Hi CC,
My high school is ranked in the top 5% of public high schools in the United States. There’s one specific award, called the “Governer’s Scholars Award”, in which your school nominates one member of the junior class to represent the school based on class rank, psat scores, and a timed essay. There are 800+ schools nominating their best academic student/scholar to compete for the 30 spots given across the state for this award, so the chances of me making it are pretty slim (especially seeing as how, IMO, my GPA/class rank was much lower than it should have been due to my focus on ECs and my lack of effort on GPA and PSAT). The award itself is only given to 30 people, and I expect I’ll rank well below that; I really don’t try as hard as I probably should in school, and I’m pretty sure more than 30 other people will have better scores for class ranking and PSAT scores as a result. Anyways, I’ve been nominated for this award, and although I’ll definitely try to do well on the essay portion, I’d be amazed if I was in the top 30 students of the best students in the state. In college applications, will simply being nominated for this award on a school-wide basis (teachers, principal, and guidance counselors all helped with the decision) help me down the road with college admissions? After all, my school is apparently very rigorous.
Thanks.