Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

what is the prompt for the college winter break essay contest?

6 Feb 2024 · 1 min

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In this brief video, the speaker outlines the college winter break essay contest. Contestants must select a problem they consider highly impactful and approach it with curiosity and discovery, framing a clear question or issue. The essay must be 1,800 words or fewer and written for a general audience, aiming to both inform and engage readers about why the problem matters. The judging rubric focuses on three elements: (1) an attention‑grabbing hook that makes the reader care, (2) incorporation of expert quotes and/or research on market trends and relevant early‑stage companies, and (3) a clear explanation of the problem’s significance.

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So the prompt for the college essay contest was basically pick a problem that you think is really impactful and bring the spirit of curiosity and discovery to finding like a question, concept, issue that you're interested in, and in 1,800 words or fewer, explaining it to a general audience in a way that not only helps us understand the topic that you are interested in, but engages us and makes it, makes us see why it's important. So the things I'm looking for in these essays are 1, an engaging hook that grabs my attention and makes me care about the problem. 2, quotes experts and/or includes research on market trends and relevant early-stage companies. And then clearly 3 is explains the why the problem matters.