<p>Darn, I was hoping a pencil would be forthcoming :) </p>
<p>I wonder if anyone has ever listed things the kids vote on, like "hottest couple". That would at least make the admissions officer laugh, I suppose.</p>
<p>I think my daughter might have won "best hair" at some point. Wish we'd thought to use that.</p>
<p>My son got voted "Future Rocket Scientist" in the yearbook, but I think the yearbook came out too late for applications. We were actually impressed that enough kids knew who he was to vote for him.</p>
<p>Oh, best hair....my D's best friend was voted Most Likely to Appear in an Herbal Essence advertisement. </p>
<p>D was Most Likely to Win the Nobel Peace Prize, which made her happy since she is into MUN, IR, stuff like that. She didn't list it on any applications, but one of the teachers included it in a rec letter.</p>
<p>Honor roll, Student Athlete, NHS, or anything of that nature are definitely awards that can be included on the application (although I agree that if someone does not have anything to put down, that is fine, too.) For example, my daughter put down under the Awards section that she had auditioned for and been selected for County Honors Band each year in high school. She was not a good enough musician for District or State level, but County is an honor, too, and preparing and auditioning each year showed commitment all through high school.</p>
<p>Yep, invisible kids who never win any the awards do get accepted into college. Ours is currently very happy at a college that didn't care about the blank places on the admissions form. </p>
<p>He says it is nice to be at a place where people "appreciate and value his opinion". [mother heaves a huge sigh of relief]</p>
<p>Sometimes our stars just shine brighter in college. Take heart. I have heard more superlatives about my D's native intelligence in college so far (year and a bit) than all the years of K-12 combined. Did she get smarter? Or did they just know which end of the telescope to look through. ;)</p>
<p>Not to worry. Our DS graduated HS as #1. He never got the top score or first place in anything. He did participate, generally came in 2,3,4. Someone was always better in that endeavor and his ambition was to just try it, being the best is not him. At graduation time, he came to be the top award winner but too late to matter for colleges.</p>
<p>cinniesmom: thanks. :) i do feel better now!</p>
<p>Like Puzzled, I go to a selective private school, and we too are instructed to write "My school does not give academic awards."</p>
<p>My school really has none. No honor role, no valedictorian, no sports or art anything. I have one academic award from outside school, so I put that down, but otherwise my section was pretty blank.</p>
<p>I hope it doesn't hurt me!</p>
<p>Can words of comfort also be dispensed about not having any or very many community service hours? That seems worse than no awards, because it makes the kid look selfish. D did do a few things in middle school, but she's just not efficient/smart enough to juggle a varsity sport each season and honors/AP classes and still have time left over. Any average kids out there with the same problem? On CC everyone seems to be able to do it all. She's the only kid she knows who's not squeezing in some tutoring or something.</p>
<p>My oldest son volunteered at the senior center one summer. That was his only community service.</p>
<p>My son clearly said on his apps that his schools had not had clubs, EC's, sports or awards. He attended two high schools; one actually had an annual awards dinner and gave awards to the <em>parents</em> for volunteering, with no awards to the students. (Gosh, and that school closed this year after 3 years of national hype on Oprah and stuff like that.) His "application story" was about how he had followed his quirky passions in nontraditional ways, without having the sorts of EC's that other sorts of high school students had access to. In four years, he never did anything because it would "look good on his college apps", even when the school tried to pressure him into it. ("You need to have 20 hours of community service just doing anything, because colleges want to see 20 hours of community service, but they don't care what kind.")</p>
<p>My son was in involved in a few school activities, and played one sport through high school. He did however have jobs which he listed-think the fact that he had worked from freshman year on was something to mention. Also, one school he applied to wanted a letter of rec from work experience, so he had no problem with this. To OP, is you have work experience, put it down on app.</p>
<p>My high-achieving, practically perfect (ok, I'm his mom) son got few awards (NMS, NHS, honor roll--his other few awards and a state championship came too late for college admissions), worked exactly one weekend for $$, did VERY little community service. However, his grades, test scores, recs, ECs and essays were excellent. He was accepted everywhere he applied with merit money at every school that offered merit $$. </p>
<p>They don't have to be perfect. In fact, I suspect a few B's or an unfilled space makes a kid look more believable and less packaged. He was voted "Most Changed" by his classmates (lost a lot of weight and gained a lot of confidence), a nice little personal honor.</p>
<p>Some of these awards are a whole lot of nothing, if we are being truthful. Puffed up & fluffed up. When D put together a "resume" for her GC, I was surprised at how good some of the stuff sounded, yet didn't take all that much effort or time. I told her that real life isn't like that.</p>
<p>One that comes to mind is the Tri-M international music honor society. You do an individual musical performance in front of your school at a TriM assembly and you are in. Once a year the current members also perform. That's it. Or how about those national community service awards that dole out $$ to kids whose parents set up nonprofits & put their kids' names on the papers? Frankly, a kid who bags groceries at the local supermarket has accomplished much more.</p>
<p>Agreed, StickerShock. I also think the huge laundry list of ECs I see kids post here could cause the eyes to glaze over. A few deep, focused activities would stand out better in my eyes if I were on an admissions committee.</p>
<p>My dd was told to exclude any awards which were from the high school itself... that the only achievements/awards to include were ones from outside places.</p>
<p>Because it's too easy for a school to have a 'favorite' child, and bestow excessive awards on them to make them stand out - hoping to boost their ratings. And the colleges ignore the info that's just based on the high school.</p>
<p>I'm not referring to club membership and sports, or being captain....</p>
<p>That being said, it could be that the advice was based on how the top 25 schools looks at the info... and it could be a different issue for less selective colleges.</p>
<p>GFG: I stressed about that too until the GC said that it doesn't have to be a single huge event like they raised 200,000 singlehandedly for children in Africa. It can be a series of small things: my DDs list consists of serving a couple of times in a free kitchen, wrapping gifts for foster children at Christmas plus participating in "Relay for Life" events and planting trees on Make a Differenece Day. All of that counts and adds up. If your student got involved in multiple small ways to show that they were willing to help others that really is fine. I think most ad-coms are looking for community participants and however your child has done that is fine.</p>
<p>Being selected for auditioned programs would count as an award? So do you think that Regional and All-state chorus would be considered awards, or should they be put in the ECs section? How about being a team captain? Now I'm confused, lol!</p>