Common App Honors Section: What You Need to Know

It’s no secret that filling out the Common App is a long and intense process. Months are spent refining personal statements, crafting supplemental essays, and organizing activities into the perfect list to impress admissions officers. While all of these are essential parts of your application when it comes to securing a spot at your dream school, the amount of time spent on them often causes the honors section of the Common App to fall by the wayside. Despite this, having a masterfully crafted honors section is imperative when it comes to impressing admissions officers. So, without further ado, let’s talk about how to best showcase the fruits of your high school labor through the Common App honors section.

Before I can explain how to best fill out the honors section, I must first explain what it is. Essentially, the honors section of the Common App serves to allow you to flex your academic prowess beyond strong grades and test scores. The section provides five spaces to list your most impressive academic achievements and character awards. With each spot on the list, you are also given a space to provide a 100-character description of the honor: what it is, when you won it, and what you did to win it. The purpose of this section is to impress admissions officers with your academic achievements and to showcase your success in school and school-related hobbies. In the following sections, we will cover the basics of filling out the indomitable honors section: what honors should be included, what order the honors should be listed in, and how the honors should be described. It’s important to fill the honors section as much as you can; college admissions officers won’t know what you don’t show them, so try to list as many awards as possible and explain them in concise, easy-to-understand ways.

Because you are limited to five spots in the honors section, it’s important to maximize their impact by putting them in an optimal order. This is done by placing your honors from highest to lowest level of recognition, that way, admissions officers see the most impressive achievements first. This means that any awards bestowed on the international level should be listed at the top, followed by those at the national level, state/regional level, and then local/school level until you have filled all five spots or listed all your awards. If you have less than five honors to list, you have two options depending on how far the application deadline is. If you have ample time, you can work to achieve a few more honors. This can involve entering contests related to your interests, such as essay writing, art, or music. If the application deadline is quickly approaching, that is okay! Just fill out the honors section with what you have. Awards aren’t everything in the college application process, and plenty of students get into great schools without having all five honors spots filled out !If you have more than five honors, you have two options: grouping honors or placing them somewhere else. If you have won the same award multiple years in a row, you can list these in a single honors spot. For example, there is no need to list every time you earned a place on your school’s honor roll—just list “Honor Roll” in one spot, and explain that it is an award you won more than once by listing a range of years. If you still have too many awards to fit in the honors section after this, start placing your awards in other appropriate sections. As stated previously, any awards affiliated with something listed in the activities section can be placed there. For awards that stand on their own, those that are the most impressive and relevant to your interests can remain in the honors section. Any other awards can be described in the additional information section, but only if they are unique, relevant, and impressive enough to warrant mentioning.

Once you have developed your list of awards for the honors section, the last thing you need to do is describe them. This can be challenging, as you only get 100 characters. This means it’s important to be specific and concise in your descriptions. To do this, I have three tips: quantify your accomplishments, use phrases instead of sentences, and don’t abbreviate uncommon acronyms. Using these tips, make sure that you are explaining what the award you’ve won is, what it is for, and what you did to win it.1. Quantify: Make sure to describe your awards using not just qualifications and actions, but numbers! List the number of people you led or competed against, the time you spent, etc.2. Phrases: Don’t use complete sentences—treat the honors section descriptions like bullet points.3. Don’t Abbreviate Uncommon Acronyms: An admissions officer must understand what you're talking about when you describe your awards. While using common acronyms is okay, don’t abbreviate anything that isn’t widely known. Here is an example honors section description: 1st place, school science fair: built then presented a model volcano to 250 students, Grade: 10

You should now have a more robust understanding of how to fill out the Common App honors section to best showcase your accomplishments. Put what you’ve learned to use the next time you work on your applications! Good luck, you’ve got this, and happy application season!