<p>Hello. I've noticed that a student's GPA and GRE are the most important when it comes to Grad School admissions, among other factors including WE, internships, and LORs. However, do awards and achievements given by organizations independent of the undergrad university play a role in admissions? I assume they would, yet I couldn't find any awards on Grad School results threads. Does anyone know where I could find a list of undergraduate science awards, preferably open to freshmen? </p>
<p>Only if they are related to research or academics in the field. For example if you are chosen as the outstanding graduating Senior, that might make a difference if it comes early enough in the admission process. Getting chosen for REU programs or other competitive summer research experiences is also a plus. Finally, the professional societies often have competitive scholarships for undergraduates which are good to get. It depends on your major.</p>
<p>Thank you. Is there a compilation of science undergraduate awards offered by these professional societies and other independent organizations in previous threads? For example, the Goldwater Scholarship is a notable honor for accomplishments in undergraduate research. Also, are there any Grad School results threads that DO have students’ awards in science listed for reference? </p>
<p>Awards aren’t something that I see mentioned much in threads. If you find such comprehensive list, come back and post it.</p>
<p>Letters and research experience are more important than GREs and even GPA in PhD admissions. They are what distinguish you and your potential as a researcher from everyone else. GPA is important in that they want to see you have mastered course material and have challenged yourself. However, grad school are pretty forgiving if you have some flaws on your transcript. Same as for your GRE scores, which I think may even be considered much less than your GPA (the subject one, general GREs I hear don’t meant anything of you get a decent score).</p>
<p>I think awards, like publications are not necessarily but can be very impressive if you do have them. When I applied for physics this year, I had a first author publication, a small award, and a very significant award from my school that covered my full tuition (my undergrad institution doesn’t normally give merit scholarships). I definitely think this helped me. I actually got prestigious internal fellowships (given to the top applicants) from a top ten and top three school.</p>
<p>It really depends on the awards. They’re not hugely important factors - they’re more like the cherry on top. Something like Phi Beta Kappa can look good, or an award for a student abstract or presentation at a national conference. But like, Best Science Student in Doherty County…probably not very impressive.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should go seeking out undergraduate science awards in the sense that you get a list and go through them and then complete the requirements for a few just to pad the resume. If you find one or a few that you are eligible for already, then that would be awesome.</p>
<p>Basically, I don’t think this is something you should worry about very much.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice. I do understand that such awards are not as imperative in the admissions process as other factors. However, in order gain factors such as research experience, particularly through competitive programs, awards are a key part of one’s CV, in addition to LORs and GPA, as most programs don’t ask for GRE scores. Hence, if anyone is aware of such a comprehensive list of awards, similar to this one for high school students (<a href=“*Reboot-ish* list of Ranked, Prestigious Awards. - High School Life - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1378919-reboot-ish-list-of-ranked-prestigious-awards-p1.html</a>), please reply to this thread. </p>
<p>Also, if there are threads with results or chances listing more detailed stats with awards of students (similar to the undergrad results/chances threads), please post them here, although most of the threads I have come across have limited information on the student’s accomplishments. If anyone has resources including compilations of this info, please reply. Thank you!</p>
<p>I don’t think you really understand the grad school application process. Grad schools care about research experience, letters, relevant course work, and a bit about test scores (unlike college admissions, the importance of test scores varies a TON from program to program). To get into a great grad school, you need to show them you have the potential to be a great researcher. You can’t pad your resume into grad school, they don’t care about you having a bunch of trivial awards on your resume. They really only care about awards related to research or your performance in your field/major. The biggest award I got was something I didn’t apply for, I honestly don’t even know how the selection process works. Probably the most important part of the application are the letters as they contain relevant information from all areas. If your writers are well known, this is a huge benefit.</p>
<p>You do not need tons of awards to get research experience. You can either ask professors at your school or apply for summer REUs, etc. To get those you need good grades, letters, and to apply to a lot since they are very competitive and pretty arbitrary from program to program.</p>
<p>Relevant awards like the Goldwater are just one more way of demonstrating your research experience. It means that some other body has already judged that you have some good experience and can put together a good research proposal. But awards are probably not going to make or break a grad school application. They can give you a little boost, but your letters of recommendation and experience are going to be much more important. The schools want to take this information and judge for themselves how successful you are likely to be as a graduate student, not depend on what others judged in the past on different criteria.</p>
<p>The one possible exception: I have heard of people getting rejections reversed once they receive an NSF GRFP. Why? Because this comes with funding. There are a lot of qualified applicants out there who get rejected just because the money isn’t there, even if the school would like to take them. But you can’t rely on this for grad school applications, since you won’t know if you got the award until spring, long after applications and most acceptances.</p>
<p>Based on past posts OP is either in HS or a mom of a HS student. OP don’t fixate on this-- you are thinking like a HS striver and not a college student. Awards are not required for research. Plenty of people do research at their own institution and they don’t need awards to get involved. The kind of research you are involved with and the letters they generate are more important, so looking at colleges that will present you with such opportunities would be a good use of time since it seems you still need to apply for college. Further, there just aren’t going to be a comprehensive list of awards across all disciplines. Once you identify a discipline and get into college, you can talk with professors too.</p>