What is the Fed Challenge?
The national College Fed Challenge is an annual competition focusing on macroeconomics and monetary policy hosted by the Federal Reserve for US colleges and universities.
The competition takes place each Fall, and recruitment occurs the following Spring. Each entry has two components:
Presentation
We’ll prepare a detailed presentation that contains an analysis of current economic conditions; a forecast of near-term economic and financial conditions; a discussion of significant risks to the economy; and a monetary policy recommendation.
Q&A
Following the presentation, we’ll answer questions from the judges about recommendations made in the presentation and macroeconomic theory as well as hypothetical questions or questions about the Fed.
Competitive success
Since 2007, we’ve been …
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We won the national competition in 2007, 2008, 2011, 2013, and 2023 (most recently out of 100+ colleges and universities)
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We finished as the national runner-up in 2017, 2019, and 2024 (most recently out of 120+ colleges and universities).
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We won the Boston regional competition 8 times: in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2019.
A close community
We have tons of fun preparing, practicing, meeting with faculty, and going on trips!






