<p>I've never really thought much about awards/recognition, but they have an entire section for them on the Common Application. Where (through what events) do most student get their regional/national awards/recognition?</p>
<p>Personally, I've gotten 90% of my awards from speech, and it's related activities. If you're good at speech, you can win local awards every week, and enter additional public speaking contests.</p>
<p>There's also loads of math competitions - my school doesn't offer many awards, but I can name at least 3-4 math contests each year. AMC, OML (Ohio Math League, I dunno if other states have an equivalent), some other local competitions...</p>
<p>Some applicants have very few (or no) awards to include in that section. College admission officials are well aware that certain schools are not awards-oriented and some activities don't lead to awards either. (For instance, a student who works 25 hours/week in a paying job may not have a lot to list in that "Awards" section, but he or she will garner respect from adcoms for that level of commitment.)</p>
<p>Admission folks tend to skim those lists to see if anything special jumps out. Much of the time it doesn't. So don't worry if your Awards section looks sparse. It's better to leave it empty than to include "Who's Who Among American High School Students" and other "honors" that are doled out to the masses.</p>