No awards freaking out

[Anonymous]

DS is junior. Suddenly realizing we have no awards. Can we apply for some and how and when. Major is math and STEM. Thanks

[Anonymous]

No. and you don't need them. Move on to the next section of the application.

How does you kid have amajor in high school?

[Anonymous]

Doesn’t matter. My kids had no awards and had great admissions. Their schools (private) did not give awards and they did not do those competitions as ECs.

[Anonymous]

My kid had no awards for into T20-30 schools. Not needed unless you’re going for T10.

[Anonymous]

Awards are not that important. They only matter for t15/ivies and even then it is only noteworthy if the kid has state or regional academic honors (or national but that is rare and they do not mean common ones such as AP Scholar). Alternatively from competitive privates or magnets that send less than 10% to T20 , being named by faculty as one of 3-4 kids who are best in school (academic and citizenship) is helpful to stand out from the 20-30 who are gunning for T20 and likely all have top rigor and top grades.
More important than awards is have they made an impact with their ECs. The transcript is more important than all of it, though, so focus there. Junior yr all A grades in the most rigorous courses is the most impressive and outweighs awards, EC.

[Anonymous]

can you enter a mother son dance competition? Or maybe a pumpkin carving contest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Awards are not that important. They only matter for t15/ivies and even then it is only noteworthy if the kid has state or regional academic honors (or national but that is rare and they do not mean common ones such as AP Scholar). Alternatively from competitive privates or magnets that send less than 10% to T20 , being named by faculty as one of 3-4 kids who are best in school (academic and citizenship) is helpful to stand out from the 20-30 who are gunning for T20 and likely all have top rigor and top grades.
More important than awards is have they made an impact with their ECs. The transcript is more important than all of it, though, so focus there. Junior yr all A grades in the most rigorous courses is the most impressive and outweighs awards, EC.

What kind of impact? How is this demonstrated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is junior. Suddenly realizing we have no awards. Can we apply for some and how and when. Major is math and STEM. Thanks

“we”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is junior. Suddenly realizing we have no awards. Can we apply for some and how and when. Major is math and STEM. Thanks

I believe the title is "Awards and Honors". You can list memberships in Honor societies (e.g. Thespian society, Technical Honor Society, English Honor society). You can also list AP accomplishment such as AP Scholar awards (https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/awards-recognitions/ap-scholar-award) which he may qualify for based on AP exam performance. If he does well in PSAT, then list National Merit semi-finalist or commended. That's what we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is junior. Suddenly realizing we have no awards. Can we apply for some and how and when. Major is math and STEM. Thanks

“we”?

Get a life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is junior. Suddenly realizing we have no awards. Can we apply for some and how and when. Major is math and STEM. Thanks

I believe the title is "Awards and Honors". You can list memberships in Honor societies (e.g. Thespian society, Technical Honor Society, English Honor society). You can also list AP accomplishment such as AP Scholar awards (https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/awards-recognitions/ap-scholar-award) which he may qualify for based on AP exam performance. If he does well in PSAT, then list National Merit semi-finalist or commended. That's what we did.

+1 those were the only things my kids listed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Awards are not that important. They only matter for t15/ivies and even then it is only noteworthy if the kid has state or regional academic honors (or national but that is rare and they do not mean common ones such as AP Scholar). Alternatively from competitive privates or magnets that send less than 10% to T20 , being named by faculty as one of 3-4 kids who are best in school (academic and citizenship) is helpful to stand out from the 20-30 who are gunning for T20 and likely all have top rigor and top grades.
More important than awards is have they made an impact with their ECs. The transcript is more important than all of it, though, so focus there. Junior yr all A grades in the most rigorous courses is the most impressive and outweighs awards, EC.

What kind of impact? How is this demonstrated?

Tutored X number of children. Collected X pounds of food in food drive.

[Anonymous]

Boo f’in hoo! majority of kids don’t have any awards.

[Anonymous]

Do those meaningless Who’s Who awards still exist?

Seriously though, awards are supposed to go to the top kids so naturally not everyone will have awards. No need to freak out!

[Anonymous]

I don't know about public schools where many kids enter math competitions or scholastic competitions.

In private schools, no one is participating in STEM competitions or scholastic art&writing. Award section is not important at all. Your grades, course rigor, LOR, and SAT score determine your destination.