<p>What about being a State Finalist in Forensics (Speech Team) or DECA (business)?
What about National AP Scholar?
National Qualifier in Speech Team?</p>
<p>How much of this stuff belongs on a college app?</p>
<p>Those all belong on a college app. Pretty much any award goes.</p>
<p>How about placing at a Speech/ DECA conference/ sectional/ regional?</p>
<p>Sure. It’s all worth mentioning.</p>
<p>How major/minor would a Scholastic Gold Key (regional) award be for writing?</p>
<p>^^Yes, I would surely count that as an award.^^ Do you have to specify major vs. minor?</p>
<p>Minor: Regions/State Winner/Nationals Attendee(If you don’t have a whole slew of awards, place national attendee in the major section)
Major: Nationals finalist (top 20), National Qualifier for Speech, National AP Scholar</p>
<p>^
State winner is major. There are only 50 states.</p>
<p>How about State Qualifier or Sectional Winner?</p>
<p>State qualifier and sectional winner a minor. Especially for DECA, Redseven maybe right, State winner is arguably major though. But state qualifier/sectional winner isn’t a big deal to colleges.</p>
<p>I would consider school/district/state awards minor, and regional/national/international awards major.</p>
<p>Cool thanks for the info. Also, if you got National AP scholar, can you put down the ~3 other awards that are less then National as well or is that just redundant and unwise?</p>
<p>If you don’t have anything to fill in the spaces, then go ahead and list the similar ones. If you do, then it’s redundant.</p>
<p>If DECA is anything similar to FBLA, then a state award in DECA is, at best, minor. </p>
<p>To my knowledge, there are 40+ events in DECA, for which there will be Top 3 in each. Some events are “team” and thus qualify 1-3 people as “champions” per slot. Taking this into consideration, there are over 8000 DECA state winners (“winners” used loosely meaning Top 3)…every year. </p>
<p>Of course such accolades are worth mentioning, especially if you lack awards in other areas or if you’ve invested most of your extracurricular time towards DECA. </p>
<p>If anyone cares to argue against my point, please do. I’m a state “champion” in multiple events, and I’d love to hear more opinions - especially those of veteran applicants or counselors.</p>
<p>^ heartist</p>
<p>but there are also around 170k people participating in DECA though, think about it…that is the 99.98% basically if you win at states. Though, you are right, the sheer numbers are big (one of the reasons why I though it was a minor at first). But when you compare it to those who compete vs win, it is a bigger deal than one would assume.</p>
<p>^Good point. I’ve never thought about it that way.</p>
<p>Would FBLA nationals (or the DECA international equivalent) be considered a “major” award? In context of elite college admissions (HYPS-level), how much pull can such awards possess, especially if your intended major is econ?</p>
<p>It can demonstrate success and pursuit of a career interest, which is really beneficial for business schools. My friend was a Nationals finalist for accounting in DECA and had an internship with accounting/finance and she was accepted to Wharton ED.</p>
<p>^ It shows interest in a particular field! Yes FBLA nationals would be considered significant especially since you are going for a major leaning towards business/economics.</p>
<p>I would say state level in DECA is minor, but going to nationals is a pretty big deal. I won 1st place in Food Marketing - Management Level at the PA State competition a few years ago and went to nationals. There didn’t seem to be many people in my category to compete against at the state level, and it just didn’t seem like a prestigious thing (although it was a huge deal at my high school). However, nationals was quite an event, at least to me.</p>
<p>Do you actually have to split it into major/minor awards, or do they only want major awards? I would include it regardless because you never know how it will be viewed by the particular admissions committee. And if it is relevant to your intended major (if you’re applying as a business major, for example), it is definitely something to make note of.</p>