<p>Only a junior, but curious -- </p>
<p>How broad is the Common App's definition of academic honors/awards/distinctions? Is it limited to formally "awarded" things (e.g., NMSF), or can other distinctions (e.g., highest SAT score in high school's history) also count? </p>
<p>You can put in whatever your think… the colleges will just decide how they want to take it into account. Although I am not sure I would put that one in… how do you know for certain it is the case? And what does it say about your high school if it isn’t that high by the standards of the college you are applying to – it is a mixed blessing for them to know if your high school isn’t very strong.</p>
<p>When you choose your academic honors, try to think about how they are seen by an admissions officer. For example, the highest SAT score might be better coming in your guidance counselor’s assessment where it could be placed in context and be a positive attribute for the counselor to share. I would suggest talking to your guidance counselor about this when you are filling out the Common App.</p>
<p>If you were a part of a fairly small team that won a nationwide award, can you say that you won that award (with your team of course)?</p>
<p>Well, it was just an example, and I was really more interested in the general answer (so thank you both for that!), but since you asked…</p>
<p>I told my counselor after I found out because I was super excited – long story short, I thought I bombed it and asked him if I should consider canceling my scores, which he cautioned me against. I ended up not canceling and checking my score online a few weeks later to see that I received a 2380 – and he told me that it was the highest he’d heard of (and he’s been at my score since before the switch to 2400). I guess after I left his office he ran a search on our school’s online grading system (which catalogs SAT scores) and confirmed that the previous highest scorer received a 2370 several years back – which he then told me about later. </p>
<p>I don’t doubt the validity of his claim, because several of the other counselors/administrators congratulated me, but I do understand where you’re coming from about the quality of my high school, which is… not very good. I attend a suburban public school in Northern California that qualifies for and receives substantial Title I funding and has problems being competitive in a somewhat-average school district. However, it does seem that there’s a certain population each year that remains relatively competitive/driven – so far, we’re sending one to Princeton, one to Stanford, and two to two of the Claremont colleges (one of whom was recently named a Coca-Cola semifinalist) this year, so I’m not sure. </p>
<p>@lacgrad: That actually sounds like a much better idea. Thanks!</p>
<p>I’d also like to know the answer to @Ctesiphon’s question, and would like to add this addendum: Do awards received for a particular extracurricular (journalism, math club, Academic Decathlon, what have you) fit better under that extracurricular’s description in your activities list or in the separate honors section?</p>
<p>Yes, I would definitely put that award in someplace. You have a few choices of where to put it: with the academic honors, in the EC description, or as a brief bullet in the Additional Information section (not sure how it looks this year on the Common App, but that description section for each EC is ridiculously tiny…). So for ones where my kid and/or her team had some strong accomplishments, she put “see Additional Information” in the EC description, then had a header in her additional information section for that EC and bulleted out achievements. She was careful to distinguish team from individual.</p>
<p>Students worry a lot about what section something should go in, but I wouldn’t worry too much. All the sections are read by the admissions staff, so they will see it. They understand the gray areas of where it is hard to decide location in the app for some information. As long as it is in there somewhere and clear to them, they will take it into account.</p>
<p>And lacgrad is right, when you get to application time next fall, ask your GC if they can talk about your SAT score in the context of other scores at your school when they are writing their GC recommendations. And congratulations, that is a great score. :)</p>
<p>There are limited slots for awards on CA. Rank them with the most important one (at least to you) from top to bottom, just like your EC. You may put whatever that you want on the list, but the adcom may start to discard what they think to be irrelevant. After all, having the highest SAT score in your school is not really an award but just a data record.</p>