March 11 Update on Public Health and the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

International Academic Competitions (IAC) regrets to announce that effective immediately, all of its upcoming events through July 2020 are cancelled. This includes all regional tournaments at the high school, middle school, and elementary school levels, both the high school and middle school / elementary school National Championships and the International History Olympiad (IHO) and International Geography Bee (IGB) World Championships. This was not a decision we made lightly, but given the current state of the outbreak, its continuing spread, and the very small chance that it will be effectively contained within the next month or two, we feel that making this decision now is in the best interest of public health and gives everyone the maximum amount of time needed to make alternate plans.

IAC will provide refunds in full for any event registration fees that have been paid for future events, though please note it may take up to a month or longer to process these, especially if a wire transfer is needed.

We are of course keenly disappointed in this but realize that the health and safety of our community must be the utmost priorities. We will evaluate the situation again this summer to see if rescheduling the National Championships for the fall or winter of the following academic year makes sense. If the outbreak is successfully contained by then, we will do everything in our power to make this happen, but that remains a big if for now. Please note that in the event we were to reschedule these, students who would be in 9th grade in the 2020-21 academic year would still compete in the Middle School National Championships, and current high school seniors would still be eligible to compete in the Varsity National Championships.

Finally, we will continue to spend the coming months actively working to develop our programs. We will be looking to upgrade our technical capabilities, expand our question writer program, write questions and exams for coming years, continue and perhaps expand our online quiz offerings among other initiatives. IAC thanks you for your continued support at this difficult time and urges you all to be proactive in protecting yourselves, your students, and your children.

We look forward to seeing you in the 2020-2021 academic year, and wish you all the best for the coming months ahead.

Refund Information

  • If you have not yet received a refund for a US Middle School Regional Final (National History Bee, National Science Bee, US Academic Bee), please email Arthur Ramsay (arthur@iacompetitions.com) with the student’s name and regional finals site (date and location).
  • If you have not yet received a refund for any other tournament, including the International History Olympiad and International Geography Bee World Championships, please email IAC Staff at info@iacompetitions.com with the participant name(s), event information, and method of original payment.

Future Tournament Scheduling

  • IAC will not be running any in-person events before July 31, 2020.
  • The next International History Olympiad will be held at the earliest in the summer of 2022. The next International Geography Bee World Championships will be held at the earliest in the summer of 2021.

Future Tournament Eligibility

  • IAC has tentatively re-scheduled both the Varsity/Junior Varsity and Middle School/Elementary School Nationals to be held in December 2020. No final decision will been made on this matter until September 2020, and as such, no final decision will be announced on eligibility for those tournaments until that time.
  • IAC has not yet made a determination on eligibility of high school graduates to compete in the next Olympiad or World Championships. This note will be updated when a decision has been made on that matter.