Recognition & results.
How HIEEC recognises its strongest essays, what those essays tend to have in common, and where to find the official results.
From shortlist to publication
After the submission window closes, the panel reads and scores entries, and a shortlist of finalists and highly commended essays is notified — in the 2025–26 cycle, in mid-March. Winners are announced shortly after, in late March, and published online by the organisers.
The most meaningful form of recognition is publication: award-winning essays can be selected for the Harvard College Economics Review (HCER). For a high-school student, a published economics essay is a concrete, citable credit — something to point to in university applications and interviews that goes well beyond a line on a résumé.
Patterns in the strongest entries
Winning essays rarely have the most ambitious topic. They have the clearest one.
A narrow question
They resist the urge to cover the whole theme and instead answer one precise question completely.
An original angle
They find a non-obvious way into a familiar debate — a comparison, a mechanism, a case — rather than restating the consensus.
Clean evidence
Data is sourced, current, and used to test the claim, not just to decorate it. The counterargument is taken seriously.
Polished prose
Every paragraph earns its place inside the word limit. The argument is easy to follow on a first read.
Find the official winners
HIEEC results and any published essays are released by the organisers. Because winners and publication decisions belong to HUEA and the Harvard College Economics Review, the official channels are the place to confirm names, essays, and the current cycle’s outcomes. As an independent guide we link to those results rather than reproducing them, so what you read here always traces back to the source. When a new cycle’s winners are announced, we will update this page to point to them.
Aiming to be on next year’s list?
Start with the format and the prompts, then talk to us about how to build an essay that stands out.