For the 2025 College Journalism Awards, to be announced Aug. 1, 2026, students may submit in three categories: Entertainment Reporting, Feature Writing, and Essays and Criticism (limit one entry per category per person). Each winner will receive a grand prize of One Thousand Dollars ($1,000 USD) and have their submission published on Rolling Stone’s website in the summer of 2026.
To enter, send submissions to collegejournalism@rollingstone.com by May 15, 2026. Be sure to include the following information:
Category: Entertainment Reporting, Feature Writing, or Essays and Criticism:
– Name
– Age
– Birthday
– University name
– Grade
– Phone number
– Email
– Name of university publication
– A brief autobiography, including hometown, educational history, honors and scholarships, and journalism experience
Please read the following carefully before submitting:
ROLLING STONE COLLEGE JOURNALISM ESSAY CONTENT
OFFICIAL RULES
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. CONTEST BEGINS AT 12:00:00 A.M. (ET) ON NOVEMBER 7, 2025 AND ENDS AT 11:59 P.M. (ET) on MAY 15, 2026 (THE “ENTRY PERIOD”).
1. HOW TO ENTER: To be eligible for the Rolling Stone College Journalism Essay Contest (“Contest”), you must submit an essay and/or article, as applicable, in one (1) of the three (3) following categories: Entertainment Reporting, Feature Writing, and Essays and Criticism (each, a “Category”), and submit the information requested to the email address specified on the Contest webpage located on www.rollingstone.com during the Entry Period. Entrants may submit an entry in more than one Category. There is no limit as to word count in each submission. Entry Limit: one (1) entry per person in each Category during the Entry Period.
Please note that the entry limit is per person, thus submitting multiple entries in a single Category will not increase your number of entries or chance of winning and will disqualify you from participation in this Contest. To be considered eligible in the Contest, all entries must be received on the last day of the Entry Period. No illegible, incomplete, forged or altered entries will be accepted.
Entries must be original, may not be AI-generated in whole or in part, must not constitute a defamation, and must not infringe or violate any right of any third party or entity, including but not limited to copyright, right of publicity, and right of privacy. Entries must be created in compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations, and must not contain or convey any content that Sponsor determines, at its sole discretion, subjectively or otherwise, (i) to be indecent, profane, obscene, explicitly sexual, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, libelous, or hateful; (ii) to be racially, ethnically, or otherwise offensive or objectionable; (iii) to encourage unlawful behavior; or (iv) to infringe upon the brand names, trade-marks, trade names, logos, or any other intellectual property that may belong to a third party. The determination of whether any entry contains prohibited content is at the sole discretion of Sponsor. False, deceptive, or incomplete entries or information provided by entrants at any point relating to the Contest may render the entry ineligible, regardless of when the problem is discovered.
To view the full terms and rules of the scholarship competition, visit https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/rolling-stone-college-journalism-awards-1235463848/.
