Should I mention a ¨non-award" in my additional information?

I don’t have many honors and awards to list on my college applications. I’ve spent a lot of my time preparing for math competitions, and last year, I made the AIME cut off. However, my answer sheet was never sent to the MAA organization, and so I’m not officially qualified. I would consider this a pretty big achievement since no one from my school has qualified in recent memory, but should I even mention this? I’m applying to tech schools like MIT and CalTech if that helps. ~Thanks

I don’t think you can claim a distinction you “should have gotten”, but a letter writer could mention that this error(?) happened.

I agree. That’s like me saying I won Intel, but they didn’t actually accredit me with the award. It doesn’t provide any credibility and in my opinion, just seems kind of shady.

Thanks for the reply guys! I submitted my application without mentioning it. Hopefully the letters will speak for themselves. :-S