List of Top, Prestigious Awards

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1222

10: Congrats
Putnam Fellow
Fields Medal
Nobel Prize Medalist
D1 athlete
IMO/IPHO/ICHO/IBO/IOI/IOAA/IOL
gold/silver medals
Regeneron STS Top 10; ISEF Top 3 Grand Prize;
History Day National Winner
Single/First Author in High Impact Factor Journal
Special performance/Solo at Carnegie Hall
International Competitor in a Sport
Boys Nation President
RSI (Research Science Institute)

9: Almost a ticket to a prestigious school

Regeneron STS Finalist; ISEF Best of Category
MOP
NSDA Nationals winner
Tournament of Champions Winner
NCFL Nationals Winner
Published in a relatively prestigious journal
TASP
National Student Poet
Jimmy Awards (musical theatre)

8: Amazing accomplishment; Large boost

USAMO qualification; AMC 12 Perfect Score; USAPhO/USNCO/USABO/USACO National Finalist
Regeneron ISEF 1st-4th place category; Regeneron STS semifinalist; Davidson Fellow; Presidential Scholar; MIT PRIMES; MITES
Concord Review Publication
FIRST Dean’s List winner; top 5 at FIRST World Championships
Google Code Jam Round 2, 3 Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
Facebook Hacker Cup Round 2, 3 Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
International Public Policy Forum Top 32 team
Writing Portfolio Gold Award; Presidential Scholar of the Arts; Scholastic Art;
All National Band or Orchestra performer
Boys Nation Participant
SIMR
Clark Scholars

7:

ARML Tiebreaker Round; USAMTS Gold Medal; HMMT top 50
CMU SAMS; NIH Research ; Iowa Writer’s Workshop; SUMAC; ROSS; SSP; Simons; PROMYS; Mathcamp; Garcia
State governors schools with acceptance rate <15% (PGSS, NJGSS, most other science governor’s schools)
USACO Platinum Division
ISEF Finalist
Top Team, YES Competition (Young Epidemiology Scholarship)
History Day National Level
Scholastic Art & Writing National Gold Medal. NFL Nationals (speech and debate) “breakers” (elimination rounds), Tournament of Champions (debate) “breakers,” Congressional Award Gold Medalist
International Public Policy Forum Top 64 team
Foyle Young Poet
US Senate Page
AMC 10 Perfect Score
USAJMO qualification

6:

(6.5) Google Code Jam Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
(6.5) Facebook Hacker Cup Qualifier (Vast majority of Competitors are College students and professionals)
Less competitive governor’s schools (Acceptance rate between 15% and 25%), any other scholarship summer programs not aforementioned
Congressional Award Silver Medalist; NFL Nationals; Tournament of Champions Qualifier
Science Bowl/Ocean Science Bowl/NAQT winners; Technology Student Association Nationals
FIRST Dean’s List finalist; Top 5 FIRST Super Regionals (FTC)
Scholastic Art & Writing National Silver Medal
State Science Fair Winner/Top Award (Depends on state)
Academic Decathlon State (CA) Honors Top 3
University-run poetry contests (Patricia Grodd Prize, Lewis Center at Princeton Prize, etc)
Very selective summer programs (acceptance rate 10-15%: TASS, UC Davis YSP, IOWA SSTP, BU RISE, UCSB RMP, HCSSiM, BOA Student Leaders, HSMC, Rockefeller SSRP, EFL, M&TSI…)
AMC 12 DHR

5: Pretty good; will complement an already strong record

FBLA Nationals
USAPhO/USNCO/USABO/NAO semifinals
National Latin Convention 1st Places Academic Contests,
All-Eastern/all-regional music, State History Day top 3 place
Top 5 FIRST State Championship (or Regionals for FRC), JETS TEAMS National Finalist, Skills USA Nationals
Academic Decathlon State (AZ/TX/MA/WI), Nationals Top 3 Honors & California Event Golds
Selective summer academic programs (acceptance rate 15-25%: UC COSMOS, UF SSTP, Wharton LBW, MIT Launch…)
USACO Gold Division qualification
AMC 10 DHR

4: Fairly difficult
AIME qualification
Science Fair Regional winner
Science Bowl national qualification
Perfect Score (Multiple Years) on National Latin/Spanish/French Exam
State awards (all-state music, etc)
Academic Decathlon State (AZ/TX/MA/WI) Event Golds
National Merit Finalist
MUN Gavel
AMC 10/12 school winner (depends on your school)
Art and Writing Regional Gold award
Top 5 FIRST Regional (FTC)
Position in Local Government
National AP Scholar at Junior Year

3: Some effort involved, but not uncommon

USACO Silver Division qualification
Student Body
Winning at local/regional science fairs
All-County music
Eagle Scout Gold Award (with prior Silver and Bronze Awards)
Head of a competitive club that you did not found (ex: Mock Trial, Model UN, Science Olympiad)
Editor in chief of award-winning school newspaper
Head of a club with large membership and substantial activities (Interact Club)

2: Your average go-getter

Bank of America Awards
Presidential Service Award Volunteering Gold
Local awards/trophies
Essay Contests
Regional History Day

1: Common activities

National Honor Society
Beta Club
School Departmental Awards
School Honor Roll
Key Club; CSF; Interact Club
National Merit Commended
Member of a club with no distinctions earned

0: A dime in a dozen; meaningless

Who’s Who; National Honor Roll; National Society of High School Scholars

I’m assuming that for the USACO silver/gold/platinum things are talking about qualification. If that’s the case, I think it was placed a bit too high. I moved Silver down to 3 and Gold down to 5.

