I am essentially award-less. How much will this hurt me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

So, I go to a high-pressure, high-performing private school where we don’t have anything like NHS or honor roll. There are no awards at my school - there’s student government and valedictorian, and that’s about where it ends. We don’t do class ranks either, for example.

I have a very high GPA (3.95 uw) but will not receive any commendation for it. I took the PSAT in October and I think I received a high enough score to be commended (1460 740 m 720 cr) but am not sure, obviously. Other than that… I don’t have any awards.

Well, I have “two.” I got a coaches award over the summer for my tennis program and I was “most improved” for basketball my freshman year which is a sport I don’t play anymore. Neither of which seem exactly listable.

Other than that, nada. Zip. It’s like a black hole in my resume. I am only a high school junior but that doesn’t mean much - awards aren’t exactly floating around and my talent is limited.

My EC’s right now won’t do awards either. I play varsity tennis, and I have an internship at a neuroscience lab at UCSF which takes up most of my time. I also volunteer at the local animal shelter. My most impressive EC is the internship - wasn’t easy to get - but again, no awards are going to come of it.

I don’t want to seem like I’m padding a resume, but I feel like I need at least one award.

Am I over thinking this? Do colleges not care? I am interested in elite schools if possible. But I would love to hear your guys’ opinions.

2

Are you a junior? A: Yes you are based on your previous post history.

How is your internship at the neurolab going? Have you been allowed to conduct your own independent research?

Speaking from my own experience (at least for research), awards are a recognition of a student researcher’s work and passion for their work. Going off of how you said the internship has taken up much of your time and how it wasn’t easy to get, I assume you do like conducting science research. If you really want to get an award, I would suggest participating in Siemen’s and Regeneron STS next year as a senior or participating in local/regional science fairs.

3

You don’t “need at least one award.”

You do need a better idea of what does matter.

4

Awards (esp. like NHS, honor roll) are really meaningless. At the very tippy top schools, that is just not what they are looking for. But they want spark in a candidate – interested and interesting. If you are shooting for top schools, that is probably what you are missing (not titles/awards).

If you are looking at schools below that level, again – awards just don’t mean anything much. I personally think you are better off in general being a strong contributor in an activity vs having a title (for example, being #1 singles in tennis and leading your team to a very successful season would be better than being the team captain but not a very big contributor as a player). I think your ECs seem fine for most schools. And your GPA is great. :slight_smile: That is what colleges will notice – they don’t give a darn about whether your school gives named awards for good grades. They care that you HAVE good grades. Now go knock 'em dead on your standardized tests. Because that matters.