building portfolio pieces for next fall.

When do Scholastic Art & Writing Awards applications open?

Applications open October 1, and close December 1, 2026. Your region sets the actual submission date, so check the regional listing on artandwriting.org in the fall; some regions close in January.

Who is eligible for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards?

Key requirements: Open to high school freshmen, high school sophomores, high school juniors, and high school seniors; Age 13 or older.

Does the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards require an essay?

No essay is required. The application is light on requirements. Expect to spend about 15 hours on it.

More field of study

Lists this award appears on

Award details are curated by Solyo and verified against the official scholarship page. Deadlines and requirements can change between cycles, so always confirm on the provider's site before applying.