Hey all! I was just wondering which “Honor/Award” I should list on my applications. I recently was a team member of a Hackathon team that won “top overall.” Although most teams came from one state, there were a few people outside of our state (I won’t specifiy which). Would this or NMSF status be something better to list? Thanks!
Bump 
Why not list both?
What is the Hackathon award? Most people wouldn’t know what that is.
@mom2collegekids I ran out of space (the other 4 I have listed are pretty meaningful to me). I essentially won one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackathon
They’ll see you’re NMF from your SAT scores. The hackathon is something unique et it’ll be well-regarded.
NMSF is not that unique, while hackathon could really speak to your interest in coding and comp sci.
I’d include Hackathon on the Common App and NM in your resume if you decide to submit one.
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They’ll see you’re NMF from your SAT scores. The hackathon is something unique et it’ll be well-regarded.
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The SAT score does NOT tell a school that a student is a NMF. A student could have a 2400 single sitting and not be a NMF.
However, if the other award would be more impressive then fine.
Yes, NMSF is based upon PSAT scores anyway not SAT scores.
Whether or not “winning” a hackathon is impressive or not really depends more on the size of the hackathon and the project. There are huge hackathons that are national and then there are local ones that are really more about creativity and learning than competition. If you were in a well-known one then listing that may be okay. I feel like there’s got to be somewhere else you can talk about your experience participating in that, though. Maybe a short answer question or in your essay?
It’s just that it seems unlikely to me that someone with a top 0.5%-0.1% SAT score ended up with it without a good PSAT score. 
Personally I’d go with Hackathon just because NMF only really indicates you did well in a standardised test, which colleges don’t particularly care about once you’ve reached a certain threshold, which I’m sure you have.
Just use Additional Information to list the one you can’t fit in. Colleges are fine with that. Just label it “Additional Honow/Award”. Both are important to mention.
@MYOS1634 <<< with a top 0.5%-0.1% SAT score ended up with it without a good PSAT score. >>>
You have no idea how many kids with 2250+ SAT scores (single sittings) did not score high on the PSAT. (A 225 on the PSAT is high enough to make NMSF in every state.) I see it here everyday. The common answer is: “I didn’t know it was an important test.”
As for the OP, what are the 3 other achievements. You say that they’re important to you, but those may not be important to schools.
Making NMSF may be “nothing” to tippy top schools where they have many. But, being a NMSF/NMF is something that can follow you positively later on. My own son was given an immediate $3 an hour raise as a college intern when the company found out that he was a NMF. Strange, but true.
^Oh, I see what you mean! You’re right of course… I was thinking “a kid who scores 2250+ May Junior Year must have scored pretty high on the PSAT already, this level of achievement doesn’t happen suddenly”.
I agree that your other 3 honors may not matter as much, so that you could have NMSF and Hackathon + others. (For instance, sal/val doesn’t mean anything to colleges and anyway if the guidance office has it prior to graduation it’ll include it on your rec and/or ssr as in 1/450 or 2/398.)
For sake of confidentiality, I’ll just say what my other ones are in general.
2 Science Competition Awards where I was top 100 (think Olympiad competition)
Science research award (state level recognition)
QB finalist
It really doesn’t matter. Additional Info is exactly for this reason. There is no need to pare down honors and awards. Colleges DO read the additional info, and it is not considered lesser because it is in that section. Blow your horn, tell 'em what you’ve got.