Bowdoin Prizes for Graduate Students

 

The Bowdoin Prizes, some of Harvard’s oldest and most prestigious student awards, are designed to recognize essays of originality and high literary merit, written in a way that engages both specialists and non-specialists.

Image is a photo of a student prize winner on Commencement Day, wearing her doctoral regalia and looking off to the left and smiling.

Established in 1791, the Bowdoin Prizes have been awarded to many notable Harvard students, among them the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson; the former Harvard presidents Charles Eliot and Nathan Pusey; the historians Henry Adams, Susan Pedersen, and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; the novelist John Updike; the writer and philosopher Alain LeRoy Locke; and the journalist Faith Salie. Each winner of a Bowdoin Prize receives, in addition to a sum of money, a medal and a certificate, and his or her name is printed in the Commencement program.

The Bowdoin Prizes are funded by the income of the bequest of Governor James Bowdoin, A.B. 1745, which was, in 1901, increased by George Sullivan Bowdoin. Any candidate for a higher degree from Harvard University who holds a bachelor’s degree and who has been in residence at Harvard University since the beginning of the academic year may compete for these prizes. (For further information about eligibility, see FAQ 3.)

Important information can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions about the Bowdoin Prizes for Graduate Students (click the link). Applicants are encouraged to read all of the questions and answers.

Graduate Essays in the English Language
(Deadline: 11:59 p.m. on October 26, 2023)

Graduate Essay in the Natural Sciences
(Deadline: 11:59 p.m. on November 2, 2023)

Graduate Composition in Greek

Graduate Composition in Latin