Students should spend time filling out this important part of the application. The Common App Activities Section is an opportunity to demonstrate to the Common App colleges your talents, skills, and specific examples of extracurricular activities you’ve participated in over the last few years. We can help. But something like, “Golden Bookmark Award for completing the most summer reading at local public library" may be … So using the example above, our completed Common App activity section would look like this when it's printed: A few other Common App activity tips: Make sure you click the “Preview” button at the top of the screen when you finish this section. The Common App, Analyzed: 5 Successful Activity Entries Explained, A Guide to the Citizenship Section of the Common App (Can I Still Get Into College if I’m Undocumented? The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points, How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer. That way you will be able to describe in further detail how you contributed to the group. Planning to take AP tests in the spring? You may be wondering which awards you should list in the Honors section and which ones you should list in the Activities section, since you are asked to list awards won under those activities as well. This list is in ascending order of importance, meaning that an international award is considered the highest level of honor, because the domain of students eligible for the award is the largest at this level. The larger the pool of potential applicants, the more impressive your award will seem. Activity 1, Activity 2, . You’ll need to indicate the name of the honor, the years you received it, and the level of the honor: school, state/regional, national or international. One of the many places you can distinguish yourself is in the Common App Honors section. In general, the Common Application is designed to be completed one time and submitted to all of the colleges at once, or over a period of time. Other than for the grades and testing sections, there are few hard and fast rules about what to include and where it should go, so if you find yourself short of awards but with a surplus of extracurriculars, move some activities around. In a blog last year I described what these different Common App symbols were. Whereas the personal statement will show college admissions committees who your child is, the Common App Activities section will allow … Still have questions about filling out the Common Application? ), How to Fill Out the Common App Activities Section. 100 characters for the award title. Sign up for your free CollegeVine account today to get started! Similarly, if you have won numerous awards through a particular extracurricular, you may want to highlight a particular achievement, as well as keep to the character limit in the Activities section, by including it in the Honors section. You want to maximize every opportunity to make yourself stand out from the thousands of other applicants vying for a spot at the school of your dreams. Here are tips for what to include and how to write in the Common App honors section. The Common App honors section is a great place to call attention to your different achievements. . Curious about your chances of acceptance to your dream school? Without a solid work history to rely on, you will need to focus attention on other achievements. If you need to change information on a submitted application, you must contact the college's admissions office directly to ask how they would like you to proceed. For example, if you were named MVP of the soccer team, put that achievement under the description in the activities section. Not only is that a scummy thing to do, it can result in some serious punishments. Played drums at community meetings, performed at three school concerts per year, selected songs to perform, adapted sheet music for percussion section. Doing so may require some juggling and shifting of entries. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and works as a freelance writer specializing in education. The fact is that hiring managers need to see something that suggests that you’re a better employment prospect than those other applicants. Others, however, may be strong students and/or class leaders and yet have little or nothing to list in the Honors/Awards section. In that case, you can list an award you received through an extracurricular activity as an honor instead. Having an Awards section in your resume can really help you stand out and give you an edge in your interviews. That includes scholarships and contests that aren’t awarded within the context of an extracurricular activity. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. Headed to an interview soon? It will already be clear that you have high test scores from your SAT or ACT. The Common Application specifies that the awards you list should be “related to your academic achievements.” This means that if you received non-academic awards, they should be included in your activities section instead. Some teenagers attend schools or participate in activities where honors are doled out liberally. In general, honors that are tied to your extracurricular activities should be listed in the activities section, while those that aren’t connected to a specific activity should be listed in the honors section. Our chancing engine factors in extracurricular activities, demographics, and other holistic details. Use the 100 characters of space to describe what it is and why isn’t important, like so: “Julius Caesar Award for the Highest Latin Score in All of Rome.” You should avoid using acronyms unless they’re widely recognizable (think SAT-level recognizable); otherwise, they’ll just confuse the admissions committee and take away from your achievement. You should aim to fill out all five spaces available, even if you are including fairly common honors, such as Honor Roll. How Do You Calculate it? We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. Unlike the Common Application, the Awards and Honors that you list can be both academic and non-academic on the UC Application. Download PDF. Co-Founder/Manager (10th-12th) Choice Performance Club In general, National Honor Society (NHS) should be included in the Activities section, especially if you made a meaningful contribution to the club, no matter if it was in the form of