@ringwraith10: dont take my word for it, but i would put it at a 6.
IMO presidential scholar of the arts should be a 9.
Where would you guys put USAJMO qualification?
Nobel prize should be at an 11.
I changed the ranking of the FIRST awards. I know kids that were brilliant and FIRST gods (Won Worlds) that got rejected from Caltech, MIT, Lower Tier University Schools and even Georgia Tech. They had exceptional scores too. It is just that all they did was FIRST. It shouldn’t be in the same category as winning ISEF.
Also, some of these teams have 100 kids and multiple leads. Not that FIRST isn’t a brilliant hook (FIRST is my life), and I wish it was higher ranked, but it isn’t an automatic ticket. I also moved JETS up because they revamped the program. Its getting competitive.
The list’s lack of organization was driving me insane, so I went ahead and threw together some basic formatting to make it easier for everyone to read, even those of us who have not been in this academic game system since elementary school 
I tried not to change anything, mostly just redid slightly the FIRST rankings and added some basic descriptions.
<hr>
What Needs To Be Ranked
- FBLA/TSA/HOSA/Skills USA National Awards (I’d say 5 for Skills and 6 for TSA/HOSA/FBLA)
- Internships in Labs
Award List
10 - When The Top Colleges Try To Recruit You[ul]
[<em>] D1 athlete,
[</em>] IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO medals (International Science Olympiads)
[<em>] Intel (top 10), Siemens National Winner/National Finalists, ISEF top 3 Grand Prize, Google Science Fair age group winner
[</em>] Published in Nature or Science, RSI (Research Science Institute)
[/ul]
9 - Really Close to a Ticket to Prestige Closet[ul]
[<em>] Siemens Westinghouse (finalists), Google Science Fair Finalist, MOP, Intel Finalist,
[</em>] FL Nationals winner (speech and debate)
[/ul]
8 -[ul]
[<em>] TASP, USPhO/USChO/USABO/USAC (USA Level of Olympiad Competition) National Finalist
[</em>] Google Science Fair Semifinalist, Siemens Semi-finalists/ISEF(1-4 places), Intel semifinalist,
[<em>] Running your own *successful</em> business,
[<em>] AMC Perfect Score, Presidential Scholar, Davidson Fellow
[</em>] Writing Portfolio Gold Award, Presidential Scholar of the Arts, Scholastic Art
[li] FIRST Dean’s List winner, top 5 at FIRST World Championships,[/li][/ul]
7 -[ul]
[<em>] Selective summer programs or competitions, such as SSP, Clark Summer Program, YESS, NIH Research, and MITES.
[</em>] USAMO qualification, ARML Tiebreaker Round / Top Team, YES Competition (Young Epidemiology Scholarship), USAMTS Gold Medal
[li] Scholastic Art & Writing National Silver or Gold Medal. NFL Nationals (speech and debate) “breakers” (elimination rounds), Tournament of Champions (debate) “breakers,” Congressional Award Gold Medalist, [/li][/ul]
6 -[ul]
[<em>] USPhO/USChO/USABO/USACO semifinalist, Science Olympiad National medals, ISEF Finalist, AIME qualification
[</em>] Congressional Award Silver Medalist, NFL Nationals/Tournament of Champions Qualifier,
[<em>] Science Bowl/Ocean Science Bowl/NAQT winners
[</em>] FIRST Dean’s List finalist
[li] Top 5 FIRST Super Regionals (FTC)[/li][/ul]
5 -[ul]
[<em>] National Latin Convention 1st Places Academic Contests,
[</em>] All-Eastern/all-regional music, National History Day winner
[li] Top 5 FIRST State Championship (or Regionals for FRC), JETS TEAMS National Finalist[/li][/ul]
4 -[ul]
[<em>] or Regional winner, Science Olympiad state medals (depending on what state you’re from), Science Bowl national qualification
[</em>] Perfect Score (Multiple Years) on National Latin Exam, or other languages, some state awards (all-state music, etc), National History Day, MUN Gavel, AMC 10/12 school winner (depends on your school), Art and Writing Regional Gold award
[li] top 5 FIRST Regional (FTC)[/li][/ul]
3 - County Level; Takes some work to get, but not uncommon (e.g Eagle Scout)[ul]
[<em>] Winning at local/regional science fairs
[</em>] All-County music,
[li] Eagle Scout, National Merit[/li][/ul]
2 - Took more effort to win these, a step above regular local awards[ul]
[li] Bank of America Awards, most local awards/trophies (art, music, community - although they will say something about your character), Essay Contests, State History Day[/li][/ul]
1 - Normal, common activities such as regular club membership or easy to get awards[ul]
[li] National Honor Society, Beta Club, School Departmental Awards, School Honor Roll, Key Club, CSF, Interact Club[/li][/ul]
0- A dime in a dozen, meaningless in the end.[ul]
[li] Who’s Who, National Honor Roll, National Society of High School Scholars [/li][/ul]
Is Massachusetts a hard state for state science Olympiad medals? Would those still be a 4? Also, what about the Rensselaer medal? Also, what about MIT PRIMES?
