Hello! I'm a junior and have been involved in many extracurricular activities throughout high school, but I haven't received any significant awards. How important is it to have awards on college applications and how will it affect my chances for admission? Thanks for your advice!
Hi there! While extracurricular awards can certainly help your application stand out from the crowd, they aren't the sole determining factor in how admissions officers evaluate your extracurricular involvement. Colleges want to see your dedication, commitment, and growth in the activities you're involved with, which are things that can't always be quantified by awards.
One way to do that is by describing the importance of your activities to your growth in the "extracurricular" supplemental essay, if you come across it. CollegeVine has some tips for how to tackle this kind of essay on our blog: https://blog.collegevine.com/how-to-write-most-important-extracurricular-supplement-essays/. If one activity was especially formative for you, you could even consider writing your main Common App essay about it.
In short, keep up the good work with your extracurriculars, and don't stress too much about not having numerous awards!
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