<p>I've been perusing through that admission chances website, and it seems that everyone just puts a bunch of BS in the Award/Honors section.
For Example:
National Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
Math Honor Society
AP Scholar with Honor
National Honor Role
Honor Roll for 4 years
CYLC Nominee
Governor School Nominee
Listing various places they've received small scholarships from</p>
<p>So, my question is, should I actually write down stuff like that on my college application? Do admissions officers know better and not take these things seriously, or does it actually help your application to put that stuff down?</p>
<p>My opinion is that it won't hurt; it is more visually aesthetic to see at least some minor awards than a empty text box. Besides, don't kid yourself, AP Scholar with Honor isn't totally "a bunch of BS"--I got into Stanford and I'm not one.</p>
<p>What about local scholarships that aren't necessarily 'small'? I mean, Scholarship Chicago is really important in Chicago. In fact, it's one of the better scholarships since it's renewable and is directed towards disadvantaged city-kids. I don't see how writing that would be BS.</p>
<p>Also, some essay contests are really hard to win (the ones on Fastweb, especially), and writing them in the Honors/Awards section is not BS in my opinion either.</p>
<p>I also agree with Ihope -- AP Scholar is not BS.</p>
<p>Huh. My son only put the awards he had actually won -- National Latin Exam Medals. His school didn't give out any awards to students, ever, and had no clubs.</p>
<p>AP scholar with honor is like... you take 3 or 4 AP tests and get 4 or higher on all of them, or something like that. I don't remember that well. They just send you a little certificate thing. <em>shrug</em> I don't value it that much because honestly, getting 4s and 5s on AP tests is not that hard.</p>
<p>A lot of the time, it isn't bull. Colleges do take it seriously (sometimes they even ask you to verify), but they've seen AP scholar 209258239^235 times. Thus, you should put down the significant awards (ones that few or no one has won), and then use the common ones as fillers.</p>
<p>I had only four boxes filled in and three of them weren't even awards (stuff like AIME qualifier), but I figured that it couldn't hurt. I didn't have NHS though.</p>
<p>Well, those might not be really thrilling and "hook" type of awards, but with the exception of something like National Honor Roll/Who's Who, they're not bull awards either--depending on the exact award, they do have some value. Yeah, a lot of kids will have these same awards, but that makes the kid who doesn't have them look all the more out of place. Feel free to not put anything down because you're not an Olympic Gold Medalist, but you'll be the only one.</p>
<p>What's AIME and how does one qualify for it?</p>
<p>Alright; I'm gonna try to make a list of minor honors to write in that section. Heres what I have so far, please post any other ones you can think of, and how to obtain them. Remember, I'm only trying to list the minor ones.</p>
<p>National Honor Society
Math Honor Society
National Honor Role
Who's Who
NYLC Nominee</p>
<p>^^Actually, you really shouldn't list Who's Who and National Honor Roll. Those really are non-awards that pretty much everyone is qualified to receive--they are scams to sell books. </p>
<p>As far as suggestions:
AP Scholar (at least 3 AP's w/ an average score of 3)
(X Language) Honor Society--This and NHS might actually be clubs, not awards, so if there is actual involvement involved, you should put that somewhere.</p>
<p>who's who, national honor society, nshss, ptp/nslc/cslc nominee are all not worth putting down. anyone can get nominated with a 3.0 gpa (and i know that nslc allows the students to nominate their friends). </p>
<p>nhs and all the language honor societies are fine.</p>