Someone told me this is important, and so I want to know more.
First, is this for EC’s and awards, or just for awards? What kinds of things count in each category? Is this actually important to colleges?
Of course, for colleges that have holistic admissions. There are plenty of colleges that admit primarily based on stats, so ECs aren’t important (some schools don’t even look at them.)
Awards/ECs that could move the needle at the school where I work:
- Various science olympiad winners/gold level achievement
- Novel research (published in peer review journal)
- Top ISEF winners
- Regeneron STS winners
There are more, but those are the big ones…I would generally call applicants in these categories outliers. Most applicants obviously don’t have this level of achievement…most admitted applicants don’t have this level of achievement.
That’s not to say that sports, music, robotics, paid jobs aren’t valued by schools that admit holistically. They are, and plenty of applicants with these activities are admitted to selective schools.
IMO students should participate in activities that they like to do. Of course there is privilege in that statement…many, maybe most students can’t participate in activities that cost money, require transportation to get to said activity, or require travel to compete because many have parents who work full time jobs, and/or the student has to work a paid job and/or help out at home.
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Of course, not everyone (probably not most) are in the kind of league @Mwfan1921 refers to but as an example C26 was able to list national merit, national Latin exam and some state Latin awards which I’m sure helped their application especially at the reachier-for-them schools. One of the schools (I think it was Boulder) had a specific question on the common app about national merit recognition so even at fairly non-competitive schools they seem to look at these. For local awards they just had a school award but some other kids at the school had won local scholarships or local art or writing competitions- the local stuff always seemed a little fuzzy to me because it partly depends on the size of your local town, but would definitely list it especially if there are fewer state/national ones.
For awards, local/regional/national would depend on the applicant pool. For ECs, it would depend upon the sponsoring organization. So local could include school or district awards and ECs, community service for local organizations, involvement with one’s religious community, etc. Regional might include state awards or awards given by organizations that cover multi-state regions, or it could include ECs like science fairs or other competitions that draw people from beyond the immediate community, internships sponsored by the state government, etc. National would include awards and competitions given by national organizations with a national or international applicant pool, internships sponsored by the federal government or some other national organization, and so on. The assumption is that the larger the applicant pool, the more competitive the award or activity, and that’s generally true, but local activities (which is what most people will have) can be very meaningful and allow for sustained involvement.
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MWFan1921 is best equipped to answer..
A couple other thoughts..
CMU actually asks, on common app about national math competition scores…I think I would put that in same bucket… there is a big CS test too.. (forgot its name)
“Have you taken or do you plan to take an American Mathematics Competition (AMC) test, American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME) or American Online Invitational Mathematics Exam (AOIME)? Please note that these tests are neither required nor recommended.”
For non-STEM:
Publishing in Concord Review, maybe would count in this bucket IMO. https://tcr.org/
Also, IMO, though I don’t have stats about this, I think holistic schools also consider your background on this. If you are from rural Wyoming and first gen, they will look at these things differently than if you go to TJHSST in the DMV w/ PhD parents or are from Bay Area, etc.
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I think the awards pair with the EC and can make a big difference. I used to coach FTC robotics team. The team members may put on their applications different items:
A, FTC team member since 8th grade;
B, FTC team member since 8th grade and team captain since 10th grade;
C, FTC team member since 8th grade, team captain since 10th grade, team won 2nd place in state competition;
D, FTC team member since 8th grade, team captain since 10th grade, Leadership Award (formerly Dean’s List Award) state finalist, team won 2nd place in state competition
It’s quite clear to me that A didn’t do much more than showing up, B was dedicated but not sure if capable, C was a successful leader, and D was both a successful leader and accomplished individual.
The very vast majority of students applying to college do not have these awards…of any kind. Please do not fret over this…unless you are applying to a college that specifically requires these…
@Mwfan1921 do any colleges require these awards?
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While this does not matter much for most students… at the top end, you see more national/international extras and awards. Without them, you become less competitive IMO… at the top end.
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I don’t agree. Without them you aren’t “less competitive”-- you are just highlighting other things.
One of my nieces took a love for reading and volunteered to read for the visually impaired. This wasn’t reading Ann Landers to an old lady in her parlor- this was reading, in a professional studio, complex and technical textbooks, articles, grant proposals, etc. for an organization which supported university students (undergrad, doctorate, law school, business school, etc.) and academics. Because some of the works were so complex, they didn’t lend themselves to Braille and needed a human reader to create the CD’s and other formats which the students and professors would use.
Nobody gets a “national” award for learning how to communicate difficult content to the visually impaired. Nobody wins any prize at all for investing all those hours so that another person can achieve their professional aspirations. Plus the hours of training, how to operate in a professional studio, the prep work beforehand.
I think it’s great that colleges- even the highly rejectives- recognize the value of activities where there is no competition, no “validating” mechanism, no local/regional/national.
Just volunteering. Not even a participation medal, imagine that. Please don’t feed the furor that colleges are looking to tote up the number of points a kid has…
Kid had a choice of the “highly rejectives”/top ten, even without a full list of EC’s. Adcom’s understand that some activities don’t give awards, and are so time-consuming that it doesn’t leave room for “National Honor Society” or “Regional squash champion”.
