Everyone on here has some type of an award(s). My high school offers none. People on here are getting ridiculous awards for “having highest grade in Calc. class,” or “being on honor role through high school.” Why should these count? A lot of people acheive these things without getting awards. Where can you look for awards for a college app. if your school doesn’t offer any? Applying to top colleges with no awards / distinguishments isn’t a good idea, but what if you had no opportunity?
<p>" People on here are getting ridiculous awards for "having highest grade in Calc. class," or "being on honor role through high school." Why should these count? "</p>
<p>They don't. The awards that count are mostly state or national level awards.</p>
<p>Yeah, but when your school is in the middle of no-where and they have no money, how are you supposed to get these? I am a junior now, is it too late to do research and enter it into a comp. or something like that?</p>
<p>It's okay. Unless you win something on a national level, you won't really matter, because the best schools only care if you win National Intel or US Chemistry Olympiad. Those regional Science Olympiads don't mean anything. However, if you're like the rest of us normal students, you can count on a solid SAT and GPA because those stay about constant. Furthermore, most people take analagous classes that don't differ much, so you definitely have enough to compare you with others.</p>
<p>Yeah I was looking over some of the 'resumes' of the people here and they've got tons of awards, but if my school offered awards like that then everyone here would have just as many....to me it's sort of insignificant.</p>
<p>school-wide awards are NOT considered important at all.</p>
<p>only awards that matter are state and national awards. don't worry you'll be fine!</p>
<p>high school screwed over too. I don't know how many times i've been in the brink of an A, say like 89.3% and gotten a B. isn't that just crap. Teachers suck.</p>
<p>or having a ridiculous teacher who doesn't teach chem then assigns you a research paper on String Theory. I'm completely serious.</p>
<p>Be like me, get in the 98th percentil on PSAT and you can be a national merit scholar.</p>
<p>string theory is awesome</p>
<p>String Theory in a Chemistry class?</p>
<p>I agree with cd8705. This happens a lot for me.</p>
<p>The national awards are certainly impressive, but there aren't enough national Intel winners to go around - so other criteria are used. State and regional awards show interest and energy - especially if acheived for a number of years, and should not be discounted.</p>
<p>To the OP - what are your interests? Serious research - with or without awards - is valued by many colleges.</p>
<p>Alexmcavoy, you're only a junior, they're still plenty of time for you to enter into national competitions. Such as the coca cola scholarship, which happens in the fall of your senior year. And I'm sure there's several research competitions you can still do.</p>
<p>Did you ever take the national Latin or french exam, or that american mathematics test? Doing well on those tests qualify as awards.</p>
<p>Many of these "national competitions" are things you really can't prepare for. For example, the national language exams are just plain tough, and you're only good if you get a perfect score. The AMC doesn't mean anything, but getting into the USAMO is decent, but getting into it is something you can't really count on. Also, you won't find out about Coca Cola until after you've gotten into school, so it's too late.</p>
<p>Okay, you've got a point there. Except the national latin exam is really easy. And if you don't apply early, you can put the Coca Cola scholarship on your app.</p>
<p>The National Latin exam is not easy enough to guarantee a perfect score. And there are hundreds (if I'm not mistaken?) of perfect scores. Furthermore, the Coca-Cola scholarship only lets semifinalists know in December. Being a semifinalist in Coca-Cola is nothing. There are I believe 2000 of them. Anything with such a high number isn't very impressive.</p>
<p>"high school screwed over too. I don't know how many times i've been in the brink of an A, say like 89.3% and gotten a B. isn't that just crap. Teachers suck."</p>
<p>lucky bastard. 95-100 is an A at my school. 90-94 B+. ect... I have lots of B+'s = 3.5, but at your school id get 4.0</p>
<p>Anyone heard of "Summer Science Program? (<a href="http://www.summerscience.org%5B/url%5D)">http://www.summerscience.org)</a>" It is held in Cali. and New Mexico. They sent me a letter saying that if you go to it, you should apply to CalTech, because it gives you an almost sure chance of getting in...</p>
<p>If this is true, would you even need to submit your project into Intel or Siemens-Westinghouse?</p>
<p>Also, I know CalTech is pretty tough to get into, but would this help your chances as much with MIT?</p>
<p>Sorry guys, but 89.3 is a B, not an A. Nobody is screwing you guys over.</p>