Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award

<p>advanced Lawlz…
You are mistaken. Only on CC would I ever read a comment like that or your previous one that these awards of some significance don’t matter unless they are like Intel or Siemens. We’re not talking “Honor Roll” here. Winning the top awards in one’s school is of significance and should be mentioned on an application. </p>

<p>You are mistaken if you think you have to win a national award to get into a highly selective university. Many who attend the most selective schools in the land are simply the top students in many respects in their school or region. That can surely be enough to get in. A national award surely helps but is not necessary to get into the top schools. The top schools consist primarily of the top students from many high schools. Colleges indeed DO care if you are a top student at your high school.</p>

<p>D received the Humanities award from U of R. She definitely included that achievement on her resume. When she got her admittance letter from a peer school Carnegie Mellon, they offered her an $8,000/year scholarship and they were willing to negotiate on it too…<br>
I will always believe that CMU offered the scholarship as a “counter offer” to the U of R scholarship as all peer schools know that the Humanities & B&L awards are worth a set amount of money to the applicant.<br>
So in my opinion, I think it is just plain foolish not to mention it as it could definitely lead to another merit offer from a peer school.<br>
my d did not attend either U of R or CMU, but it was always nice to know that the merit scholarship was offered.</p>

<p>Our D got the B & L. She included it on her applications. She did apply to U of R and had a local interview with a U of R adcom. I think it was worth around $15k when she was admitted. This was the smallest merit award of all of the schools she was accepted to but definitely nothing to sneeze at. (She ended up attending elsewhere.)</p>

<p>I believe our students should include all of the honors/awards they have earned in the space allowed on the application. I guess if they win the Intel or Siemens, those should be listed first.</p>

<p>Also, even if you do win an award on a national scale, you would not omit awards on a state, regional, or school scale. One of my kids did win a national award in her field, but surely listed all of her awards including state ones, regional and school based ones. </p>

<p>The number of kids winning national awards is not high but surely there is a far greater number of kids qualified and admitted to very selective colleges even so. I see NO reason to omit the kinds of awards being discussed here. The vast majority of students in selective universities have not won a national award.</p>