The Yale Foreign Policy Initiative (YFPI) High School Essay Contest invites high-school students worldwide to write on contemporary foreign affairs. YFPI is an independent student-led organization at Yale. Its published overview says Yale students and faculty review entries and winning essays receive publication and a cash prize.
The 2026 contest is closed and its winners are now published. The official 2026 poster asks students to identify the greatest international crisis and discuss how global powers should address it. It gives an extended August 15, 2026 submission deadline and a September 15 results target, without a cutoff time or timezone. The poster advertises a USD 150 prize; that is a historical award, not a confirmed future-cycle amount.
Checked November 4, 2026: no new prompt, application window, deadline or entry-fee terms are announced on the official contest page. The linked 2026 poster corroborates the historical deadline. The checked sources do not explicitly state free entry.