The Miss America competition judging system is designed to promote diversity, individuality and overall achievement among all contestants. Judges score the individual contestants immediately following each phase of competition. Contestants are scored on a 1-to-10 point scale, in whole numbers, within each category (more than one contestant may receive the same score). There is one panel of judges for all four nights of competition. All judges have been educated about the Miss America judging system and represent a variety of professional sectors within their communities.

Preliminary Scoring

During the preliminary competitions, the weighting of scores awarded per category is distributed as follows:

• Interview 40%
• Talent 30%
• Evening Wear 10%
• On Stage Question 10%
• Swimsuit 10%

Narrowing Down to Fifteen

Following the last preliminary competition, the judges' panel will convene for a monitored "silent review" of the fifteen semi-finalists (those fifteen contestants receiving the highest audited scores of the preliminary competitions). Once the top fifteen have been determined, the judges will score each of the contestants on a 1 - 10 basis, dropping the high and low score. This will be the Composite Attributes score (more than one contestant may receive the same score). The Composite Attributes score will carry forward to the final night, weighted as 40% of a contestant's final score.

Then to Ten and to Five

The Top Fifteen contestants will compete in the in the Swimsuit category to determine who will advance to the Top Ten. The ten contestants with the highest audited scores - inclusive of the Composite Attributes and the Swimsuit scores - will be announced as Top Ten Finalists. The Top Ten Finalists will compete in Evening Wear. The five contestants with the highest audited scores - inclusive of the Composite Attributes, Swimsuit, and Evening Wear - will be named as the Five Finalists.

Top Five

The Top Five finalists will compete in the Talent phase followed by Peer Respect and Leadership, where the 46 non-finalist contestants are asked to tender a "vote" for one of the Top Five Finalists. Then the final phase of the competition, Top Five On Stage Quiz, is where the contestants will distinguish their capabilities to excel in meeting the performance standards of Miss America by responding to a series of questions with multiple-choice answers.

Scoring in the Finals

On Saturday night the weighting of the scores is as follows:

• Composite Attributes 40%
• Swimsuit 10%
• Evening Wear 10%
• Talent 20%
• Peer Respect and Leadership 10%
• Top Five On Stage Quiz 10%

If you are interested in judging at the state or local level click here for contact information for the Executive Director of the state you are interested in judging in.