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>