<p>I have had perfect attendance (not missed a single day of school) since the 1st grade. Is this an attractive trait to colleges? Should I mention it when applying to schools? (And if so, where could it fit on the commonapp?) Any advice would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s really worth mentioning. It’s obviously a good thing, but I don’t see it as being that relevant. Some may disagree. </p>
<p>I don’t see it worth mentioning either.</p>
<p>You’re unique enough to have both a great constitution and good luck. However, that is of no benefit to any college per se. Your trying to ride that unusual fact will be seen as straw grasping. Don’t do it.</p>
<p>Lol no, that is not really an award. It is mainly about luck and privilege, combined with what interests and ECs you do. Take me, who gets sick all the time, or my brother that had to miss 30 days of school his junior year because of music activities and national competitions. </p>
<p>It’s not worth mentioning. Many people miss school for a variety of legitimate reasons (like illness, academic/music/sports competitions, etc)</p>
<p>Perfect attendance since first grade is kind of amazing though. I vote for mention it, maybe in passing on resume or as part of supplemental essay if you can tie it in to being blessed by good health and a strong sense of commitment/ responsibility/etc. It could help make you memorable to the adcom.
Do you have any anecdotes related to your perfect attendance - like maybe one time you thought your record would be broken but somehow it wasn’t? (You were in awful traffic but got to school anyway, or you did get sick but school declared a snow day)</p>
<p>Could actually make a possible essay topic if handled with some self deprecating humor.</p>
<p>That basically means you have not been sick and have no schedule conflict due to sports or other activities (likely due to the lack of participation). I don’t see why would that be worth mentioning.</p>
<h1>8 That’s 11 years straight of not getting sick during the school year and not letting anything else conflict with the school day. It’s unusual, in a good way. The adcom will probably remember that about the OP, which puts him/her ahead of 80% of applicants with similar stats.</h1>
<p>^ remember to use your [sarcasm] [/sarcasm] tags</p>
<p>I agree that it is unusual. BUT, it can be an indication that you are a perfectionist and possibly a grinder (someone who gets their grades through elbow grease, not intellectual capacity). That certainly may not be true! But it isn’t actually a very helpful thing to have admissions officers considering with your application (which is why I suggested some humor if you use it for an essay topic). I think it is okay to attribute some of it to luck (and maybe pushy parents if they just sent you every day no matter what)… but you could discuss when it was difficult, why you stuck with it if it was hard, and how you feel looking back at it. Were there days when you wished you hadn’t gone? Did you envy your friends who got to go on vacations during the school year and miss a day or two? Did you wish for the chicken pox? 
If you can show that you can put it in context and show some introspection about what it does and doesn’t imply about you, you could impress an admissions officer.</p>
<p>The adcom would notice if you have a low attendance. No one care if you missed a few school days due to sickness or something else as long as it is excused. It would not even be shown on your transcript for all 11 years (as you only submit transcript from high school and attendance may or may not be indicated after all). So there is no way to prove it. Not even if you get GPA 4.0 from grade 1 to grade 11 matter that much (high school GPA matters though).</p>
<p>It’s possible that adcoms will see your insistence on coming to school even when ill to be evidence of a dangerous disregard for the health of others. Think of the children!</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses. I think it’s a really clever idea for a supplemental essay, thanks for your suggestions!</p>
<p>Anecdote: at the welcome speech during my daughter’s orientation, when the college president was reading a short-list of achievements of the new freshman class, one thing they mentioned was a student who’d had perfect attendance. Of course, there were lots of really serious and outstanding academic achievements, but also some lighter things, like “award-winning juggler”. Not sure where the perfect-attendance fit, but it’s safe to say it DID catch someone’s eye in a good way…</p>
<p>^ I dunno. If you’re going to mention it at all, why not say “since 1st grade”? That’s very impressive.</p>
<p>If you did mention I would try to weave it in an essay.</p>
<p>Lol I wish I had perfect attendance </p>
<p>You have 500-600 words to tell something that makes you tick. “weaving” in the fact that you had perfect attendance (which is worthless to colleges) isn’t something you would want to spend 35 words on, would you?</p>