I’m filling out the “honors won” section and it seems that there’s only room to list the name of the award, but not the description. Could someone help me find it? It just says "Honors (#) title, grade level, and level of recognition. Thanks!
My D put detailed info in the Additional Info section for an activity that needed further clarification so you could use it.
Yup, use Additional Info.
@intparent Can you go into a little more detail here. My daughter has a lot of science fair awards - 2-3 awards per fair, for a regional and state fair each year.
When is it better to leave off “small awards” since there are maybe 20 or so total – is it ever too many to list? How much additional info is good versus overkill?
She has one national level award – what is the best way to make sure that doesn’t get lost in the shuffle?
My kids did it this way: they grouped activities – say, Music as one EC, then said “See Additional Information” in the description space. Then in the Addl Info section, she put a header that said something like “Activities - Music”, and bulleted out her accomplishments in that area there. They didn’t duplicate them in the honors/awards section. You can count on them to read the whole app, and admissions offices find the common app layout as annoying as you do. If my kid had a really big award, I might lead the list with that. But then I might put something like this:
- Viola, school orchestra (9-12). Principal 11 & 12. ~10 hours per week.
- Solo & Ensemble - Level 1, 10-11
- Pit Orchestra - Community Theater - 4 productions during high school
- Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp - attended summers after 9, 10. MVP camper summer after 10. Counselor summer after 11.
- Studying instrument repair with local luthier. Started as volunteer, now paid for work. ~10 hours/week.
Ok, thanks.
My son listed a resume of his accomplishments and awards in the Additional Info section in categories. Under each category, “Music (or Science or Sports) Competitions / Accomplishments,” for example, he bullet-pointed from the latest to the earliest accomplishments. It’s important that, if you have lots of accomplishments, only list the ones that are at state, national and international level. More is NOT better here. Be succinct but impactful.
You don’t want to duplicate what is covered elsewhere in the application. Generally a full resume is not helpful unless the school specifically says it is allowed. Otherwise the admissions officer is flipping back and forth to figure out what is duplicated. But you can definitely use that section to expand (concisely) on activities or honors. Bullets are best.
Yes, I forgot to mention that. My son’s resume like listing had no duplicates elsewhere. The primary use of the Additional Info is like what it says, “additional.”