I’ve seen a lot of people posting on CC about their awards/how good they are/whatever. Here’s the thing, I hate competitions and therefore I probably won’t be going to many. I don’t want to do things I don’t enjoy just to pad up my résumé and in reality colleges will probably see through it if I do. Will it really hurt my chances if I don’t have any big awards? (Btw, I’m not applying to any ivy leagues and all my choices have acceptance rates over 30 except MIT)
There are many awards one can get that don’t necessarily demonstrate competition in the head-to-head sense. Awards like AP Scholar (whether National, with Distinction, etc.), National Merit, and some scholarships even (e.g. Coca Cola Scholar) are awards that have to do more with stats/achievement than competition, so there’s that avenue.
In the end, anything you do in terms of helping yourself grow as a person or doing stuff you like to do can only really be seen as a positive thing. Make that distinction, though; doing stuff for the purpose of padding one’s CV isn’t a good idea because colleges can see right through that.