<p>Has anyone heard of the Scientific American Award in Excellence in Education, and if so, what does it mean? My S was given this on last day of school, but we don't know if it's the kind of thing we would put on college applications, etc.</p>
<p>Let's hope not. This is an award for 8th grade, right? And it's not something that he was consciously and actively competing for -- at least not that you were aware of, right? If that's the case, then I'm pretty sure that over the next four years he'll have racked up enough other honors, distinctions and awards to make this rank pretty low among those things he'll want to convey to college admissions offices.</p>
<p>Now, I'm not saying that it's something all of you shouldn't be proud of now. It sounds totally impressive to me. Clearly he has distinguished himself in a valued discipline. So, maybe there's a component to this that he could leverage to something else -- such as entry to a competitive summer program in science next year or entry into an Honors level course at Choate -- that he will definitely want to tout on his college applications. </p>
<p>You didn't just limit your question to college applications. As for the "etc," I don't have to know more about this to know that this is something he can build on, leverage and exploit so that it's superfluous or overshadowed in 3 years' time. Use it now or in the next year...or lose it.</p>