My 10th grader is planning to apply for CS at SLO and some UC’s in two years. Are AIME qualifier and USACO Platinum awards really impactful and critical in college admission? Should he list USACO Silver, USACO Gold, and USACO Platinum as separate awards or just USACO Platinum as a single award?
In addition, are COSMOS programs worthy to attend for summer programs? We are debating if he should apply for COSMOS or other summer activities.
For Cal Poly SLO, you do not list awards and activities on the application. The student only lists hours spent on the EC’s, if there is a leadership role involved and if they have a job and it is major related. The CSU’s have added a question regarding National merit scholar which can help.
For the UC’s, yes these awards and activities would help in the application review. See the 13 areas of application review criteria.
Listing together or separately depends upon the amount of space available on the UC application.
The UC application allows students 20 spaces in total for both activities and awards
I’d list only USACO Platinum since it already implies the others. Listing them separately is redundant.