<p>… bad grammar. sorry.</p>
<p>Well it depends. Depends probably on your field i.e. if you want to major in English there are not as many opportunities to win awards, but for a science major you should have probably at least two preferable from a regional competition. And I don’t think school only awards should be counted.
Since you have Dr. Science as your name I would say that if you don’t have science awards then you need to have ECs that demonstrate science interest in another way. Like interning, or volunteering to teach science. I would argue that those ECs are comparable or better than awards, bc they reflect character. And volunteering 100+ hours would bet some random science award at the school or maybe even local level.</p>
<p>dbate,</p>
<p>i somewhat disagree with your statement “I don’t think school only awards should be counted.” school counselors will explain clearly if awards are big or prestigious not. for example, in my school, the different departments convene to confer very selective and thoughtout awards on the students. these individual awards were established by prominent and (some) famous alumni.</p>
<p>and to dr. science,</p>
<p>i wouldn’t worry too much about not having awards, but you should go for them, like dbate said. believe it or not, there are a number of students with NO outside (outside of school) awards who are currently attending harvard (5/7 of those i know never even sought to win any awards)</p>
<p>“if you want to major in English there are not as many opportunities to win awards”</p>
<p>Strongly disagree. The OP does seem to be a hopeful science major, but there are an enormous number of essay, short story, and poetry contests. I was fortunate to have a very strong English department at my school and teachers told us about several writing contests each month. Doing drama, forensics (the public speaking kind), and journalism would also help a lot.</p>
<p>w00t to walkingonstars! I want to be an English major, and I’ve got all 3 of those ECs haha. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, my school is terrible about informing us about contests…etc. Do you have a website you could recommend that has listings for writing competitions??</p>
<p>Noitaraperp, when i said that i was referring to the fact that only the common app, they divide ECs based on:school then State/region, then national, then international. In that context you would want to highlight your awards in this order:international,national,region/state, then school, bc the common app only allows you to put a certain amount of awards, and a school award would look less impressive than a state or national award.</p>
<p>Oh well, i do science and debate stuff, so i don’t know as much about writing competitions. I apologize.</p>
<p>If you don’t have awards, how can you prove that you’re “deeply involved” in whatever EC’s you’re involved in? Of course, awards aren’t just limited to medals or trophies. If you plan on majoring in English, and you have a published novel, that counts as a major award in my books.</p>
<p>The people I know from our area who go to Harvard have won no awards.</p>
<p>Can you tell me what types of EC’s they’re involved in?</p>
<p>Yes i would like to know the ECs as well.</p>
<p>Ok, I didn’t win any big awards other than minor in-school stuff, or winning sports championships in a VERY small competition pool. The ONE thing I have is a county award for History day, moved on the the State level and didn’t even place. Nothing major. I’m starting at Harvard this fall in the class of 2012, sooooo… guess huge awards are not the end-all-be-all?</p>
<p>Yeah, i guess not, I had been kind of pondering my lack of national awards for science. With Intel and Siemen’s it seems like science ppl have to have awards.</p>
<p>On the non-award side a TASP attendee would be looked on as favorably
as a RSI attendee. Technically neither of these are ‘awards’ but do indicate
that you are at the top of the social analysis/writing side Or Science
inquiry side respectively.</p>
<p>The scholastic award for writing (Gold Key) at the Regional and national
levels are both held in high esteem (there are many sub-categories).</p>