What a Winning Move Looks Like
“Read three Featured Cohort entries before you write your first thesis log. The rubric will feel less abstract the moment you see exactly what survives it.”
The Hall of Fame archives Featured Cohort submissions from past SIC seasons — entries that earned the strongest scores across all four rubric axes. All publication is opt-in: participants explicitly approve any excerpt of their work shown here. Names are abbreviated or anonymized at the participant’s preference.
The Featured Cohort, in One Page
Featured Cohort is the top recognition tier at the end of each Global Stage. It is not a prize, ranking, or trophy — it is an academic publication decision: these are the entries the judging desk chose to publish (with permission) as illustrative of what the rubric rewards.
Featured Cohort criteria are simple and unchanged since S07: an entry must score in the top tier on at least three of the four rubric axes (Thesis Clarity, Evidence Quality, Risk Articulation, Revision Discipline) and the lead judge must agree the work would benefit future participants as a reference. Quota does not apply — some seasons feature 12 entries, others 4.
Below: the past five seasons’ Featured Cohort archive, organized chronologically. Each card shows the track, thesis topic, an excerpt of the lead judge’s note, and the recognition tag the entry received. Where the participant gave permission for the full submission to be made available, a “Full submission archive” reference is included — these are accessible to active S15 participants through the program desk.
Past Five Seasons of Featured Cohort
Anonymized except where participant permission allows initials. Each season includes Junior and Senior Division entries side by side. Full S15 Featured Cohort published after the Global Stage closes in August 2026.
The Long End of the Curve as a Credit Signal
A 28-page strategy report arguing that the term premium’s behavior in late 2024 was a structural signal about future cost of capital for long-duration tech, with implications for two named software names.
A 14-Week Thesis Log on Asia Consumer Recovery
A weekly thesis log following a concentrated Asia consumer discretionary portfolio through the Regional Stage. Notable for what the participant chose not to do — three rejected position changes documented with the original disconfirming evidence.
Carbon Border Adjustment as a Steel Sector Catalyst
One of the cleanest ESG-as-material-input theses in the past three seasons. The team treated EU carbon-border policy as a quantifiable cost-of-capital input for European steel and built a comparable-company valuation around it.
Diversified Specialty Pharma Across the Cycle
A 16-position diversified specialty pharma portfolio with explicit rationale for each name’s role (cycle anchor, growth, optionality). Risk Articulation called out generic competition timing on each name.
GPU Capacity as the Real AI Constraint
A thesis arguing that the binding constraint on AI infrastructure deployment was hyperscaler capex pacing, not model capability. Triangulated DCF, comparable-company, and scenario analysis for a single named supplier.
Regional Bank Crisis as a Stress Test of Position Sizing
A Regional Stage thesis log written during the March 2024 regional banking turmoil. Position sizes were repeatedly revised on disclosed reasoning rather than on price action.
Why the Energy Transition Bull Case Underprices Reliability
A contrarian energy transition thesis arguing that grid-reliability infrastructure spending would dominate generation capex through the late 2020s, with implications for two named utility names.
The Cost of Conviction — A Concentrated 5-Name Log
A deliberately concentrated 5-name portfolio with detailed thesis on each. Notable for the participant’s explicit acknowledgement that concentration risk was a choice, not a default, with quantified scenario analysis.
Excerpts from Past Featured Entries
Three short excerpts that illustrate the kind of analytical voice the rubric rewards. All published with participant permission; all anonymized at the participant’s discretion.
“If this position is wrong, it will be wrong because management’s capital-allocation framework changes between now and the next earnings cycle — not because the macro got worse. So that’s what I’ll watch for.”— Senior team excerpt, S14, energy thesis
“I sized this at 7% not 12% because I wasn’t yet able to articulate the bear case in one sentence. When I can, I’ll add. Until then, this size is honest.”— Junior thesis log excerpt, S13, single-name long
“Week 6 thesis was wrong. Here is what changed, what the disconfirming evidence was, and what I should have noticed earlier — including the original mentor-office-hours comment I underweighted.”— Junior thesis log excerpt, S12, revision week
University Destinations
A non-exhaustive list of universities to which past SIC Featured Cohort participants have continued for business, economics, or finance programs. Programs are listed where multiple alumni have continued; the order is not a ranking.
About this list
SIC does not claim credit for any participant’s admissions outcome. University acceptance reflects the participant’s full application — academic record, recommendations, essays, extracurriculars — not any single competition. Featured Cohort entries have been used by participants as one verifiable element of that broader application.
Privacy note: Past participants are not listed by name on this page. Specific alumni stories, where shared with permission, appear in the active participant portal accessed after WhatsApp intake.
How This Archive Is Built
Every entry in the Hall of Fame is published with explicit, opt-in permission from the participant or team. The defaults are conservative.
Default: not published
Featured Cohort recognition does not automatically result in public publication. After the Global Stage closes, the program desk contacts each Featured participant and asks if they would like their entry archived publicly, archived internally only (visible to active participants in the portal), or not archived at all. The default if a participant does not respond is “internal archive only.”
Name display preferences
Participants who consent to public publication choose how their name appears: full name, initials only, or fully anonymized. The default is initials. Many participants use this archive in their university applications — they choose the format that fits that use.
Active S15 participants get more
Inside the active participant portal — which you reach after WhatsApp intake — Featured Cohort full submissions, rubric scorecards, and lead judge notes are available in full where permission was granted. Use them as references for your own writing.
About the Hall of Fame
Why are most entries anonymized?
Participant choice. Some participants prefer their work to be available as a reference for future cohorts without their name attached; others use the archive as part of their university applications and consent to publishing under initials or full name. The default — and what most participants choose — is initials with key biographical details redacted.
How can I read the full submission, not just the excerpt?
Full submissions, where the participant consented to publish them, are accessible in the active participant portal — which you reach after WhatsApp intake for the current season. The page-level archive shown here is a curated reference; the full archive is a deeper resource for active participants writing their own entries.
Does Featured Cohort recognition come with a prize, scholarship, or cash award?
No. Featured Cohort is academic recognition: publication (with permission), a personalized judge scorecard, and a season certificate. The Academic Notice in the footer applies — SIC does not award rank-based prizes. The value of Featured Cohort is in what it lets you point to: a defensible piece of intellectual work, validated by external judges, that you authored.
Can I cite my SIC entry in a university application?
Yes — many past Featured participants have. Common formats: linking to the published Hall of Fame entry, attaching the submission as supplementary material, or referencing the work in an essay about analytical work you have done. The program desk can write a verification letter on request.
When will the S15 Featured Cohort be published?
After the Global Stage closes in August 2026. The publication round runs through September; each Featured participant is contacted individually about their archive preferences before anything appears here.
Applications Close June 1, 2026.
2026.03.20 — 2026.06.01 · Open now
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