winning this small kind of stuff?

<p>so....</p>

<p>junior year, i got an honorable mention speech championship in a category and a 5th place sophomore year. how good is that kind of an award? (5th is the last place that u can get an award for, but colleges won't know that, right?...)</p>

<p>like... i entered in a very small, noncompetitive category so that i could win something so that i can put it on my college application.</p>

<p>but yeah.... how much does that count?</p>

<p>and how does it compare to a 1st place state championship in speech? (my rival got 2 firsts in his state speech meet his junior year.) does his count twice as much as mine? three times?</p>

<p>If your award is on the caliber that you're mentioning, it's not going to tip you in. It's seen more as a confirmation that you're interested in and talented at an activity - can't hurt to include it.</p>

<p>A statewide honor will obviously help more. It still probably won't be a deciding factor, but it does look more impressive - you can't quantify exactly how much more.</p>

<p>No, they don't tally up awards and say 3 is three times as good as 1. They just take note of your talent in that area, see that you're an award winner and move on. Is three better than one? Yeah, probably, a little bit. A lot better? No.</p>

<p>^ but I got a state honor too. its just lower rank -- 5th and honorable</p>

<p>I would just say 'won speech award in State Championship' and not mention 5th place. That's good enough.
Stop trying to measure yourself against others awards.</p>

<p>^ would college admissions be able to tell that i won a really low score, cuz i didn't mention what place i got?</p>

<p>they'd probably realize that i didn't get 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, right?</p>

<p>they aren't thinking about it that hard. They don't know how the competition works, and they don't care. They just see the award, think OK, that's nice, and move on. They don't really care whether you got 3rd or 5th, they just want to see that you invest the time and do reasonably well at it. Stop stressing.</p>