leadership, community service, etc. It’s fine to have no honors or awards whatsoever on your Common App. Honors are a great way of distinguishing yourself from other applicants, especially at top-tier schools, where most applicants have high test scores and excellent GPAs. If you're hoping to snag a distinguished AP award, read … You don’t have a ton of room on the Common App to list and describe your honors, so you should keep it brief and use the space allotted as strategically as possible. Join thousands of students and parents getting exclusive high school, test prep, and college admissions information. For example, if you win a statewide essay contest for a piece you wrote for your English class or on your own, you should list that award here. You’ll want to lead with your most impressive awards first. In addition to the dreaded 650-word personal statement (a.k.a., Common App Essay) and college-specific supplemental essays, your child will have to complete the Common App Activities section. If you’re a National Merit Semi-Finalist, on the other hand, you’ll want to include that in academic honors, since it doesn’t easily tie to a specific activity. Discover schools, understand your chances, and get expert admissions guidance — for free. You are allowed 100 characters to describe each honor. For example, if you won an award for your artwork that enabled it to be showcased in an exhibit, mention that. by Elyse Krantz, former admissions officer at Barnard College Mastering the Activities Section of the Common Application. For example, if you earn a varsity letter for the football team, you can put that in the activities section, because it’s directly related to an activity at school. Apply to college for the first time or transfer to complete your degree. Don’t, for instance, include that you were voted “Most Likely to Forget When Graduation Is” by your peers- stick to real honors that you had to compete to get. The Common App, however, announced a change in their application earlier this week. A school award indicates that the students in your high school were eligible; a state or regional award means that people in your state, beyond just your school, could have won; national refers to honors students in your country could have received; and an international award is any honor for which the candidate pool spans more than one country. Similarly, if you place first in a Mathletes competition in which you participate as part of Mathletes club, you should list that under your Mathletes entry in Activities. Hi all. If you didn’t do much for the club and haven’t used all five of the available spaces in the Honors section, you could also add it there. Academic awards and honors should be the only items listed under the Awards section on your Common Application. Summary of Requirements for Common App Colleges -- All in One Place! We'll send you information to help you throughout the college admissions process. Looking for individualized feedback on your college application essay? You can find the explanations in The Top 6 Questions Students (and Everyone Else) Are Asking about the New Common Application. Common App Awards Section: Natl Merit Semifinalist. 50 characters for position/leadership position and organization name. An honor refers to any award or achievement you received at any point during your four years of high school. Are you worried about standardized tests and their role in your college application? Lots of colleges use the Common App. ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score, How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League, Is the ACT easier than the SAT? The Common Application, as well as many individual college applications, provides room for students to list out extracurricular activities. Wondering how to prepare for your college interview? See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. A school-level award means that only the students in your school could qualify for that award. One common place that students try to squeeze in something extra is in the Common App’s “Additional Information” section depicted below. . Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here: © PrepScholar 2013-2018. You can find the Honors section in the Education section of the Common App. Ultimately, you want to leave as few holes in your application as possible, as well as present the most comprehensive picture of yourself. If there is a monetary award tied to the honor, mention the exact figure as well, such as “Smith Library Scholarship for Excellence in Writing — $5,000.” You should also list non-monetary prizes associated with the honor. We support a centralized or "common" online application system for more than 800 colleges and universities worldwide that enables more than 1 million students - a third of whom are first generation - to apply to college. Also take a look at this list of colleges that don't require SAT scores. Use the different features of the application to highlight what makes you unique. The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points, How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer, Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests. 4 Top Tips for the Common App Honors Section. The larger the pool of potential applicants, the more impressive your award will seem. This video offers some quick tips for filling out the honors and awards section of the Common App. If you don’t want to use one of your ten allotted activities spaces for NHS, add it to the additional information section. College vs. University: What’s the Difference? However, if you receive an honor that isn’t tied to a particular extracurricular activity, or is associated with a class, this type of award should be included in the Honors section. You will also be asked to designate the level of recognition: School, State/Regional, National, or International. However, if you have five awards that are less common and more impressive than a National Merit award, you may choose to include it in the additional information section or your resume. In terms of “experience type” you can select one of five categories: Employment, Research, Extracurricular Activities, Volunteer, or Internship. Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Score, Check out this list of college interview tips. 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