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Essay Competitions for Ancient World/Classics and Land Economy

Following the success of the first essay competition for Lower Sixth Formers in 2009, and thanks to an anonymous donation, the College now runs annual essay competitions. This year's competitions are in Ancient World & Classics and Land Economy, with a brand new poster competition for Veterinary Medicine.

The deadline for this year's competition has now passed.

All entrants who have submitted their online form will be e-mailed to confirm that we have their essay. If you have submitted an essay but do not receive an e-mail this may be because you have not submitted your online form and your e-mail is therefore not in our databse, or our e-mails may be going into your spam box.

All entrants will be informed once the essays have been considered and winners chosen in advance of the Open Day on 20th April.

Competition 2013

Below are the questions for this year's Essay Competitions. This year we are excited also to offer a new Veterinary Medicine Poster Competition, with details below.

Results 2012

The deadline has now passed for the 2012 Essay Competition and all entries have been collated. (Please note that you will not receive a confirmation of receipt for your actual essay; you should, however, receive a receipt for your online submission and you will be contacted if you have submitted an online form but not then sent in an essay.)

Competition rules

The word limit for essays in each competition is 2,500 words. Submitted essays must be typed in English, and every page should be marked with the entrant's name. All entrants must cite sources and secondary literature and provide a list of references at the end of the essay. You will be asked to supply your school or teacher's email address in order to allow the College to verify that the essay submitted is your own work.

Prizes and certificates for essay competitions will be awarded at the Fitzwilliam College Arts Open Day on 20 April 2013. Prizes and certificates for the Veterinary Medicine poster competition will be awarded at the Fitzwilliam College Sciences Open Day on 27 April 2013.

The prize fund is £300, including a first prize of £200. Certificates of merit may be awarded to runners-up who have impressed the judges. The judges reserve the right not to award prizes if there is no entry of sufficient merit.

The closing date for all three competitions is Friday 1 March 2013.

Previous competitions

The 2010-2011 competition challenged talented and ambitious Lower Sixth Form students to tackle topics such as the true purpose of 'Boris Bikes', the nature of musical genius, and the cultural influence of Egypt on Ancient Greece.