<p>Well, the Book Awards were announced today, and even though I'm happy for most of those who got them (although I'd say a good quarter of them are pothead drunken slackers who cheat their way to good grades), I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get one (or any end-of-year award for that matter). How prestigious are these book awards, and how are their recipients chosen? Is it a big plus if you get one from a school you want to apply to?</p>
<p>Such awards are often sponsored in a local school by alumni of the institutions; recipients are chosen by the HS faculty. Some of the awards (e.g. U of Rochester) offer their recipients an application fee waiver and a scholarship in some amount if the student is admitted and decides to attend that school; some do not come with this perk. They usually indicate a student's relative strength in their class in a subject area and visibility to the HS's faculty, but may not have a huge impact in admissions.</p>
<p>If you like, I could send you a book. ;)</p>
<p>My daughter received the Harvard book award as a junior. It didn't get her into Harvard.</p>
<p>Do a search on this; there was a Parents' board thread last year blasting these awards, which are given by administrators who appear to have little to no clue as to the type of student admitted to the colleges whose alumni sponsor them. Don't give this a second thought.</p>
<p>Hehe, Mini... thanks everyone for the reassurance :)</p>
<p>You're welcome - if you want, we can chip in and get you the one from the college of your choice! ;) </p>
<p>Just don't become one of those pothead drunken slacking cheating people. It's not nice.</p>
<p>Send me a new Rolls-Royce or $100,000 in cash and I'll give you an opportunity to win a statement in 25 words or less.</p>
<p>We don't have these at our High School unless they're called something else. What exactly are they?</p>
<p>I've heard that there is actually a scholarship available for a student who received a book award from Smith & then choses to attend. We have them at my D's high school, most were actually books but at least one college gave bookstore gift certificates. We own a lovely coffee table book about Rutgers. I don't know why she was chosen for Rutgers, but what the heck.</p>
<p>What is this about the Smith Book Award? I got it but it didn't say anyting about a scholarship? Will I hear about it later? Anyone know what the criteria was for getting the Smith one?</p>
<p>There are no real criteria for these. They usually say something like "Outstanding in Academics and Some Other Area", are selected by the high school, and might signal to the college that the recipient might be interested in attending if they are accepted.</p>
<p>do book awards help in admissions at all? i hope they don't cuz all the cheaters in my school got them. they surely had awesome grades, but their means of obtaining them were not honest...</p>
<p>silly book award story</p>
<p>at d's school, the #1 student walked away with the U of R award, with scholarship as stated above. She also got the Smith Book Award, just a book, for being #1 female student in the class. Now, in a somewhat outdated gesture, the top male student received the Harvard Book Award. We all thought this was a bit of a farce since Harvard went coed some time ago! And the top male student was quite far down the list at #7 or so, behind all the very smart females in the class! Our d at #2 got none, thought it all quite ridiculous, was happy for her close friend who had been receiving truckloads of awards since middle school. When it really counted, however, she did fine, is at her first choice college and has left all the h.s. nonsense behind . . . .</p>