Pre-Med Essay
Competition
2026

Your story, your path to medicine

Evaluation criteria

Competition timeline

Terms & conditions

1. Entrants must be currently enrolled in grades 9–12 at an accredited U.S. high school at the time of submission.
2. Each entrant may submit only one (1) essay. Multiple submissions from the same participant result in disqualification.
3. Essays must be entirely original work of the submitting student. AI-generated content, plagiarism, or ghost-writing constitutes academic misconduct and results in disqualification.
4. Word count must be between 500 and 750 words. Essays outside this range will not be reviewed.
5. Essays must be submitted as PDF or DOCX. Handwritten, scanned, or image-based submissions will not be accepted.
6. A non-refundable participation fee of $35.00 USD is required at the time of registration. Payment confirms your entry.
7. By submitting, participants grant MedPath a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish winning essays on the MedPath website and in promotional materials, with attribution.
8. Submissions must not contain identifying information within the essay body — identification is handled through the submission form only.
9. MedPath reserves the right to disqualify any submission it deems inappropriate, offensive, or in violation of these rules.
10. Decisions of the review panel are final. No correspondence regarding judging outcomes will be entered into.
11. Winners must respond to award notification within 14 days or the award passes to the next eligible entrant.
12. MedPath staff and their immediate family members are not eligible to participate.
13. Participants under 18 must have parental or guardian consent, confirmed via the submission form checkbox.
14. By registering, participants agree to receive competition-related communications from MedPath. Opt-out available after the competition concludes.

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