Okay, I’m working on my Macalester app. and I come to a spot where I check if I had National Merit semi or commended. So I do that then it says:
Please list any academic awards or honors you have received since 9th grade:
There are four lines open to fill.
What do you guys put for that? My problem is that my school doesn’t give out academic awards other than a-honor roll. I’m 1 out of 40 for rank and have done fine academically but I don’t have a clue of what award I could list. Do you guys just leave it blank or what? Since academics is kind of a main thing I wish I had some awards - ughhhh. Advice?
<p>Maybe I should say then, "My school gives virtually no academic awards or honors." Hmm... I don't know. I am just leery that it would look like I was trying to make an excuse as to why I had no academic honors.</p>
<p>Anyone else think the suggestion to write that my school gives virtually no academic honors is a good idea?</p>
<p>I'd like some more positive feedback before I decide to do that.</p>
<p>And academic competitions... To tell you the truth, I have never had the opportunity to attend an academic competition unless you count science of olympia or drama and band and so on. My school is really small and we don't have many academic opportunities; we don't even have a knowledge bowl.</p>
<p>I have won some writing contest like Voice of Democracy, etc. I don't consider those academic, though.</p>
<p>I have nearly the opposite problem: my school has yearly award assemblies where each department gives several awards such as "best physics student." I have quite a few of these, but I doubt their importance...should I meniton these or not? Without them I only have two or three "awards," but with them, my application doesn't seem "genuine."</p>
<p>put down <em>something</em>, even if you are scraping. Honor Roll is good. The writing contest and science of olympia (whatever that is) sound like fair game. Do you have anything like Nat'l Merit semifinalist, or AP scholar? Pick the best 3-4 of whatever you can think of, even if you don't believe it is impressive.</p>
<p>I wouldn't expect a lot of sympathy for the position that your high school doesn't hand out awards. Too many kids have made their own opportunities to compete and win awards. Kids can, and do, find out about competitions on their own in the areas they are interested in, and then find others willing to be on a team if required, and find a teacher willing to administer any exams involved. A 20 minute google-search will turn up dozens (hundreds?) of academic competitions of all kinds that anyone can enter if they are sufficiently motivated to find a way to work out the logisitics. Just look at homeschoolers - as a group, they have been phenominally successful at academic competitions in spite of having no school to support them.</p>
<p>Voice of Democrary is certainly an academic honor. And any science competition awards. Band may not be an academic honor, but if you've won something (all state, etc.), list that somewhere.</p>
<p>I think so, but I'm not sure. If it was mailed to you that you qualified, and if their was a book that you could buy, than probably. That is something on the application that could look negative. National Honor Society won't make a difference at the Ivies, but it won't look like pointless filler.</p>
<p>Thx for all the replies guys. Actually, my school doesn't even have a National Honor Society. In fact, we aren't allowed to have one because it may make some students feel bad if they don't have high enough grades to be in it. We also don't have a valedictorian at my school. We got rid of that about 7 years ago. But of course we have a homecoming queen!</p>
<p>Leonesa.. your school sounds like my D's. They also have a prom queen, christmas queen, valentine queen, etc!! Imagine that. But NO valedictorian. Which my D would be (ranked 1/217). And academic honors.. right. She got NM commended and the school didn't even bother filling in her name on the certificate. They actually handed her the envelope it came in (directed to the principal) and said, "this came for you". She was the only student in the school to be commended. Fortunately, we do have National Honor Society.. I guess my D is up on you there ; )</p>
<p>Wow! That's just like me. I was the first in my school to ever receive even National Merit Commended... And like your daughter, I received a certificate that said Congrats la de da __________. They didn't even fill in my name either. :( The ironic thing is I actually was elected Homecoming Queen this year. But anyway, I didn't get any recognition for National Merit but I had all these people congratulating me on becoming Homecoming Queen.</p>
<p>This is the place to put in things like national merit, AP scholar, any in house high school awards (honor roll, student of the year, etc.) Don't worry if you don't fill in all four lines.</p>