Our HS had awards night the other night and I did not get any of the book awards that are associated with specific colleges, but I got a recognition (along with 15 other kids) for participating in several community service events.
I know I messed up this year and did not get the perfect attendance nor even honor roll or high honors this year - I took all AP classes and honors French, and am getting a C, a B, and the rest straight A’s.
I don’t want to sound sour grapes, and I am happy for the other kids who got the awards, especially the ones that come with scholarships if they apply and are accepted at certain schools, though I am not interested in those schools.
I know the Common App has a section to list awards/honors, but how much of this really matters to colleges in their admissions process?
What matters are your accomplishments. It is the accomplishments that earn the awards and that are reviewed for admissions to colleges-so high school awards are redundant with grades, letters, etc. They reinforce information that is already part of a student’s credentials. The type of award you mention is not important but what is important is the achievements that they reflect. (and I’ll add that awards for perfect attendance is worse than worthless). Outside of school awards are different. If you win an award for debating, math league, Olympiads, AIME, Spanish contest, etc.-they can be very helpful, especially if they are awarded at the state, national or international level of competition.
You are doing the right thing. Taking challenging classes and doing well (yes, despite the C). The awards you listed matter very little, if at all. Put your time into ECs that you like.
The book awards and perfect attendance, no. The honor rolls reflect grades of course, so it is not the awards, but grades matter some. Still, a someone said, you are challenging yourself and doing pretty well. (But if you are struggling, don’t push yourself into AP’s you don’t want to take.)
You will be able to apply to some great schools when the time comes. Definitely find some things to do that interest you too, to make your high school years more enjoyable. College admissions should be a by-product, not the goal, and fit is the most important thing.
The day after you graduate from HS, none of those HS awards will matter…at all.
As a point, my DD was a top 10 grad of her HS…actually number 8. She never…and I mean never got an academic award in HS until 12th grade…months after her college acceptances. Note…she was the only top 10 student who never received an academic award. It hurt her feelings at the time…but you know…she did get acceoted to the colleges of her choice.
I think HS awards night is quite overrated. And it sometimes has a “popularity contest” feel to it.
Unfortunately not. I do not have the same thoughts as thumper1 in the"popularity" thing, at least at D’s high school. She was awarded 1st place in nearly every class for several years but she was not one of the popular students per se. She also received the Wellesley Book Award but was waitlisted at the school. So, just being honest here, these hold zero water in the college applications. I’m sure you have other attributes to offer that will make a difference though and you will find a college that you want to go to that will want you!
I don’t think HS awards reflect popularity with the students , but they do reflect popularity with the teachers. I think the colleges are well aware of that.
My D was like thumpers D. She was in the top 5 of her class (400 students) and walked out of the award ceremonies empty handed year after year. Finally got one award Senior year. Didn’t matter in college admissions and didn’t matter in life.
S attended a magnet school. They didn’t bother with these sort of things. Enough kids there won state and national honors which did count in college admissions.
Never thought about it that way. I always think of popularity being amongst students. In D’s school, all the awards were based on grades in each particular class but yeah, she was a teachers’ pet (but not popular among the student base) so there’s that. I wish the school had promoted more state and national contests @FallGirl, I’m quickly realizing that those are weighted heavily in admissions.
^ not sure that it was entirely the school promoting state and national contests. It was a very selective HS full of smart, ambitious kids. The kids just excelled in a lot of areas both academic and others.
DS and his best friend didn’t gain recognition from the *Cum Laude Society/i at their high school. They decided that they should get some recognition at Yale and Dartmouth, respectively, to make up for it.
One of the things I like about the HS where I teach is that as we enter our academic awards - you can see who has been chosen in other classes. This came after a number of years where it seemed like the same 5 students won “every” award. Now it caps at 2 for academic awards per year- and helps spread the wealth.
That being said- I don’t think they factor much in college admissions
Thanks to everyone who replied. I think my mom was doing her best to hide her disappointment in me, especially since my siblings both were among the few kids who really cleaned up with multiple book awards, etc. Her “Now what are you gonna do?” comment when I came home with just a participation certificate really stung. I can’t do anything about it now.
Is it better to leave the awards section on the common app empty, or should I put in High Honor roll freshman and sophomore years - which I think makes junior year more conspicuous?
At my kids’ school, the departmental awards (which are given to the senior class) rarely have any duplicates (and even then only one or maybe two kids getting two at max). No one wants to sit and watch one or two kids get all of the awards (even it if may be deserved – there is enough subjectivity there to mix it up a little).
Only relevance of HS awards that I can see is being in the running for them. If you get one (or more), presumably you did well in that class, subject, overall, etc. Doing well will be helpful with college apps. Whether you actually get the award is itself not particularly important.
@FallGirl - exactly. And when I am choosing a student for the award- there are often several others who are right in the same “zone”. It is rare to have someone who is so far above the others that you can “only” justify giving the award to them. And I suppose if that were the case, you could either enter them in the portal quickly so you " got" them, or go talk to the teacher that had already chosen them, and see if they had someone else close.
OP, I would go ahead and put in High Honor Roll for freshman and sophomore years. You’ll have other ECs and possibly work experience to add to your application, so I don’t think it will look empty for junior year. As others said above, the awards aren’t as important as your accomplishments – and the fact that you’ve challenged yourself with your course selection.
I think there is a lot of subjectivity to high school awards at many schools. Since schools determine award winners so differently, I don't think awards have much real weight.
I'm pretty sure at our school that the college book awards are determined by first grouping kids who have shown interest (through counselor meetings) in those schools sponsoring them and then from that pulling kids who fit any objective criteria (i.e. One school required the winner to be top 15% of the class) and then the subjectivity comes into play. Some teachers are going to look at effort and try to reward kids who are showing they work hard. Some are going to strictly go by grades and test scores.
In my experience, the awards are a nice pat on the back but whether a kid gets one or not says nothing about the strength of the student.
I never heard of those book awards until I came on CC, and still don’t understand exactly what they are. Are they writing awards sponsored by a college? So the first point I’d like to make is that not all high schools even have the same awards, and I am not convinced that every admissions officer keeps a list of what’s available at your school to get or not get that they will use to judge you. Secondly, the most meaningful awards at our high school (eg., best student in X subject) are given out in May of senior year, and therefore have zero impact on college admissions. The ones most top kids have before that are things like NHS and National Merit, which while nice, are just a validation of good student behaviors that will show up in other ways on the application.
