<p>I currently attend an audition only performing arts high school in Canada. My school really doesn't offer academic awards, (no National Merit, Olympiads, etc.) and I'm quite concerned about leaving the common app honors section blank.
I'm applying to Harvard this fall, SCEA, and I have a feeling that they are going to have an issue with this.
Any thoughts? Are there competitions I could sign up for outside of Canada?</p>
<p>Same with my school. All you have to do is write “My school does not give out any awards and honors.”</p>
<p>Many many schools are like that, so don’t worry about it! They (the adcoms) will understand!</p>
<p>Best regards,
- Mike</p>
<p>Your school doesn’t administer the PSAT? You can still list regional/provincial awards. My school didn’t have Olympiad stuff either but I was able to get a few state recognitions.</p>
<p>National Merit isn’t a school award. If you really wanted to you could have found academic competitions and things to enter. That said, I don’t think not having any is a huge deal, but I certainly wouldn’t write that you don’t have any because your school didn’t offer any. 
Have you taken any AP tests or anything? You might be an AP scholar…</p>
<p>I agree with napalm. If you write that, it’d just look like you didn’t seek out the challenges, like adcoms like to see.</p>
<p>No that’s actually a legitimate thing to write. You are just telling them you didn’t get any awards from your school. You cannot seek out awards from a school that doesn’t offer any. You aren’t saying that you didn’t get ANY awards because of your school, just no school awards. </p>
<ul>
<li>Mike</li>
</ul>
<p>It isn’t just a school awards section though, they want all academic awards. So you can say your school didn’t offer any awards, but that isn’t really what they’re asking. Unless you also go on to say that your region, nation, and the world also didn’t offer any awards, which comes off like you’re just making excuses. Not to mention, it sounds a bit silly.</p>
<p>napalm - </p>
<p>“If you go to the kind of school that doesn’t give out acedemic awards, you could state that in the space provided: ‘Because of the intense competition at my high school, the administration does not assign any acedemic awards within the school.’ You will still be free to list any awards you won outside of class.” </p>
<ul>
<li>Michelle Hernandez, Dartmouth College Admissions Counselor, “A is For Admissions”</li>
</ul>
<p>My point being, you are only excusing the lack of school awards. It is in no way a bad thing to include! I’ve read this in countless admissions books!</p>
<p>To the OP, are you saying you don’t have school awards or that you don’t have any sort of regional/state recognition? Because those are two very different things. School awards don’t count for much, but those regional/state recognitions could make the difference between an admit and deny.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure the OP is saying he doesn’t have any awards at all, school and national alike. The only thing that could be justified would be the lack of school awards. And a good question was brought up before - why doesn’t your school offer the PSAT? And do you have any ap scholar awards?</p>
<ul>
<li>Mike</li>
</ul>
<p>I am not a fan of Hernandez. Much of what she says doesn’t balance my experience. You have to be cautious when taking gospel advice from someone whose income is based on convincing you her services and books are worth the price. Btw, it’s been a number of years since she was at D.</p>
<p>If a school doesn’t give out awards, by policy, that’s for the GC to note and should be in the school profile. Many fine hs fall into this sort. If this is a case where OP simply didn’t get any, anything, anywhere, that’s different. </p>
<p>Some kids get so neurotic abut this that they put in “perfect attendance” awards. If you don’t have any, live with it. Presumably you have plenty of valid ECs with the sort of substance that matters to adcoms. Presumably, you have shown legit leadership and held responsibilities that matter to Harvard- made the most of the opps at your performing arts hs and reached out into the community. That’s a far greater stumbling block.</p>
<p>Writing in that your hs doesn’t offer awards can show your vision is limited to hs. Forcing something into that category can lead to them questioning your perspective.</p>
<p>It probably wouldn’t be worth it to include an easy award I won in freshman year, would it? About once a month the teachers from each subject area would pick a student who did outstandingly well in that subject area to give an award to… We got a certificate and a t-shirt. =P I won it for math, because I had a 105 average in math back then… I had a 72 average last year and a similar grade sophomore year (#EarlyOnsetOfSenioritis)… So including it makes me feel silly. Should I bother? I don’t think I’ll have any other awards. =P Actually, I guess I have the “AP Scholar with Honor” award too, but still.</p>
<p>That’s really true, thanks for helping. The only academic competition/award that is frequently advertised by teachers in my province is the Waterloo Math Contest, but Math is a big struggle for me.
And what about competitions like the Three Day Novel contest? Would that count?</p>
<p>@lehigh2017</p>
<p>My school doesn’t offer the PSAT, possibly because the majority of the students are quite ‘arts’ driven. We have a number of opportunities for extracurriculars, but as far as the PSAT… none.</p>
<p>Forget the novel contest! Writing something/anything in 3 days or 30 days isn’t writing well. I cringe when hs kids say they wrote a novel. You said, Harvard, right? Go identify a need in your community, roll up your sleeves and commit. Serve the needy. Whatever your performng arts specialty is, take it to local kids, have some impact. Harvard needs to see you have vision, can id legit opportunities and follow through, over time. This is too trollish.</p>
<p>I have a huge amount of leadership and community work, I’m the President of the youth council, music representative at a government run senior care center and have organized a great deal of activities for residents, Holiday Music shows, and fundraisers. </p>
<p>My concern is the fact that I do not have any academic awards from my school/area despite my high grades. I’m quite sure that Harvard can see my vision based on my EC’s and essays, what I need is an answer to filling the space for Academic Merits.</p>
<p>there’s nothing wrong with just leaving it blank. if you’ve got some good contributions and ECs it will show on your app anyways</p>