Anonymous wrote:On CommonApp Honors category, you are supposed to list your awards and the levels- regional, state, national or international. A simple Google can verify. You cannot lie.

My kid has regional and national awards in sport (Individual)….

National French Exam and National German Exam also not explicitly mentioned.

It’s so myopic to only think of stem awards. There are of multiple, highly competitive, well-regarded by admissions reviewers that are non-stem national awards out there. Most scholastic awards build prominently into merit scholarships for many students.

I would consider C-SPAN Student Cam competition a national award. There was a post about this year's winners in the MCPS forum.

Is getting to nationals in speech and debate meaningful or do you need to break to elim rounds? What about invites to things like TOC??

Admissions officers are asking the same question when they see some of the claims that they are not familiar with or impressed by.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think ops point is that they are not as fancy or impressive as they sound (many of them, anyway). I think that’s true. My kid kicked butt on the national Spanish exam. I’d take a long deep breath before describing it as a “national award.” But I think that’s what others on these board do.

Agree. I am the parent of the dancer above. I’d never describe it as a national award but I think some parents do.

And I think you’re just plain wrong not to. It’s not even a matter of a difference of opinion. You are incorrect to deny it’s a national award when it clearly is.

If you compete in nationals in anything: Quizbowl, a sport final, a music or chess competition, a national poetry contest with lots of entries -- it's a national award. If there are kids from multiple states (not just the DMV) and your kid wins, fair game for being called a national award. And if there are kids from multiple countries, it's an international award.

“Every kid”

Do you always resort to hyperbole?

Anonymous wrote:National Latin Exam

And the other national language exams.

A ton of competitions have national awards.

My sister won at National History Day - which meant she won’t county, state, and then nationals.

Plenty of sports, arts, and academic organizations have national competitions

Not sure what’s confusing

Nationals for sports 🏀 🏈 ⚽️ ice skating

Regeneron, national level debate, math/ Chen olympiads- those are the big ones. National language are a dime a dozen, but my dd still listed hers

How about FBLA State/National Finalist?

There’s also a whole bunch of national awards at the various speech and debate tournaments ( 3 big ones). Not jut the winners in each category but on the debate side as far down as double octo- finalist which is pretty amazing

Anonymous wrote:I think ops point is that they are not as fancy or impressive as they sound (many of them, anyway). I think that’s true. My kid kicked butt on the national Spanish exam. I’d take a long deep breath before describing it as a “national award.” But I think that’s what others on these board do.

Agree. I am the parent of the dancer above. I’d never describe it as a national award but I think some parents do.