Awards and Honors

One of the more esoteric parts of the Common App is the Honors and Awards section. What counts as an award/honor? What did they intend to be put there? What is applicable for you to put there? The Honors and Awards section allows you to list any achievements that are not extracurriculars or classes. It allows you to stand out among other students in your peer group with your unique achievements. However, this can be a challenging section because of the small word count. 

The Honors and Awards section is the place for you to list your achievements. These can be publications, awards you have won in or out of school, art awards, sport awards, or competitions you have participated in. Since so many people do not understand this section, adding your achievements might be the thing that gets you into good schools. For this section, it is better to list higher and more uncommon achievements first, to set you apart from other applicants. The order is important, so you should make the more interesting achievements higher than the more common ones. 

This section, as many others, has a tight word count– 100 words for each honor/award. This can make this section more difficult. To help with this, don’t spell out numbers. It is also advised not to use confusing acronyms for your prizes, though common acronyms like AP (Advanced Placement) can still be used. If you have extra space, you can use it to make a little blurb of what the achievement actually was. After you fill out your achievements, the Common App will ask you in which grade you won the award and what level it is recognized at. For example, winning an award in your school would be at the “school” level, while competing in a state championship would be a “state” award. These levels are as follows; “school,” “state,” “national,” “international.” These will distinguish how high the award is– an international prize is likely more impressive than a national prize. 

If you have forewarning about this section but aren’t applying to colleges this year, it is a good idea to start thinking about this early. Then you have more time to prepare– submit your articles to magazines, compete in sports leagues, etc. 

The Honors and Awards section is one of the more confusing sections in the Common App, but once you understand it it will be easy to complete. It is the perfect place for achievements that do not fit in the other sections. You probably have more for this section than you think.