National History DayNHD

The five are paper, exhibit, performance, documentary and website. Pick by strength rather than preference: writers take the paper, video editors the documentary, students comfortable on stage and in a group the performance, students with design and hands-on skills the exhibit, and web-capable students the website. Remember that judging is 80 percent historical quality and 20 percent clarity of presentation, so no format rescues thin research. Settle the topic and sources first, then choose the format.

Exhibits, performances, documentaries and websites may be done by groups of two to five; the paper category is individual only. Divisions are Junior for grades 6-8 and Senior for grades 9-12, and some affiliates including California also run an elementary division, with California serving grades 4-12. A student may compete across the Junior and Senior divisions for a maximum of seven years total. Fix the group early - swapping members mid-season hurts both the project and the judge interview.

Papers run 1,500-2,500 words. Exhibits allow no more than 500 student-composed words with a display no larger than 40 inches wide by 30 deep by 72 high. Performances and documentaries each cap at 10 minutes. Websites must be built in NHDWebCentral with no more than 1,200 student-composed words and 100MB total. Every category also requires a process paper of 500 words or fewer plus an annotated bibliography. More projects are eliminated for going over these limits than for weak research.

Irvine falls under the Orange County contest, hosted by the Orange County Department of Education. Schools submit an Intent to Participate form by December 11, 2026. Student registration opens January 19, 2027, closes January 26 regular and February 1 late, with projects due February 22 and the contest on March 13, 2027. The fee is $60 per student, $75 late. Winners advance to the California state finals at Sacramento State on May 7-9, 2027.

University High School, Northwood High School, Irvine High School, and Portola High School each have a student club tied to National History Day; a school not listed here is not necessarily without one, so check with a history teacher directly. NHD itself starts at the school level, and public, private, parochial, charter and homeschool students are all eligible - a school with no club, or one that has never entered before, is not a barrier, and homeschool families can contact the Orange County contest directly through the same process.

Level by level: school contest, then the county or regional contest - March 13, 2027 in Orange County - then the California state finals at Sacramento State on May 7-9, 2027, then the national contest in Maryland in June 2027. Each level advances a limited number of entries per category and division, typically the top finishers in each category, with the exact counts set by each level's organizers. Nationals names a top three in every category plus a range of sponsored special prizes.

The 2027 theme is Innovation in History: Impact, Influence, Change. Every entry must connect to the annual theme, but students choose their own topic within it - the theme is a frame, not an assignment. The advice that matters most is to go narrow: one invention's adoption, one local ordinance, one person's decision, ideally something documented in primary sources you can actually reach. Narrow topics with real evidence persuade judges far more than sweeping ones.

Not as is. NHD caps papers at 1,500-2,500 words, while The Concord Review expects research essays of 5,000 words or more - accepted pieces average over 8,000 - and requires Turabian endnote citations. The practical route is to treat the NHD paper as a starting point: after the season ends, expand the primary sources and the argument into a much longer standalone essay and aim it at one of TCR's quarterly deadlines.