Do high school seniors normally have a lot of academic awards to list?

We’re running into sections of applications that ask for a list of all academic awards received from grades 9 through 12. Do most students have awards to list? The only one we can think of is honor roll all quarters. As far as we know, there haven’t been any other awards given at their school.

There’s National Honor Society, which they will apply to this fall, but I’m not sure they will find out if they’re in before the EA deadlines for college applications.

Music awards wouldn’t count, would they?

The only awards I had were awards from my school for maintaining a GPA above a 3.0. It was just a general academic award. If the school doesn’t offer anything like that, then yes it’s normal to not have any. You can put the honor roll all quarters, but music awards won’t count.

My D included the Tri-M Society (music honor society) in the honors section.

I have a friend who did science olympiad and won several awards there. I also have a friend who did varsity basketball and won a couple things that way. It depends on the person and what extracurriculars they have done.

Depends on what tiers they’re applying to. An attendance award (or even honor roll) won’t do much for a tippy top. Imo, honor societies are not really awards. It’s membership and you may already have it in Activities.

Most kids don’t have major awards. Get to know what their targets do want to see.

AP scholar, NMSF, extra are typical for students applying to top schools.

I would absolutely add music awards. Why not? She earned them. The awards sections doesn’t specifiy that awards need to be academic. My D had little in the awards sections. She listed what she had, which was pretty unimpressive: National Merit Commended, National AP Scholar, High Honor Roll for all four years of high school. She did well in admissions. She certainly didn’t get in because of her awards.

Math team awards, Robotics team awards, Congressional App Challenge winner, are just ones of the top of my head that my kids had. Any academic teams you participated on that won awards would count as well as the music/arts ones.

My D won an award for volunteering at the local library (teen volunteer of the year) which we did list and also helped her in winning a local scholarship. We also listed her two times she was named as a Scholar Athlete. There was another section where we listed National Honor Society but not in the awards section. Really depends on the application but most of what we saw had specific sections for academic, community and organizational recognition, and yes we listed anything that fit the criteria. Don’t know that it really impacted her for admissions but it certainly helped her win the local scholarship.

Good question. I was thinking the same thing. Our S19 should end up with one of the AP awards but he’ll only have four APs under his belt after junior year with four more to come senior year. Some of the awards are for scores on eight tests. Hard to believe many kids take eight APs in the first three years of high school. He’ll have eight total but will only have scores for four in time for apps. @Lindagaf Did you D take eight AP tests before senior year? That’s impressive!

His major ECs are cross country (where he’s the middle of the pack), art (where he’s pretty talented but not going to major in it), and yearbook. Cross country and yearbook wouldn’t gain him any awards. I’m still not sure how important it would be for him to enter some art contests but I suppose he could since he’s already creating the work needed to enter. I’m not sure he would bother, though, if he didn’t think he needed to for applications.

No, @homerdog , she took eight total. She recieved some kind of certificate from AP for three scores of five as a junior. Maybe it’s called something else, not sure? Anyway, she listed it, lol.

Btw, the other question that often comes up, related to this, is can awards given before high school be listed? The answer is no, unless it’s something majorly impressive. Colleges really only care about high school acheivements. Especially if you never win any other awards, it will look pretty awkward to list something from eighth grade. They will wonder why you never managed anything else.

AP scholars start with 3 scores, then you may get with honor, with distinction, and national with more. State AP scholar is actually a lot more challenging.

The most competitive applicants to the most competitive universities typically have so many awards they don’t fit on college applications, and they have to select their most impressive awards to list. It can be difficult to figure out which ones are most impressive. For example, a top student at my daughter’s high school had won over 40 awards, including national and international science awards. My daughter had about 20. How to choose? These students fill their hogh school years with many academic competitions, the way an athlete would compete regularly. I don’t think that most students have lots of awards though. It depends on goals – if someone is aiming for big academic scholarships or the very top universities or not.

I would certainly include music awards and whatever else could logically fit. It is best to put something in all areas of an application. Don’t worry about filling every field though. It is fine to just list a couple of awards (or activities or whatever) even if there is room for more.

I really think academic competitions are the main ECs that have awards. Not everyone participates in academic competitions. I tried to get our S19 to join Debate or Science Olympiad and, when I said he should have an academic EC, he said he has SCHOOL with all honors and AP classes. He didn’t see a reason to do more school outside of the nine/ten hours he already puts in between class and homework every day. :))

Kids in sports sometimes win awards but our high school is crazy competitive with nine teams winning state championships last year. Hard for a kid to make a team, let alone stand out.

I’m not stressing about the awards section. I’m sure it matters for some schools or for certain programs but, for S19 who will apply primarily to LACs as undecided, I don’t think it’s a priority. He will have a strong GPA and good test scores and will have shown leadership. When you tally his hours of ECs per week, he’s at 25 hours per week. He’s an interesting kid who is a three sport athlete (xc, winter track, track), is a talented artist, a leader in two community service-type clubs, and has a part time job for half of the year. It is what it is!

Some have academic ECs and some don’t but still get into the top colleges.
The most successful students in academic ECs put more time into them than their million APs. AP gives a ton of homework but you can BS the notes/flash cards/vocabulary assignments the teacher gives as they won’t read it. They’re on top of the game finishing the homework faster than it is assigned (do everything on Monday or for the rest of the quarter in one sitting)… So you can spend the rest of your time working on academic competitions which may overlap with the AP courses and that helps there.

would it be possible to place computer certifications in the honors section. S had in additional section but I think it will be overshadowed there. Plus he could use another honor…

Certification is not an honor. It can be an EC, though.

Keep in mind that for honors/awards/EC’s, etc, more ≠ better.

ok thanks for the advice.

It’s not that the most awards makes one more impressive. I don’t know what tier OP means.

For top tier, the whole app is a sort of thinking challenge.

Btw, adcoms know the criteria for AP awards and can see your scores if you include them. You may get a certificate for a few scores of 3 or higher, but top adcoms aren’t looking for 3’s.

^ Just looking at the self-reported AP score will not lead to the conclusion of any AP scholar. First, it is not official report. Second, it may not include all the scores that may lower the average score. Submitting official AP score report is not required for college application. If submitted, the AP score report is likely directed to the register office instead of admission office.