<p>Hi! So I just placed first in the NY state competition for NHD and was wondering what college admissions think of the competition.. will it help me at top schools, if so, how much?
((I didn't do NHD for college, but I do welcome any benefits(; )) Yeah, so does anyone know if NHD is a highly regarded competition by colleges, will it act as a so-called "hook?"</p>
<p>It’s a nice award. Congratulations! You should absolutely list it on your college applications.</p>
<p>It’s not a hook. A hook is a quality of an applicant that meets an institutional want or need. Colleges need players for their basketball teams and wealthy donors. They want students who are celebrities or the children of celebrities, and they want happy alumni, so sometimes they give preferences to legacies. But I don’t know of any college that has a specific need or desire for a New York State National History Day honoree.</p>
<p>Congrats! I’d say it is a hook because colleges want students who are passionate about academics. It’s not a huge hook because it’s not as well known as other competitions, but if it was an important experience to you, you can talk about it in one of your essays. It may also have more or less weight depending on what category you were in and what types of colleges you’re applying to.</p>
<p>Thank you both for the replies. I guess I was wondering if it is as highly regarded as my high school makes it seem. I will be applying to some very competitive colleges, do you think it will hold any weight in those decisions? (also it is my junior year if that makes any difference)
Thank you!</p>
<p>I’m not sure how much weight it has in and of itself, but the more you can show how much you learned and grew from it, the more weight it will hold.</p>
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<p>You won a state-level award. That’s good. It’s even a little better because you live in a big state. Winning a state-level award in New York or California or Texas really is more impressive than winning one in Idaho or Vermont or North Dakota. But it’s not phenomenal. There are, after all, 50 states.</p>
<p>Fairly or unfairly, National History Day doesn’t garner the same respect as Intel or Siemens. And fairly or unfairly, taking first place in NHD in New York State won’t bring you the same kind of advantage in admissions as being the most sought-after high-school linebacker in Texas would.</p>
<p>Depending on how competitive your “very competitive colleges” are, it may give you a slight edge, or it may keep you up with the pack, and nothing more. But even that’s a huge improvement over not keeping up with the pack.</p>
<p>It’s a nice accomplishment, and it helps your application. But it won’t give you a huge boost at “very competitive colleges.”</p>
<p>Its a nice competition to get into. I personally enjoyed doing it in high school; I wrote about Kashmir and made it to Nationals. Probably one of my biggest achievements and I even got to meet Madeleine Albright once because of it. So it probably would help you. And who knows, maybe someone in the adcom would know of it.</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply sikorsky. My school makes a really big deal out of NHD but most of my friends who live in surrounding districts have never heard of it so I wasn’t really sure where it stood.
Manav I have really enjoyed it as well. I’m hoping to see some pretty important people at nationals:)</p>
<p>I understand what you’re saying, newyorker. When everyone around you insists something is so, it’s often hard to know whether it’s really so, or you’re just living in an echo chamber.</p>
<p>It really is a significant award that belongs in your Common App., and congratulations really are due. But it won’t quite have them booting other folks out of the way to make room for you in New Haven or Palo Alto or Cambridge.</p>
Hey Manav, I am preparing for the NHD competition this year, I am wondering if I could look at your Kashmir article, I’m doing a similar topic: Partition of India
You never know until you try! You should highlight this accomplishment somewhere within your essay and CV. If for nothing else it would lead to a great conversation topic during the interview process. This alone could get you into your desired school… seriously!! If you make it far enough to get an in person interview (to say an ivy league) it is safe to say you are qualified or the school is at least open to the idea of accepting you. Students often times forget how human and relationship based this process can get. Never close your doors!