<p>Forgive me for posting this here, but I thought Harvard/Chicago-type people would know best. Does the competition have any academic credibility? I mean, is it a good competition, and would be worth sending an essay in?</p>
<p>nevermind, I searched in the scholarships forum and apparently the competition is a joke</p>
<p>It’s not a joke. It is a very prestigious and highly-competitive writing contest.</p>
<p>Winning Writers rates it as “Highly Recommended” (very competitive, great reputation, great prize, good history), which is the source I trust on such matters.</p>
<p>Personally, I am not a fan of Ayn Rand or her works, so I would not enter. But not based on the contest itself, which seems to have an excellent reputation and a $2,000 prize (and hundreds of other cash prizes).</p>
<p>Of course, by an essay about her works, they mean one that agrees with her ideology. But hey, if you do, it’s a great contest.</p>
<p>Um, the Rand essay is hardly a joke. The first-place winner for the “Atlas Shrugged” essay wins 10,000! That is unheard of in terms of most essay competitions. It is a huge amount of money. The Ayn Rand institute gets thousands and thousands of applicants world wide. And…Rand was a brilliant intellectual, whether you agree with her or not. Empirically speaking, the woman was brilliant…and she knew the dangers of collectivism up front; she lived it in Russia. For someone to win the essay, they have to have a sophisticated grasp of her complex philosophy…again, HARDLY a joke!</p>
<p>Ayn Rand didn’t fare well in her college classes. She was a very free thinker (emphasis on the “free”) and Russia didn’t want free thinkers. A truly unique individual in her philosophies.
The competition is highly rated and very competitive.</p>