Awards & Recognition

Applying to College
1

<p>I've been working on my application, doing compilations of ECs and other things. I want to apply to UPenn SEAS ED. I have a strong interest in computers and such. I've been on the school Robotics team for three years, but really worked on the team freshman year and junior year. I've listed all my awards and recognition. Do these look like too much, espeically the Robotix stuff? I mean, I hand-picked them from our list, so that's all the awards that we won for 2005 and 2007. Do you think these will help?</p>

<p>
[quote]

9th Grade Honor Roll
9th Grade High Honor Roll
10th Grade Honor Roll
10th Grade High Honor Roll
11th Grade Honor Roll
St. Peter's Service Award
National Honor Society
French National Honor Society
Governor School Nominee
AP Scholar with Honor
Columbia Scholastic Press Association 2006 Gold Crown (Yearbook, possibly again for 2007)
2nd Place at Lab Event, NJIT Chemistry Olympics</p>

<p>Robotix-Related:
Ramp Riot Champions, 2005
Pennsylvania Annual Robotics Challenge Champions, 2005
South Carolina GM Industrial Design Award, 2005
South Carolina Regional Finalist, 2005
NJ Regional Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award, 2005
Pennsylvania Annual Robotics Challenge Champions, 2007
New Jersey Regional Champions, 2007
New Jersey Regional General Motors Industrial Design Award, 2007
3rd at Galileo Championships, 2007

[/quote]
</p>

2

<p>I wasn't involved with Robotics in high school but it looks like you're on the right track.</p>

3

<p>Of course they will help. The first awards (honor roll, NHS, etc.) won't mean much; the rest is much more impressive.</p>

4

<p>Then, should I list the events where we were finalists/quarter-finalists/semi-finalists? Or, would that just seem like stuffing the resume? I think quarter would be too much?</p>

5

<p>I agree the honor roll stuff and NHS is nonsense, almost every other kid will have them. And the Columbia Scholastic Press award is for the publication that you were involved in. Unless you were editor, it's not really your award.</p>

<p>The robotics stuff looks good, though. You're going to have to limit the number of things that you list on your app. I'd stick with the ones that you placed in. First to maybe tenth place, otherwise you can add a little note about semifinalist etc etc at events a, b, and c.</p>

6

<p>Am I the only person whose school <em>doesn't</em> have an honor roll?</p>

<p>We're a magnet program, but still. My awards list looks tiny as of right now, haha.</p>

7

<p>AP Scholar with Honor
Columbia Scholastic Press Association 2006 Gold Crown (Yearbook, possibly again for 2007)
2nd Place at Lab Event, NJIT Chemistry Olympics</p>

<p>Robotix-Related:
Ramp Riot Champions, 2005
Pennsylvania Annual Robotics Challenge Champions, 2005
South Carolina GM Industrial Design Award, 2005
South Carolina Regional Finalist, 2005
NJ Regional Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award, 2005
Pennsylvania Annual Robotics Challenge Champions, 2007
New Jersey Regional Champions, 2007
New Jersey Regional General Motors Industrial Design Award, 2007
3rd at Galileo Championships, 2007</p>

<p>Is better, maybe the service award too. Forget honor roll, NHS and governor's school nominee.</p>

8

<p>I say leave NHS on. Although it's nonsense and everyone else will have it, and adcoms might raise eyebrows if you dont have it... since it's not entirely grade related.</p>

<p>But I second everyone else- don't even list honor roll (especially both honor and high honor- if you got high honor roll, it's obvious you qualified for the lower one). Your grades should speak for themselves.</p>

9

<p>@roxxy: Don't worry, my school doesn't have honor roll either. It doesn't really matter too much anyways. Colleges will figure it out from your transcript.</p>

10

<p>I just realized something. I have no awards, at least I can't think of any.</p>

11

<p>my school doesnt give out any honor roll or class awards either..i dont know if nhs is an award..its more of a club?</p>

12

<p>yeah, i have about 1 academic award as of now
uh oh</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
i dont know if nhs is an award..its more of a club?

[/quote]

NHS is a club, but it's an honor/award to be placed into it.</p>

14

<p>is there a seperate section for academic awards? I don't have many of those besides the principal's honor rolls, Gov School attendees, Spanish Honors Society and such, but I have a bunch for the charity work I've done. Would I be able to lump volunteering awards in with those, or is that on a seperate section of the common app?</p>

15

<p>So, basically this is what I should have:</p>

<p>
[quote]

AP Scholar with Honor
Columbia Scholastic Press Association 2006 Gold Crown (Yearbook, possibly again for 2007)
2nd Place at Lab Event, NJIT Chemistry Olympics
St. Peter's Service Award
NHS
French NHS</p>

<p>Robotix-Related:
Ramp Riot Champions, 2005
Pennsylvania Annual Robotics Challenge Champions, 2005
South Carolina GM Industrial Design Award, 2005
South Carolina Regional Finalist, 2005
NJ Regional Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award, 2005
Pennsylvania Annual Robotics Challenge Champions, 2007
New Jersey Regional Champions, 2007
New Jersey Regional General Motors Industrial Design Award, 2007
3rd at Galileo Championships, 2007

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Should I leave in the service award, NHS, and French NHS, just in case? Should I include the competitions at which we were semi/quarter/finalists or would that be inflating the resume?</p>

16

<p>I wouldn't, simply because you have so many championship/numero uno awards.</p>

17

<p>as was asked before, can you lump charity work awards with the academic honors?</p>

18

<p>are any of your robotics awards individual? or are they all team awards?</p>