Information for Departments 2026–2027

The 2026–2027 Hoopes Prize competition will open on Wednesday, February 24, 2027.

The deadline for instructors to submit nominations for the Hoopes Prize will be 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, April 13, 2026. This is a firm deadline. The Prize Office encourages both instructors and students to start the application process early.

Nominations are made solely at the discretion of the instructors who directly supervised the projects. Departmental readers, DUSs, students’ past instructors or advisors, and administrators are not eligible to nominate a project that they did not directly supervise. Summa ratings from departments should not determine which projects are nominated.

Please make sure that all your thesis advisors, including faculty who are on leave or those who have worked with your students but who are not members of your department, are aware of the instructions for submitting the online Faculty Nomination Form and the deadline for nominations.

Departments that produce readers’ comments as part of the student thesis evaluation process should inform the Prize Office in advance of the Hoopes deadlines of the appropriate contact person for readers’ comments.  On April 19 the Prize Office will send the list of nominated students to those contacts to request readers’ comments. If your department produces readers’ comments, these comments should be emailed by the department to the Prize Office at prizes at fas.harvard.edu by noon on Friday, April 23.  If departments receive readers' comments on Hoopes-nominated projects after this date, the Prize Office will accept them and distribute them to the Hoopes readers until noon on Friday, April 30.  Readers' comments should be submitted as one PDF per student.

If your department does not produce readers’ comments, no action is needed on your part. The Hoopes Prize Committee understands that some departments do not produce readers’ comments.

Important information can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions about the Hoopes Prize (click the link). Instructors and students, as well as administrators, are encouraged to read all the questions and answers.