Could use some helpful dialogue here. D24 is a typical CC coined “average excellent” student but we’d still like to make sure she maximizes the common app in the ways we know how. We did our due diligence in reading what to put in the 5 spots on the ‘honors’ section and came across some conflicting info. Despite the description being pretty clear to me for “any honors related to your academic achievements” I’ve read in several places that awards received in activities should be listed here. So should she put the “Most Improved” award she received in her varsity sport or not? If not here she’s definitely putting in the activities section with the sport, but since her honors section is pretty ‘basic’ if its supposed to go here that would at least be something different so I’d like to get it right.
Huh, the advice we got was anything like that should go in the activities description.
We don’t give out a lot of school honors, so this means a lot of our applicants have pretty sparse, not completely filled out, honors sections. And we seem to do just fine anyway.
Edit: I should mention the context here is we use a private feederish HS with a strong reputation for rigor. So I think the basic attitude is really good grades in our most advanced courses is basically enough of a marker of academic strength, colleges don’t need to see more than that from us.
I think it is different if your school does distinguish its very top students from other very good students with honors. But if it doesn’t, or you are just in the very good category, I personally wouldn’t force it with things like athletic awards.
I agree with putting an athletic award in the activity section, not in honors.
Agree it should only be academic related in the Honors section. A college might view something else as “not following instructions”. There is plenty of space in the Activities section and it specifically calls out for any recognition received.
Agree the 5 spots are for Academic-related honors.
Thank you - that is what was planned but late in the game I’ve come across a couple of sites that have said otherwise, had me second guessing for a bit!
While I have the thread open, can I ask your opinion on whether you’d put AP Scholar with Distinction (which should be pointing out the obvious as she reported her AP scores, but takes the thought work out for the AO) or (on track to be) awarded the state’s STEM Honors Diploma in the 5h spot or just leave it blank?
I would not put anything on an application that hasn’t actually been achieved. So “on track to be”…no. You can update later if this happens.
I would do the Stem honors diploma because the AP scholar w distinction is already obvious based on scores
EDIT: didnt notice the “on track to be”, so in that case AP scholar
Even counselors aren’t all in agreement regarding putting non-academic honors, like sports awards, in the honors section. It’s not going to be a strike against a student if they did include MVP of the basketball team in the honors section, to take one example.
I would include AP scholar, providing it’s not taking a spot of something else. Also fine to include state’s stem honors diploma (expected 2024).
Hmm I am not reading the right sites because I read this was how you word things that have been earned but will be awarded on the diploma (seal of biliteracy, etc).
Very happy I asked now! Thank you!
I know your question is about Common App, but perhaps this post from MIT Admissions (which uses its own application) will be helpful in seeing some examples of what they consider to be scholastic and non-scholastic distinctions:
There are categories for School, State/Regional, National, and International awards in the Common App. The most academically competitive applicants from top schools may have some honors at well beyond the school level, and might even have to be strategic about which ones to include in the limited number of spots.
On the one hand, one may want to list the most top-level awards, but on the other hand, if such a well-known, high-rigor school gives out some sort of “top of the class class” award each year, there is an argument to be made for using the first line for those to make a point about where one stands in this particular school, and then proceeding with higher-level awards in declining order of significance (listing school award last could also give a false impression that one ran out of awards to list).
Sure, but many of our top students do not do many if any of the things that generate state, national, or international awards. It typically depends what you are into in terms of academic areas (these sorts of things are more common in some fields than others), and also what else you do with your time.
Like, if you are a three-sport varsity athlete, you just may not have time for a lot of that stuff. But if you are a three-sport varsity athlete and also getting great grades in our most advanced classes, that does not seem like an uncompetitive profile for highly selective colleges.
So my point to the OP was to not worry about whether stuff is going in activities or honors. Both sections are available, and different kids will have their “best stuff” in different sections depending on what they did.
And not every kid does all the same best stuff, because that is impossible.
By the way, as a quick addition–I personally think it is nice when an activities description basically tells a little story of dedication and improvement and personal growth such. It has to be done in few characters, but if, say, in a given activity description it is clear you joined something that is hard to do well, improved a lot, and eventually took on a key leadership role, that’s a nice little story in itself of the kind AOs often say they value.
So to me, the OP’s described Most Improved award in a varsity sport sounds like an obvious part of a cool little story like that. And that is one of the reasons I think it would likely be great to leave that in its proper context.
Totally agree on more fully fleshing out Activities and Honors. Moral of the story: Students, use all of the characters you are allotted in those sections.
Really? One of my kids didn’t fill this section. The kid filled the activities section…and had one true honor. Those were listed.
Why would you need to use all the characters allotted?
To be clear, for each entry, be it an honor or activity, use the full number of allotted characters to describe them. Especially in activities where you get 50 characters in the description, 100 characters in the organization name, and 150 characters in the activity description. Honors have a 100 character limit. I am not saying you have to fill out 5 honors and/or 10 activities.
I think the OP thinks you need to…especially with the honors.
I was merely agreeing with @niceunparticularman’s comment that the Activities allow a good number of characters, enough space for storytelling.
I understand why people would want to list as many honors as possible. In reality, things like honor roll or NHS aren’t going to move the needle on admission at all. But still ok to put them in…many students are proud of any honors they have achieved.
My daughter was proud of what she received…but even she knew…the list was skewed.