The honors section of the Common App is reserved for you to list your academic honors and awards. Keep in mind that the term “academic” is used pretty loosely in this context. This means that art awards, publications, and athletic awards are all fair game.

You can list up to five honors, and for each one you’ll be asked to provide a brief description (100 characters or less). For each award, you’ll want to indicate the name of the honor, its meaning, and purpose, and the years you received it. It can be tough to describe your accomplishments in such a tiny amount of space, so we’ll provide some advice for that.

Why should I care about honors section?

The honors section is an excellent way for college admissions officers to gain an understanding of your strengths. Your activities section paints a picture of who you are outside the classroom, but the honors section is a demonstration of the things you really excel at. While the honors section certainly won’t make or break your application, it can really help you stand out if properly utilized.

What should I include in the honors section?

The other key fact to know is that “Academic Honors” does mean that the award has to be for Chemistry or British Literature. Distinctions in music, art, poetry, journalism, photography, or community service are every bit as valid to include in this section as those earned in a laboratory or standardized testing exam room. The only category that can be misplaced here is athletic achievements (Best Defender, MVP, Light Weight Champion and etc.) They (athletic achievements) are better suited for the Activities section.

There’s a common misconception that only the most prestigious or impressive awards should be listed on your application. In reality, any recognition of academic accomplishment can and should be included in this section. Of course, internationally recognized honors will look the best on your application, but you shouldn't worry if you don't have those. You may include school level, district/city level, or national level honors. For example, a lot of applicants from Uzbekistan include honors from participation/victory at Uzbek national olympiads, essay contests, MUNs, TEDs, and others. You may strengthen your application by participating in international (online) competitions.

Mistakes to avoid in the honors section

Listing honors in the wrong order

Make sure to lead with your most impressive achievements. The most competitive and well-known honors should be listed first, followed by awards that are lesser known. A general rule of thumb is that national awards should be listed first, followed by state, local, and school awards.

Not using Numbers

The 100 character limit can make describing awards difficult. In order for these brief descriptions to be as impactful as possible, you should quantify the value of the award to the greatest degree possible. Include the technical qualifications for the honor or award (if any), the number of students in the group from which the honorees were selected, and the number of honorees. This is especially helpful for local awards with which admissions committees will be less familiar, but can also emphasize the competitiveness of certain large-scale awards.

(Not) To be picky

Don’t be picky about what you choose to include. There are 5 slots available, and you should try and fill all of them if possible, even if you may initially think you have nothing to include.

If you have the opposite problem and feel as though you don’t have enough space to list all your honors and awards, begin by listing those which are most selective or competitive, and then those most relevant to your potential major or desired career path. Leftover awards can be strategically placed in the descriptions of the Extracurricular Activities section or in the Additional Info section.

What’s the purpose of extracurriculars? “Extracurricular activities can be a great opportunity to see how an applicant has self-directed their passions and interests,” says Jorge Delgado, Associate Director of International Admissions at Brandeis. “There are only so many hours in the day so seeing how a student has involved themselves outside the academic arena is a great way of understanding their potential fit for a university campus.”

Activities colleges care about

Leadership

Being student government president or a founder of any club, project, profit or non-profit organization will look great on your application since all colleges want to accept only the most ambitious, the most dedicated applicants

Excellence

Being the best at whatever you do proves that you are a hardworking person who is always pushing his/her limits. You play football? Ok, fine. You're 3 times champion of local football league? Our university definitely wants to see you in our football team.

Commitment

Colleges care about activities that you have committed yourself to and that means spending a good amount of time doing them.

WOW factor

WOW activity often has to do with the idea of it being something that not every high school student is doing. Wow examples may include qualifying for top competitions or rising to the top of something that is unconventional. Pursuing something that would be impressive even for an adult can also be a wow factor. Try to think of ways that you can be creative and push the envelope and that you can do something that a normal teenager wouldn’t do. If you can do that, you’re going to really stand out to colleges.

How to improve your activities list

In Uzbekistan, number of opportunities for activities is very limited especially if you are not from some fancy private school or lyceum. Student magazines, student media organisations, MUNs, TEDs, learning second language, sports are very common activities for uzbek applicants. But there are some easy tips that will make your activities list look great!

Want proof? Compare these two:

Art

Created art and organized club.

Founder, Art Honors Society

Organized and ran meetings, set up field trips, brainstormed and created group art activities, wrote and sent newsletters to members.

Most students write a pretty good activities list description and then they stop there. But it doesn’t take long to up-level an activities list from pretty good to great.

Here are three tips for doing that:

1. Use stronger verbs. I’ll define “stronger” in a moment, but in short: Are you describing your activity in the most dynamic way possible? Most students aren’t. Why? Because they’re using just-okay verbs.
2. Develop better (and perhaps a bit more) content. Have you included a wide range of responsibilities? Most students forget to include solving problems, gaining skills, and making tangible (and even quantifiable!) impact.
3. Demonstrate skills & values. Are you communicating what you learned or how an activity changed you? If not, you may be leaving money on the table.

A stronger verb … is more specific.

Example: “taught” is fine, but did you coach, mentor, train, or demystify?

A stronger verb … often provides more information.

Example: “organize” is fine, but did you arrange, catalog, compile, or systematize?

A stronger verb … just sounds better.

A few examples I like: mediate, publicize, administer...

You have only 150 symbols to describe your activity. Use them wisely.

1. Don't use full sentences
2. Use abbreviations
3. Don't restate your leadership position in description section

1. Leaving out significant activities
2. Using too strong/not strong enough verbs
3. Not using numbers. Numbers help to adequately assess your activity so always try to include them
4. Forgetting to mention awards. Participated in the MUN? Not bad. Got the best delegate award? Wow, that's great!
5. Failing to include highlights/examples of your involvment in the activity. I know that space is limited, but it's a great idea to mention one or two (the most significant ones) of dozens of your contributions. More admissions officers know about you more reasons will they have to accept you.
6. Using inconsistent formatting and punctuation. Choose one format for the top line of the activity entry, and stick with it.
7. Using abbreviations that no one understands.
8. Listing activities in the wrong order. Start with the most significant activity and finish with the least important one.
9. Not proofreading activities before submitting. Ideally, ask someone to look through the activities list and give feedback. Turbo college application students can ask help from Firdavs or Me (Ulugbek). We will be more than happy to help you.