Last spring at an international science fair, I won a full-tuition scholarship to a state university. I would really like to list this under the academic honors/awards section on the Common App, since it’s one of my most significant achievements and I’m pretty proud of it.
However, I’m planning to apply EA to a different college. The state university that awarded me the scholarship is only 5th on my list of colleges, and I’m wondering if I list the scholarship on my applications to colleges higher on my list, would this potentially hurt my chances of admission? Would those colleges worry that I was going to eventually accept the scholarship, and therefore turn down my application to help preserve their stats?
I think it is fine to list the what you won at the science fair, e.g. “First Place for [XXX] at ABC Science Fair [out of xyz contestants]”. The scholarship is just the economic prize for the award. You can mention it or not. My kids had won/placed in various academic contests where the prizes were scholarship money to in-state schools. We included the achievements but left out the “prize”.
Thanks!! I’ll try to do that. My only problem is that the award itself is called the “State University Scholarship” or the “Full Tuition Scholarship” or something like that. Would it still be okay to list?
Then I think it would be more important to describe what you won this award for, e.g. "Best {project in xxx research} out of {xyz entries} for the ABC Science Fair, {winner of the State University Scholarship}. You can leave out the last parenthetical as long as you can meaningfully describe what you won your prize for.
