<p>How much do awards matter when trying to get into a rank 50 or below if you have the stats?</p>
<p>What do you mean by "awards?" Something like the college book awards given to seniors? Or stuff like NMS?</p>
<p>At the top 5 schools, having the awards/honors do not mean much. A number
of applicants have them. However within the limited context of a state and
a region within it, awards make a big difference for adcoms trying to
differentiate amongst students. Not having awards will place the applicant
at a relative disadvantage.</p>
<p>the number of awards across a period of time shows the quality of the
student's achievements. Colleges in the 10-40 ranking love students with
major national awards but are also aware that such students are going to
treat them as possible "Safeties". </p>
<p>For example a number of SF awards from Grade 9 onwards, maybe an
ISEF or two, maybe Siemens/Intel STS; USABO/USAMO/USPHO/USNCO
makes big differences. Non-awards but honors like attending TASP/
RSI/MOSP may be of great value as well.</p>
<p>I have included some of the conclusions I have reached based on the
past 3 years of research ( I was admitted this year to HPMS):
[note: means nothing = shorthand for "is probably not a
differentiating advantage;" obviously any award means you
took the time to prepare and compete and means something!]</p>
<p>Contrary to popular opinion book awards (given by the alumni of colleges-
like Y/H/B etc.) mean almost nothing. NMS means almost nothing at the
top 5 schools. presidential scholars are sought after by H but in effect
mean nothing at most top schools. Some schools like P venerate
Baush and Lomb due to its signifying the top science student but in lots
of colleges it means nothing. Gold Key (Scholastic writing and art) mean a
lot at Yale but are not as meaningful at other colleges. Stanford loves
state reps to ISEF. Caltech does not care about any awards other than
the consistency and frequency of effort. MIT loves humanities awards an
order of magnitude more than math awards.</p>
<p>(I am not well informed about varsity athletics but have heard that Yale is
particularly parital to Fencing award winners- even lower level ones) MIT
loves applicants who embody its "sound mind in body" view of the world.</p>