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3 years ago
Admissions Advice

What counts as honors or awards?
Answered

What kind of things can/should I put in the honors/awards section on the common app? If I win a NYT or any other newspaper/magazine writing contest, will it count as an award?

I'm a junior from Brazil aiming for competitive colleges, just so you know.

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awards
Honors
commonapp
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2
@RebekahL3 years ago

So you only have one thing so far?

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Accepted Answer
3 years ago

Hi, thank you for asking your question! It seems first that I should clarify the difference between extracurriculars (ECs) and awards/honors. ECs are activities that you do inside and outside of school such as playing a school sport, leading a school club, fixing up cars as a side hobby or running a non-profit. These are more experiential in nature. Awards and honors are things that you achieve as a result of the EC or academic merit. In this case, winning a writing contest is an award/honors (and a very impressive one at that! Congratulations!). If, for example, you consistently wrote an editorial for the NYT, then it would be an EC because it is an activity. Some other examples of awards/honors are placing in a competition, having honor society recognition, scoring an AP exam award, earning an in-school academic accomplishment etc.

Hopefully this answers your question!

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