Nichable guide

High School Academic & Creative Competitions

Academic and creative competitions give you a concrete goal to work toward and, if you place, a specific accomplishment to describe rather than a vague interest. They exist in nearly every subject — not just STEM olympiads, but writing, business-plan, art, debate, and civics competitions too, many of which are far less crowded than the well-known math and science ones.

Competitions differ from most other opportunity types in one important way: you usually don't need to be accepted into anything to try. Entry is often free or low-cost and open to anyone who submits, which makes them one of the lowest-barrier ways to build a track record — even placing in a smaller regional round is a real, specific thing to talk about.

What counts

• · Subject olympiads in math, science, and computing
• · Case competitions and business-plan competitions
• · Writing, art, and film competitions
• · Debate, Model UN, and civics competitions
• · Hackathons and other build-based competitions

Real competitions right now

How to actually get one

• · Read the actual judging rubric or past winning entries before starting, when a competition publishes them — it's the single fastest way to understand what a strong entry actually looks like versus what you'd guess from the prompt alone.
• · Regional and lower-tier divisions of well-known competitions are usually much less crowded than their national finals, and still count as a real result on an application.
• · For team-based competitions (hackathons, case competitions), a smaller, more focused team that finishes something working usually beats a larger team with an ambitious idea that doesn't get built.
• · Don't wait for the 'right' competition — entering a competition even without expecting to place is a legitimate way to build the skill of finishing something under a deadline, which is its own value independent of the result.

Common questions