<p>I am interested in compiling a list of "book awards" (or similar honors) that high schools can (w/little effort) nominate Juniors to receive. </p>
<p>My younger child's school doesn't do very much of that -- it worked to her advantage this year because she found out about the RPI Medal this spring & no one from her school had been nominated so her counselor put her name in for it. (It provides a scholarship for recipients who get admitted & attend. Since RPI is my husband's alma mater & she likes math/science, it is on her short list anyway... and it took her school all of 5 minutes to submit her name once they decided to do it.) But I really think the school should do more of these in years to come, even if just to recognize hard working/high achieving students. (Certainly the more demographically upscale schools in our pretty-upscale county seem to... many of them were already on the list of schools that had nominated someone for the RPI Medal this year... seems a shame not to give a boost of encouragement to kids who might need it a little more.) </p>
<p>Anyway, I would like to give the school a sample list of awards/the criteria when I make the suggestion. I was thinking that the following examples would capture the info the school would need:</p>
<p>Award -- Criterion -- web site for more info -- additional details
Wellesley Book Award -- girls: top scholars in high school as well as talented performers in extracurricular areas -- Wellesley</a> College Alumnae Association -- needs alum/alumnae club to buy the book for the school
Rensselaer Medal -- promising secondary school juniors who have distinguished themselves in mathematics and science -- Rensselaer</a> Medal Program - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) -- online nomination process</p>
<p>I know there are lots more awards like these but a quick search did not yield a summary list. If you all could either point me to a summary list, if you know of one, or just add individual awards that you know of & I will compile a list. Also, if you have suggestions about other info a high school would need, I will happily add that to results.</p>
<p>Rensselaer Medal Program - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is different because of its scholarship component.
The Book awards are pretty meaningless, and sometimes counter-productive, as kids sometimes assume that they are a “shoe-in” because they got a book award from a specific school.</p>
<p>I nominate kids at my high school for Smith and Swarthmore book awards. I believe the point of them is to make strong students aware of college options that they may not have considered (in my state few kids choose out of state LACs). Also, it gives college recruiters some names of kids with strong potential.</p>
<p>DD won the St. John’s (college in Annapolis, Maryland, and Sante Fe, NM) Book award for being the student with the greatest love for reading and books.</p>
<p>She also won a regional Princeton Book Award that involved a lengthy application (after being nominated to apply by her school) to the regional Princeton alumni group. You might contact Princeton’s alumni association to find out about that one. Eighty kids in our region applied and six were selected.</p>
<p>I doubt most kids in our area would think that. In fact, most kids around here, especially these days, only apply in state. Our top state schools (in Virginia) are pretty tough to get into, though, so I was sort of thinking that it would give an emotional boost to at least a few kids who are pretty worried about where they will get in to college. And, even though the awards are not super significant, many kids have nothing to put in the “Honors & Awards” section of their application & it would be nice to have even some of them not stare at a big white space there.</p>
<p>Thanks to those who have given me some info to pursue in this. Still looking for more, of course!</p>
<p>D received the Frederick Douglass & Susan B. Anthony Award from the University of Rochester. It’s one of 4 awards available to HS students. Here’s the info:</p>
<p>These awards are simply recruiting tactics by colleges. Most students would end up getting the same amount of $ in merit aid without these awards. It is a way for colleges to get top students interested in their schools.</p>
<p>RIT offers small scholarship awards for Computing and “Innovation and Creativity”. They are 6K/year for 4 years, but most kids who earn them will automatically qualify for higher scholarships based on their stats, and they don’t “stack”. Still a nice honor to receive.</p>
<p>If you are starting awards, I would recommend they be for juniors, because as was mentioned, it gives the kids something to put on their applications.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school also had named awards for the best junior year research paper, math student, science student, each (foreign) language student, etc. I thought they were great because even though none except the research paper award came with a financial prize, they did recognize strengths of certain students.</p>
<p>In the same vein as book awards for juniors: The Society of Women Engineers awards their Certifcate of Merit at 3 levels (Highest Honors, High Honor, and Honor), so a school could nominate 3 recipients. It’s for three years of achievement in math and science.</p>
<p>There’s information on line–look for your local chapter. Some chapters will send a representative to present the award (if the school requests it.)</p>
<p>I’m looking at our awards assembly program: juniors at our school got book awards from alumni groups representing Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Williams, Middlebury, Princeton, Smith, Swarthmore and Penn, along with the 4 Rochester awards,the Rensselaer Medal, and the Society of Women Engineers award-- my D :)</p>
<p>The recipients are chosen by the faculty based on criteria set forth by the sponsoring organization.</p>
<p>My S received his as a junior at the senior awards night and we were happy for the recognition, whatever it may have been for. I had never heard of the award. I just figured it was a recruiting gimmick. The girl sitting in front of us, who we did not know, won the previous year and she approached us and explained how she was attending. My S was recruited by a couple of schools and he applied to just over a dozen. We didn’t find out the $ amount until he applied. In the end he chose the school that gave him the book award. Financially, it was close with two other schools and the first time he visited he wasn’t “taken” by the school. Something must’ve gotten him on the second visit.</p>
<p>At our school, there are Yale, Wellesley, Smith, Harvard, Columbia, Mt. Holyoke, Williams, and Simmons book awards. I don’t think anyone who won one thought he or she was a shoo-in at those schools! But they are a nice way to recognize good students in junior year and offer a confidence boost-- and, yes, get those colleges names in front of the group.</p>
<p>When the Princeton alumni group presented its awards (at an evening ceremony at a restaurant), the alumni reps said that it was a tool to identify potential applicants and that the awardees should notify the reps if they planned to apply and they would write a letter for the applicants. It was pretty nice; although my daughter did not apply, I know that some of the kids did.</p>
<p>In my experience (and our high school gives out a lot of them), book awards are a nice item to add to an application, but mean nothing to the named institution, either as a recruiting tool or high honor, since the recipients are selected by the guidance counselors according to very general criteria (and often using a measure of favoritism), and the awards are sponsored by alumni associations with no involvement by the college itself. Both my D and I received book awards naming schools that wouldn’t have cared if we applied nor given our applications any time if we did. But at D’s school the book awards formed the basis of a junior awards night, which was nice for those so honored.</p>