Since 1960, the overall ranking of the top schools in the writing category has been recognized. As the program grew to include photojournalism, broadcast news and multimedia, monetary prizes were granted to the intercollegiate competitions in 1990, giving journalism schools a higher financial stake in the collective success of their students.

The Intercollegiate Competitions award prizes of $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 to the top three universities in each division – writing, photojournalism, audio/television and multimedia. In 2018, a new $25,000 prize was added to the budget for the first-place Intercollegiate Overall winner–raising the Intercollegiate total to $89,000. Trophies are also awarded to the top ten schools in each category.

The accumulated points earned by individual students in the monthly writing, photojournalism, audio/television and multimedia competitions determine these Intercollegiate rankings. The winners are those schools whose students have earned the highest total points in each division. The Overall Intercollegiate winners are those schools whose students have earned the highest accumulated points in all of the competitions.