About

Students submit individual works or portfolios in 29 categories — including poetry, fiction, personal essay, novel writing, drawing, painting, photography, ceramics, digital art, and journalism — through regional affiliate organizations, which conduct the first round of judging. Regional awards are Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention; Gold Key works automatically advance to national adjudication, where works compete for national medals and scholarship consideration. National Medalists are honored at a ceremony in New York City each spring; the 16 Gold Medal Portfolio Award recipients — the program's highest honor — are celebrated at Carnegie Hall. National scholarships range from $500 to $12,500 per work, with additional sponsored awards available for works addressing specific themes. Submissions open in the fall and regional deadlines vary by affiliate, typically running November through January.

The tier structure is where honest orientation matters. Regional recognition — Silver Key, Honorable Mention — is meaningful as local validation but is not the threshold that carries admissions weight. A regional Gold Key is stronger, and a national medal is the credential that admissions officers at selective universities recognize. The Gold Medal Portfolio is genuinely rare — 16 awarded in 2026 from 700 national portfolio submissions — and places a student in company that includes Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Joyce Carol Oates, Amanda Gorman, and Ken Burns. For a student in the visual arts or writing, national recognition here is the single most recognized external credential available at the pre-college level.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the right competition for any serious young artist or writer in grades 7–12 — regional submission is the starting point, but the credential worth pursuing is a national medal, where Scholastic's century-long reputation and extraordinary alumni legacy make it the most authoritative recognition in its category.