I also think AIME qualification should be moved down to 4. It used to be top 2.5%, now it’s practically ~8% from the AMC 12 that qualify, although a big reason is that less people take the AMC’s now.

I added USAJMO qualification at 7, and I think AMC 10 perfect score should be moved up to a 7 too. There’s at max 10 people every year that get a perfect score.

I also added AMC 12 DHR (top 1%) at 6 and AMC 10 DHR at 5 (top 1%).

1223

I’ve written this in the past-- YoungArts Finalist should be at least a 7. It is an extremely competitive, national arts award that covers many categories in the arts. You can probably place Honorable Mention and/or Merit a bit lower, but those should be included in your list.

Presidential Scholar in the Arts isn’t awarded until May so it doesn’t factor in to admissions for undergrad. Only graduating HS seniors are eligible, so it should not appear on this list unless you are including prestige for grad school applications?

4 Likes
1224

Just curious – I noticed that Boys/Girls State isn’t on the list, where would it rank? I know in states like California, Texas, and Illinois it can be very competitive to get in, and it’s all free.

Also, I’m wondering if anyone knows if the California senators have pages this year? I know that it changes each year and Feinstein had them in 2018 but her website hasn’t been updated since, and there’s nothing on Padilla.

1225

It’s the same number of students, or fewer, than have qualified before. Why does fewer schools requiring all students to take the test, meaning fewer 50-70 scores, make the top X in the country less meaningful? Pumping up a test with uninterested low scorers does not make scoring well more impressive.

This is unfortunately the same as the idea that a college is “better” because it’s “more competitive” because they farm applications through free, no essay, etc., applications to bump up the denominator.

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1226

An award earned as a high school senior could matter for someone who applies to college during a gap year after graduating high school but not attending college. Maybe also to a someone applying as a college frosh to transfer to another college as a sophomore.

1227

Ok, I’ll buy that. Slim chances but ok.

However, the only way to get nominated for Presidential Scholar in the Arts is by being a YoungArts winner/finalist. YoungArts is the organization who nominates the candidates. So, YoungArts needs to be included on this list.

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1228

Why is the Girl Scout Gold Award not listed and ranked equal to Eagle Scout?

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1229

D1 athlete is at the top of the list, but is there any value/how is this viewed by AOs outside of a recruiting commitment situation?

1230

Seems like it is listed, but not very obviously:

“Eagle Scout Gold Award (with prior Silver and Bronze Awards)”

Probably should be listed separately like:

Gold Award (GSUSA)
Eagle Scout (Scouts BSA)

Or more clearly like:

Eagle Scout (Scouts BSA), Gold Award (GSUSA), or similar top level in scouting organization

1231

This is anecdotal but I know a student who was recruited for cross-country at Duke, Yale, and Berkeley last year (he chose Duke), and he broke multiple meet records at state meets, placed consistently in the top 3 at West Coast invitationals, and was ranked in the top 8 cross-country runners in the nation. Those achievements are on par with a lot of the top awards. He was invited to attend training camps and other special events as well. I don’t know much about the math/science olympiad world, but I know when a student reaches the top 20 or so nationwide they get to go to a special training camp and that is seen as really appealing or even maybe a ticket to top colleges. A D1 athlete who is one of the best in the country has likely racked up a significant amount of awards at the state/national level and is ranked highly in their sport, so if they’re not recruited they still have an incredibly impressive application with all that achievement.

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1232

Also spring senior year awards can be important to get selected off waitlists. I have seen several students be named as Presidential Scholars and come off waitlists extremely quickly after notifying their AO.

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1233

I agree it’s impressive but do AOs value it? In recruiting forums ppl often say that it only has worth if the athlete is committed.

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1234

I’m just a high school student so I really don’t have much credibility or knowledge about this but from what I’ve seen on here, it’s considered significant if a student is one of the best in the country at what they do, right? If someone is considered one of the top 10 rock climbers that’s very impressive, same if they are one of the 10 best debaters. Plus the student could be a great walk-on addition so that’s valuable too.

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1235

Generally, I think athletes only have value as a hook/bump in admissions if they are recruited (so I would vote to clarify that on the ‘award’ list…and frankly not even sure DI athlete should be on at all because it’s not an award).

Many DI level athletes don’t have national level awards, even though they obviously have achieved some level of success in their sport. And of course we have at least one example of a National Champion in figure skating (Nathan Chen) being denied by Harvard. (But accepted at Yale, and still attends there AFAIK).

For non-recruited athletes the time spent on their sport is just a time intensive EC, which I’m sure some AOs/schools value when you hear reps citing the various positive qualities that athletes may bring to campus…leadership, resilience, perseverance, good time management skills, etc.

Do some AOs/schools see athletics as a ‘better’ EC, maybe, but I don’t think that’s very common.

1236

Because this is a community generated list driven by personal opinions and awareness. Feel free to add/modify/update/move as you would like.

1237

What you’re saying could definitely be true, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. I’m sure the list placement is for athletes recruited at D1 schools. I just wanted to give an example of the D1 athlete I knew, who was competing at the state level and above.

Anyways, I’m just a high school student whose most impressive award to date is being selected as a Girls State delegate, which isn’t even on the list, so I’m not at all an authority on elite schools (and given that my awards are decidedly un-prestigious I probably won’t be accepted to one either lol).

1238

Some of the “10” category awards seem very unlikely for high school students:

  • Fields Medal
  • Nobel Prize – there was one
  • Single / first author in high impact factor journal

Those seem quite rare compared to D1 athlete…

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1239

And going through what she did to win is not recommended for anyone.

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1240

What about Patents and book writing? I would give that 9

1241

International Brain bee should be number 10

1 Like