Awards and Recognition on apps?

<p>I've won several awards both academic and other areas.</p>

<p>They're regional and national awards..One of them is given my a national insurance company and a few others from non-profit (i think) organizations.. And a couple from formal regional competitions.</p>

<p>These awards and recognitions are related to my EC'c. </p>

<p>I was wondering how helpful awards and recognitions are in the college admission process..</p>

<p>Some people on CC were saying that since awards are so easy for people to make up and fake on the application, colleges can't tell and so it's not a real big help. But I've received mine from actual organizations and companies and won't adcoms be able to tell if it's real by looking at the award/organization names?</p>

<p>It would be quite foolish to fake awards.</p>

<p>Top schools usually have “fact checkers” who at the very least
will do random checks.</p>

<p>So about people on CC saying awards don’t really help at all… is that true or not?</p>

<p>I probably shouldn’t expect them to get me from a rejected to an accepted pile since there are so many people with like Intel or other crazy recognitions… but it would give me so much hope to know that it does help even a tiny bit?</p>

<p>From everything I’ve read and heard, a regional or national award in your ECs does set you apart a bit for the colleges that care about ECs to begin with. On your application, those awards belong in the Activities list or “Additional Information,” not under “Academic Awards.” Unless your ECs are academic, I suppose.</p>

<p>There is this one art contest I entered two months ago… I’ve been recently contacted by the organization (it’s a national one) and I’ve been selected as one of the fifteen finalists nationwide. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the top because unlike most competitions that pick 1st 2nd 3rd, etc… winners, this one picked one first-place winner and an honorable mention.</p>

<p>But they’re making an official booklet containing the works of the fifteen finalists, so my work will be published. </p>

<p>Even though I’m just a finalist and this book isn’t gonna be like a world-famous bestselling book it would be still good to list it, yes?</p>

<p>^ Not if they asked you to buy a copy of the book. That’s a [url="<a href="http://news.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/article/38970/“]scam[/url”&gt;http://news.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/article/38970/"]scam[/url</a>], or at least a misleading and unethical practice.</p>

<p>oh no. it wasnt like a normal book you buy at bookstores. it was made by the organization to recognize all the finalists.</p>

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<p>Who told you that? In fact, awards can show that your dedication in an EC led to a positive result.</p>

<p>Also, like what somebody said, schools might do random checks so it’s absolutely foolish to lie about awards. I am also pretty sure that for most big, national awards, such as Siemens, they don’t even do random checks, as they do automatic checks…they probably have a list of applicants pulled up from the Siemens website already and when they see a person that said they were “Siemens ___finalist” they will just match him/her up just to make sure he is telling the truth.</p>

<p>
[QUOTE=gashergina]

it wasnt like a normal book you buy at bookstores. it was made by the organization to recognize all the finalists.

[/quote]
This could be exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. Please read this; it discusses writing and poetry “contests” for the most part, but many art “contests” are the same type of scam.
[Warnings</a> and Cautions for Writers–Writing Contests and Vanity Anthologies](<a href=“http://www.sfwa.org/Beware/contests.html]Warnings”>http://www.sfwa.org/Beware/contests.html)</p>

<p>If you like having a copy of your artwork in print in somebody’s book, nothing wrong with that (provided it’s not at a rip-off price, either for the book or for the entry). However, you should know what you’re getting and understand that it might not be the kind of thing you’d want to list as an award – it might label you as “exceptionally gullible” rather than “exceptionally artistic.” Try googling the name of the award plus “scam” and see what turns up. I’m not writing this to discourage you, just suggesting you watch out for yourself.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>