NPR's College Podcast Challenge is back for its fifth year, with a $5,000 cash prize.
If you have a passion project or a story you want to get off your chest, here's your chance to make it happen. And we'll air the winner, and many of our finalists and honorable mentions, too, on NPR programs like Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
Whether you're a seasoned student journalist, or a math or science major recording your first podcast, we want to hear from you. Many of our prior standout entries, in fact, came from students with little or no journalism or podcasting experience.
We've been doing the Student Podcast Challenge for middle and high schoolers since 2018, and right from the start, we heard from college students asking: What about us?
So five years ago, we launched the collegiate competition. Since then, college students have sent us incredible stories from around the country. Stories like Jo Strogatz's winning exploration of happiness without romance, Michael Vargas Arango's account of what it's like living with a rare mental health condition, or Aria Young's reflections on moving to the U.S. and adopting an "American name."
It has also introduced us to bright student journalists and new friends. Our grand prize winner that first year, Anya Steinberg, who told the story of her search for her birth mom, is now a producer at NPR's Throughline.
So, students, here's your chance to give it the old college try! We want to hear from you.
Here are the basics
The 2025 College Podcast Challenge is open for entries as of today, Oct. 1, 2025, and will close on Jan. 16, 2026. (Or if you're ready, you can submit your podcast here.) That'll give you the fall academic term and the holidays to work on and submit your class projects.
We'll choose 10 finalists, and from there, our judging panel choose a winner. The grand prize champion will receive a $5,000 scholarship, with $500 prizes for the other finalists.
As in previous years, the college contest will be open to students of all ages who are pursuing an associate's or bachelor's degree, as well as those who have already graduated earlier in 2025.
Two key rules to keep in mind: (1) Your podcast must be under 12 minutes, and (2) you cannot use copyrighted music or audio. We want to listen and consider your work, so please be mindful of all the contest rules, which you can find here.
How it works
Our basic guidelines remain pretty much the same this year: Students can create a podcast on any topic. To give you an idea, we listened to entries last year on ice water plunge divers at the Connecticut River, a thoroughly reported story on immigration in the Bay Area, and one recent grad's reflections on college and the career ahead of her.
As you can see from last year's finalists, your podcast can also take many different formats: interview, narrative story or investigative reporting, to name a few. You can do it on your own, with a friend, or with a bigger group.
Where to begin
To get you started, we've created the Sound Advice page, which includes a range of podcasting resources, among them how to choose a topic, how to write in your own voice, how to edit audio and use music in your podcast. Even, and we're serious about this, how making a pillow fort can make you sound better! (It's a trick our NPR reporters and producers use when we're on the road!)
You can submit as many entries as you like. We listen to each and every one, so send us any work that you're proud of.
More resources
We co-hosted a webinar earlier this fall with the Association of Independents in Radio, where we went over the specifics of this year's contest. In case you missed it, you can watch the recording here.
We also encourage you to get a feel for what we're looking for by listening to last year's winning podcast, Just Friends by Jo Strogatz. And here are some of our previous winners: Michael Vargas Arango, Aria Young and Anya Steinberg.
For more tips, tricks and the latest updates, make sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter. And check out The Students' Podcast, our podcast on how to make a good podcast.
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