I agree with FBLA and the like National awards being around a 6
@2016bostonian To be honest, when it comes the state science olympiad, it really comes down to what you end up doing in Nationals. Obviously, they’ll consider the fact that you are competing from Massachusetts and not Idaho if you only won at States, but it won’t be enough to move it up the list, because they really don’t keep track of the different regionals and different difficulty levels.
When ahead and updated the list.
<hr>
What Needs To Be Ranked
- MIT MITES
- Internships in Labs
Award List
10 - When The Top Colleges Try To Recruit You[ul]
[<em>] D1 athlete,
[</em>] IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO medals (International Science Olympiads)
[<em>] Intel (top 10), Siemens National Winner/National Finalists, ISEF top 3 Grand Prize, Google Science Fair age group winner
[</em>] Published in Nature or Science, RSI (Research Science Institute)
[/ul]
9 - Really Close to a Ticket to Prestige Closet[ul]
[<em>] Siemens Westinghouse (finalists), Google Science Fair Finalist, MOP, Intel Finalist,
[</em>] FL Nationals winner (speech and debate)
[/ul]
8 -[ul]
[<em>] TASP, USPhO/USChO/USABO/USAC (USA Level of Olympiad Competition) National Finalist
[</em>] Google Science Fair Semifinalist, Siemens Semi-finalists/ISEF(1-4 places), Intel semifinalist,
[<em>] Running your own *successful</em> business,
[<em>] AMC Perfect Score, Presidential Scholar, Davidson Fellow
[</em>] Writing Portfolio Gold Award, Presidential Scholar of the Arts, Scholastic Art
[li] FIRST Dean’s List winner, top 5 at FIRST World Championships,[/li][/ul]
7 -[ul]
[<em>] Selective summer programs or competitions, such as SSP, Clark Summer Program, YESS, NIH Research, and MITES.