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oh blossom, imagine someone who has read more applications and seen more decisions than you have recruited and hired employees. those are just the facts. It’s all about impact and national impact is greater than regional and international impact is greaterr than national.
Thanks for explaining how elite university admissions works. Imagine how surprised I am every time I get to a campus and meet someone absolutely extraordinary who had zero awards when applying to Yale, Princeton, MIT, Harvard. Like the guy who- as a HS student- developed an algorithm which he provided to the CDC- free of charge- which was a more accurate predictor of a highly infectious exotic disease transmission.
There are no awards for that. Just scores of epidemiologists who expressed their gratitude that someone- a HS student- had figured out a problem when the solution had confounded them and their colleagues around the world.
And the only reason it came up in the job interview was when I asked about his senior thesis (“how did you get interested in ABC”) and he threaded the needle back to what he’d done in HS.
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Reminder that cc is not a debate society. Both parties have made their points. Move on or take it to pm please.
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That’s an excellent and impressive EC…OP asked about ECs as well as awards. No one said all ECs have awards.
It’s also a good example that not all ECs are created equal…students can have significant impact, sometimes without leaving the house or spending money.
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To be clear, no one in our house is planning to change what they do to check a different box. I’m really just curious.
I ask because I know several kids that seem to have the idea that national is always better than regional, or state or whatever the categories are. And while I agree that the specific things you mention are great, I also know that there are other things, like say the honorable mention level of award on National language exams, that don’t necessarily seem more impressive than some of the local extracurriculars I see kids doing, like the kid I met who was elected to the school board, or the kid who is a concert master at a very well regarded youth orchestra in our city. So, I’m just curious, if people have a sense of whether that box is important.
Someone pointed out to me that NMSF is a state level award, but NM Commended is national.
Agree. Those are good examples of local ECs/honors being greater than national ECs/awards. There is no set hierarchy. Many schools highly value community impact, much of which would be local in nature. It’s not the checked box that matters, it’s the activity and the impact.
I would call NMSF/NMF a national award, even though it has state by state cutoffs. Regardless, if an applicant checks national or state level, it just doesn’t matter.
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Our understanding is that it can do two things. One is provide a benchmark of performance or ability on a larger scale, but two it can show a deeper commitment or impact in an area that matters to that student. D is doing things organically not chasing resume building but a few things have developed over the years. As examples, at the state level she was selected to attend the summer Governors School in her language of study, and at the national level she has earned three gold and one silver in the National level language exam.
By contrast, she also starting in middle school was asked to participate in a statewide mentorship program bringing together older kids with a particular disability with kids ages 4-11 with the same disability to share camaraderie, mentorship and reassurance that they aren’t alone. That’s not an award, it’s not a national level championship, but it’s a unique activity that also just so happens to span the state.
Who knows if these will matter but none of them were actively sought. I think the kid doing the local book reading is amazing (I need to DM that poster!), and I personally want to know how to do that! There are so many ways a kid can show impact and their potential to contribute to a university that it doesn’t have to be one or the other. It’s the “spike”.
I just want to say…college applicants do not need a “spike”. The vast majority of college applicants have shown commitment to the things they are doing but don’t have a spike. For top colleges, these are strong students who perhaps have made an impact doing some EC activity (whether that’s an award or not doesn’t matter).
Also, for some, the activity they are doing will not be something they will be continuing in college with the same gusto as in high school. And that’s fine too.
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Thanks, that has been my kids’ experience as well. D22 and D24 were very successful during the college admissions process. Both had great choices in May of their senior years (both ended up choosing between their REA acceptance and several fantastic RD choices). Neither had any national awards prior to applying to colleges though they did ultimately win some national scholarships in the spring of their senior year.* For that matter, they really didn’t have state or local awards either. They just didn’t do the sort of competitive activities that lead to awards or credentials. Part of it is that both lean towards interests in the humanities and social science not STEM, and my sense is that there are many more such competitions for STEM kids. But it is not like my kids had any interest in stuff like Model UN with the “best delegate” award or the scholastic art and writing competitions with the gold or silver keys that I read about here.
S27 is now doing his college applications and he has at least slightly more interest in STEM fields than his older siblings did though he is still undecided about majors. So we’ll see how his lack of awards plays out. Maybe he will end up being at a huge disadvantage compared to kids who participate in math and science olympiads. But the bottom line in my experience is not all academicky kids want to prove their mettle by trying to win awards or participate in competitions. It just isn’t part of their personalities to pursue those activities. Frankly, it is not in their personalities to “prove” anything. They spend their time doing other things and college can still work out.
*ETA that I encouraged them to apply to the national scholarships because I was worried about money and paying for their tuition not becuase I wanted them to win an impressive victory that would make them stand out in the college process.
Spike may have been the wrong word. I think my point was that with admissions becoming more competitive at so many places, something “interesting” can be a differentiator.
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