Deadline to Apply:
The Eckles Prize accepts applications for one month at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters. The application form is open from December 1st to December 31st at 11:59 p.m. ET and May 1st to May 31st at 11:59 p.m. ET each year.
Applications must be submitted electronically via the Eckles Prize submission form. If the form does not work for you or you have questions, please email the Prize committee at ecklesprize@gwu.edu.
A complete application must include the following:
- Cover Sheet: Includes the name of the student, the title of the paper, the course for which the paper was completed, and the name of the sponsoring faculty member.
- Research Project: This should only include the title of the project and not include your name, the name of the course, or the name of your professor. This helps to ensure the judging process is as equitable as possible.
- Research Process Essay: A 2-3 page paper about your research process. Page limit is strictly observed. Please see the Eckles Prize Research Process Essay section for more information.
Winners will be announced at the beginning of the Fall semester. The three finalists will be required to present their papers at an awards ceremony during the Fall semester and create an accessible version of their research project to be included in GW's institutional repository.
Submission Instructions
- Eligibility
- You are a first year student and this is work from your first year.
- While we do invite you to submit work twice in the academic year, we ask that you only select one work to submit. Should you feel that you have done stronger work in your second semester, please submit a second response to the form and indicate that you want that work to be considered instead of your previous submission instead of your previous submission.
- Get a Professor’s express support.
- Please request your professor's sponsorship for your project by reaching out to them.
- Just a heads up: We will reach out to professors to verify sponsorship
- Please request your professor's sponsorship for your project by reaching out to them.
- Submission criteria
- Three (3) documents
- A cover sheet
- This should include your name, the title of your paper, the name of the course for which you wrote the paper, and the professor of that course.
- Your research project
- Please remove your name, as well as the name of your course and professor from this document.
- Your process essay
- This should be 2-3 pages, 12 point font and double spaced. This essay should address your research topic, resources and strategy. Read more about the essay requirements.
- A cover sheet
- Create accessible documents
- If your project is selected we will be submitting it to the ScholarSpace Repository and a requirement of the repository is that documents are accessible.
- More information on the ScholarSpace Repository.
- Name only on cover sheet, as the essays and projects are to be anonymous
- In order to ensure a fair judging process, essays and projects are anonymized. We ask that you remove any identifying information such as footnotes and headings that include your name, your professor’s name, or the name and number of the course. Please create a cover page to be submitted alongside your essay and project.
- Three (3) documents
- How your project will be judged
- Your work will be judged anonymously by a panel of teaching faculty and library professionals. The judges will be using the rubric below to evaluate your work.
- If not selected
- We encourage you to consider reaching out to the Center for Undergraduate Fellowships and Research, as there may be similar opportunities available through that office for which you are eligible. If you have completed work this year that is related to Washington DC, you may be eligible for the Julian Clement Chase Prize, which is administered through the University Writing Program.
- If selected
- Note that if you are selected, your work is to be submitted into the ScholarSpace Repository and you will give a presentation at the reception ceremony in the fall of 2025.