[</em>] USAMO qualification, ARML Tiebreaker Round / Top Team, YES Competition (Young Epidemiology Scholarship), USAMTS Gold Medal
[li] Scholastic Art & Writing National Silver or Gold Medal. NFL Nationals (speech and debate) “breakers” (elimination rounds), Tournament of Champions (debate) “breakers,” Congressional Award Gold Medalist, [/li][/ul]
6 -[ul]
[<em>] USPhO/USChO/USABO/USACO semifinalist, Science Olympiad National medals, ISEF Finalist, AIME qualification
[</em>] Congressional Award Silver Medalist, NFL Nationals/Tournament of Champions Qualifier, FBLA Nationals
[<em>] Science Bowl/Ocean Science Bowl/NAQT winners, Technology Student Association Nationals
[</em>] FIRST Dean’s List finalist
[li] Top 5 FIRST Super Regionals (FTC)[/li][/ul]
5 -[ul]
[<em>] National Latin Convention 1st Places Academic Contests,
[</em>] All-Eastern/all-regional music, National History Day winner
[li] Top 5 FIRST State Championship (or Regionals for FRC), JETS TEAMS National Finalist, Skills USA Nationals[/li][/ul]
4 -[ul]
[<em>] or Regional winner, Science Olympiad state medals (depending on what state you’re from), Science Bowl national qualification
[</em>] Perfect Score (Multiple Years) on National Latin Exam, or other languages, some state awards (all-state music, etc), National History Day, MUN Gavel, AMC 10/12 school winner (depends on your school), Art and Writing Regional Gold award
[li] top 5 FIRST Regional (FTC)[/li][/ul]
3 - County Level; Takes some work to get, but not uncommon (e.g Eagle Scout)[ul]
[<em>] Winning at local/regional science fairs
[</em>] All-County music,
[li] Eagle Scout, National Merit[/li][/ul]
2 - Took more effort to win these, a step above regular local awards[ul]
[li] Bank of America Awards, most local awards/trophies (art, music, community - although they will say something about your character), Essay Contests, State History Day[/li][/ul]
1 - Normal, common activities such as regular club membership or easy to get awards[ul]
[li] National Honor Society, Beta Club, School Departmental Awards, School Honor Roll, Key Club, CSF, Interact Club[/li][/ul]
0- A dime in a dozen, meaningless in the end.[ul]
[li] Who’s Who, National Honor Roll, National Society of High School Scholars [/li][/ul]
What about if you don’t compete at nationals? Because for me nationals was really far away and I didn’t want to spend the money on a plane ticket just for one competition.
@2016bostonian Again, it’s all about balance. I’d try to find some other opportunities to do national competitions or see if you can have your club fundraise enough to help sponsor you. Also, awards aren’t the only way to get points on the college application.
If you live in an area of little opportunity, colleges will note that.
Why aren’t International Astronomy Olympiad, International Linguistics Olympiad, and International Olympiad in Informatics on the list?
because this is a community made list and if you want to add something you are not only encouraged to add it but expected to do so
I think internships in labs shouldn’t be very high, maybe a 3 or so. Family friends or people with personal favors or something can get in easily and call it an “internship”.
Also, where is Siemens regional finalists? Or is that the same as being a semifinalist?
Is there a thread like this for extra-curriculars? If so, would someone like to create one?
Yeah let me know if this is helpful to anyone. Good luck to other class of 2015ers!
10 - curing cancer
9 - saving lives of african babies with AIDS
8 - building sustainable housing in honduras
skipping ahead
1 - playing piano
0 - posting on CC
posting on CC is actually -1, and -10 if chancing.
How impressive would qualifying for the IOL (International Linguistics Olympiad) be? It’s related to IMO, IBO, IPHO etc. but there aren’t nearly enough people testing for the IOL as the AMC->AIME-USAMO, which makes me think that it shouldn’t be rated as high as 10.
On a related note, where would qualifying for the second round of NACLO (North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad) be? It’s the “semifinals” but again, I don’t think it’s as impressive as AIME etc.
Where is Carnegie Hall on this list?
it depends how u got to carnegie hall
Speaking of Carnegie Hall…how about Carnegie Mellon SAMS? So colleges recognize this program?
Hmm added some of the smaller Olympiads (IOL and IOAA were recently started - note that making the team isn’t necessarily a 9, but getting the medal is).
Also, for D1 athlete, I don’t think that it’s necessarily a 10 - if you’re top like 3 in the nation, then probably, but maybe if it’s just D1 I wouldn’t think it’s at the level of an IMO gold medal. Being a D1 athlete would get you recruited, but not necessarily by the top colleges (unless you’re one of the best D1 athletes).
Also, added a new 11 tier just for fun 
Also, moved AIME down a tier (added USAJMO and USAJMO HM), added PUMaC/HMMT, and added homecoming king (lawl).
Finally, I attempted to put Carnegie/recitals (under the labels of " ", “non-trivial”, and “solo/concerti,” since it really depends a lot) somewhere on this list along with some MTNA stuff.
