Obviously there’s not way of quantifying this to a 100% accurate degree but what are some basic metrics for awards being merit worthy enough for college apps? Does something like a small online art competition with 500 entries count, or something like a small unofficial debate tournament? Obviously not anything organized by people you know but is it generally acceptable to list those smaller competitions?
With all of your college app stuff it helps to remember that AOs are most likely to see things in tiers or bands, vs a careful parsing.
So, there are a handful of big name competitions that get attention and carry weight.
There are a fair few well-known awards that are not rare, but are signifiers, of say academic focus (eg, AP scholar or NHS awards), or a substantial level of EC commitment (eg, Eagle Scout/Gold Award), or are hybrids (eg, MUN or JSA).
Then there are many awards that an AO may not be specifically familiar with that recognize achievement at the local/regional/national/international level.
For the kinds of awards you are talking about- small, local- the award essentially validates an interest and investment in the activity.
From another post, you have relatively recently found an activity that you are really enjoying exploring. If you have started to have some success in that field, that is part of the conversation: ‘I tried so many things, which were all fine, but nothing really ‘clicked’ until X. I like [this] and [that] about it, and it was really gratifying when I got won [prize].’
If you are concerned about the ‘awards’ section of your app looking bare, don’t be! put in awards that are meaningful to you if you have them, and don’t if you don’t. I promise you, you can get into top tier colleges w/o prizes.
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Put down anything meaningful to you. Let the AO be the judge. It’s only a small part of the application and it might make more sense on your app vs someone’s else’s. My son never even put down NHS since he thought most at his school had it and it didn’t really separate him out. His rigor/grades and application did that.
There is no one way to do this.
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