The Concord Review
Since 1987, The Concord Review, a quarterly journal, has published 50 issues with 550 high school history papers by students from 42 states and 33 other countries. Essays of around 5,000 words, with (Turabian) endnotes and bibliography, on any historical topic (ancient or modern, domestic or foreign), may be submitted, with a completed copy of the Form to Accompany Essays, and a check for $40 made out to The Concord Review, to: The Concord Review, 730 Boston Post Road, Suite 24, Sudbury, Massachusetts 01776. We publish about 8% of the essays we receive. William R. Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions at Harvard College, has said: "We have been very happy to have reprints of essays published in The Concord Review, submitted by a number of our applicants over the years, to add to the information we consider in making admission decisions...All of us here in the Admissions Office are big fans of The Concord Review."
National Writing Board
The National Writing Board, founded in 1998, has now given an independent, unbiased assessment of high school history papers from 22 states, and sent each author a three-page report, with scores and comments, which she/he has asked us to send to college admissions officers (at 41 colleges so far), or simply could use as feedback on one of her/his best history research papers. History research papers of two lengths--around 2,000 words, or around 5,000 words--with (Turabian) endnotes and bibliography, may be submitted, with a notarized Submission Form and a check for $65, made out to the National Writing Board, to: the National Writing Board, 730 Boston Post Road, Suite 24, Sudbury, Massachusetts 01776. Deadlines are November 1 and June 1 each year. The following colleges and universities now endorse this independent assessment service for academic writing: Amherst, Bowdoin, Claremont-McKenna, Colgate, Connecticut College, Dartmouth, Eckerd, Emory, Georgetown, Hamilton, Harvard, Illinois Wesleyan, Lafayette, Middlebury, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Pitzer, Princeton, Richmond, the University of Virginia, Washington and Lee, Williams, and Yale.
The two different submission forms for The Concord Review and the National Writing Board may each be found on this website, which has had more than 162,000 visitors, and since 1997 has been mirrored on a server in Singapore for the use of history teachers in Asia. This site also has 51 sample essays, including all of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize (now $3,000) winners from the last eight years. If you have questions, log on and leave a message for Will Fitzhugh at [email protected]., or call (800) 331-5007.