Activities & Awards To Highlight?

Applying to College
1

<p>I started observing the Common Ap. And I’ve done a lot of activities and stuff. But I have NO IDEA how exactly to word everything! Like for the awards section, what kinds of awards are they expecting? These are some awards/programs that Ive done:</p>

<p>Awards:

  • Outstanding IB Biology I Student (Student of the Year Award)
  • 2010 Alexander Hamilton Citizen Achievement Award Merit Winner
  • Academic Letter
  • International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program Certificate
  • Outstanding IBMYP Spanish III Student (Student of the Year Award)
  • Outstanding AP Government Student (Student of the Year Award)
  • All County Chorus
  • All District Chorus
  • Principal’s Top 10 Student Award
  • Perfect Attendance Award
  • Outstanding Performance in IBMYP Geometry
  • County Award for Exemplary Achievement in the Arts
  • 3rd Place in School Science Fair, Category: Biochemistry
  • Principal’s Honor Roll (All 3 Years so far)</p>

<p>Programs/Research/Volunteer:

  • 2010 Virginia Girl’s State
  • Internship in Biochemistry at Local University (8 weeks, 40 hours a week, program modeled after NIH)
  • 200+ Community Service Hours for IB Program
  • Pre-IB Personal Project (Exploration of Careers in Medicine: Including shadowing different medical professions, learning terms, hospital experience, etc.)
  • 2010 CDC Disease Detective Camp (Will Attend) </p>

<p>Do Programs also count as awards? Also, for activities, it is only school activities (NHS, SHS, etc.) or do they accept ones that are out of school. I wanted to highlight ones like:</p>

<p>Community Leadership Positions and Activities:

  • Co-Founder: Local Elementary School P.E.P. Program (teaching/babysitting Latin American students, communicating with parents, etc.) (10-12 Grade)
  • Volunteer, Hospital Junior Volunteer Program (10-12 Grade)
  • Team Captain (11th Grade), Recreational Basketball (7-12 Grade)
  • Member, College Early Identification Program (for First Gen. College Kids) (7-12 Grade)
  • Volunteer, American Red Cross Youth Corps (10-12 Grade)
  • Church Nursery Volunteer, Church (9-12 Grade)
  • Member, Church Youth Group (9-12 Grade)
  • Tutor, Middle School Spanish Club (9-12 Grade)</p>

<p>What do you think I should list?</p>

2

<p>I would list the ones that you feel are significant. Many of those are impressive, but be careful that you don’t just list things in order to have a long list. Leave off your Perfect Attendance Award.</p>

3

<p>Definitely list all the extracurricular and volunteer activities you feel you a dedicated enough time to. Don’t list too many, because that will appear like a laundry list, I’d say 5-6. You have some very unique activities there (the P.E.P. and co-founder stuff is golden). </p>

<p>From what I’ve seen, the awards section matters little unless it is something complimenting your extracurriculars or something nationally renowned. Most people I know who’ve made it to the ivies told me they left it blank.</p>

4

<p>Don’t list school awards or club memberships where you have no leadership positions or have done nothing remarkable in. Your CAS, unless you’ve committed yourself to a specific project, doesn’t need to be mentioned–just a raw amount of CS hours means little without commitment and/or initiative.</p>