Common App - Honors section

My son is applying for computer science major in top 20 schools. He is a strong art student and has following awards/recognitions. We are not sure which one to include/exclude and what should be the order. Hope someone can guide us which one to include as there are only five spots.

Art related

  1. 11th grade - Scholastic art awards submissions - gold key award for 2 paintings competed at national level. Level of recognition (Regional/State) – as he did not win nationals.
  2. 11th grade - Winner of Congressional District Award (art hanging in US Capitol) - Level of recognition (Regional/State)
  3. 11th, 12th grade - Blue Marble Review magazine publication- Art selected for publication in the magazine. He got paid too. Level of recognition – ?? - its national magazine
  4. 11th grade – Teenink magazine – art published as cover page and got paid. Level of recognition - national
  5. 11th grade – Art in an exhibition in Hartwick College - Level of recognition (Regional/State)
  6. 11th grade - Olympic of Visual Art - 2nd at regional level

General
7. Junior RIT award - 19K scholarship/year offered. Level of recognition – School
8. National Merit Commendable – (most probably based on score) - Level of recognition – National.
9. AP® Scholar with Distinction Award - National Level
10. High honors student through middle and high school

Your son can combine awards in the honors section so all the art awards can get listed in one.

In general though stuff like high honors, AP scholar, NMC stuff can be left off because the application has GPA, AP scores and test scores (unless a school is test blind and then I’d be inclined to list NMC).

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Off hand, 3 and 4, and maybe 5 unless that was a competition, more strike me as Activities stuff than Honors stuff. Probably all one Activity.

I agree AP Scholar and High Honors are usually not necessary. So, 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8 would be five total. I don’t have any strong feelings about how to order them, but that order would seem to be among the appropriate options.

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Tuck recognitions related to an extracurricular activity into the description of the activity. Use the honors section for things tied to academic achievement or scholarly recognition. That may include art awards.

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Thank you for all the responses

Also, be sure to provide the recommenders with a brag sheet so they might reference some of these achievements.

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