<hr>
What Needs To Be Ranked
- MIT MITES
- Internships in Labs
- Carnegie Mellon SAMS
Award List
11 - On Steroids
Olympic-level athlete
IMO/IPhO/IChO/IBO gold medals
Intel/Siemens Winner
10 - When The Top Colleges Try To Recruit You
D1 top athlete
IMO/IPhO/IChO/IBO medals (International Science Olympiads), IOL/IOAA gold medals
Intel (top 10), Siemens National Winner/National Finalists, ISEF top 3 Grand Prize, Google Science Fair age group winner
Published in Nature or Science, RSI (Research Science Institute)
9 - Really Close to a Ticket to Prestige Closet
D1 athlete
IOL/IOAA medals
Siemens Westinghouse (finalists), Google Science Fair Finalist, MOP, Intel Finalist,
FL Nationals winner (speech and debate)
8 -
TASP, USPhO/USNCO/USABO/USACO (USA Level of Olympiad Competition) National Finalist, USAJMO HM
Google Science Fair Semifinalist, Siemens Semi-finalists/ISEF(1-4 places), Intel semifinalist,
Running your own <em>successful</em> business,
AMC Perfect Score, Presidential Scholar, Davidson Fellow
Writing Portfolio Gold Award, Presidential Scholar of the Arts, Scholastic Art
FIRST Dean’s List winner, top 5 at FIRST World Championships
MTNA national winner
7 -
Selective summer programs or competitions, such as SSP, Clark Summer Program, YESS, NIH Research, and MITES.
USAMO qualification, USACO gold, USAPhO gold, USNCO high honors
ARML Tiebreaker Round / Top Team, YES Competition (Young Epidemiology Scholarship), USAMTS Gold Medal
Scholastic Art & Writing National Silver or Gold Medal. NFL Nationals (speech and debate) “breakers” (elimination rounds), Tournament of Champions (debate) “breakers,” Congressional Award Gold Medalist
Solo concert/playing concerto at Carnegie Hall/Lincoln Center/etc., MTNA regional winner
6 -
USAJMO qualification, USPhO/USNCO/USABO semifinalist, USACO silver
Science Olympiad National medals, ISEF Finalist, PUMaC/HMMT placement
Congressional Award Silver Medalist, NFL Nationals/Tournament of Champions Qualifier, FBLA Nationals
Science Bowl/Ocean Science Bowl/NAQT winners, Technology Student Association Nationals
FIRST Dean’s List finalist
Top 5 FIRST Super Regionals (FTC)
MTNA state winner (depending on state)
5 -
NACLO semifinalist, AIME qualification
National Latin Convention 1st Places Academic Contests,
All-Eastern/all-regional music, National History Day winner
Top 5 FIRST State Championship (or Regionals for FRC), JETS TEAMS National Finalist, Skills USA Nationals
Less trivial Carnegie Hall/Lincoln Center/etc., state MTA 1st (depending on state)
4 -
Science Olympiad state medals (depending on what state you’re from), Science Bowl national qualification
Perfect Score (Multiple Years) on National Latin Exam, or other languages, some state awards (all-state music, etc), National History Day, MUN Gavel, AMC 10/12 school winner (depends on your school), Art and Writing Regional Gold award
Top 5 FIRST Regional (FTC), Skills USA Regional winner
3 - County Level; Takes some work to get, but not uncommon (e.g Eagle Scout)
Winning at local/regional science fairs
All-County music,
Eagle Scout, National Merit
Carnegie Hall
2 - Took more effort to win these, a step above regular local awards
Bank of America Awards, most local awards/trophies (art, music, community - although they will say something about your character), Essay Contests, State History Day
1 - Normal, common activities such as regular club membership or easy to get awards
National Honor Society, Beta Club, School Departmental Awards, School Honor Roll, Key Club, CSF, Interact Club, Homecoming King
0- A dime in a dozen, meaningless in the end.
Who’s Who, National Honor Roll, National Society of High School Scholars