<p>Just wanted to mention that the RIT and RPI awards come with scholarships if the student attends those schools.<br>
Our HS gave out a Harvard book award this year for the first time. I’m not sure why suddenly they participate, they did not in previous years when my kids were juniors.</p>
<p>T26E4–well I never heard of the Yale book award until a couple of weeks ago when my s received it. we weren’t at the award ceremony as it was the same day as d’s college graduation. </p>
<p>I hope you’re right Gibby, my s will share this as an award he received, I think he’s known for being a strong student but also for his love of learning, reading the Joy of X and A Brief History of Time, for pleasure reading…</p>
<p>"That is currently what happens at Harvard! Harvard’s Admissions Committee is comprised of over 40 members, many of whom are professors and the deans of academic Departments. "</p>
<p>That’s good to hear, but it doesn’t seem common. My son got a direct letter from the Math Department of UMichigan recommending him for their honors math program (because of his AIME score), but clearly stated that the letter carried no weight in admissions. We talked with a professor in the music school at Yale who said that they review music arts supplements and provide comments to admissions, but take no part in any final holistic judgments. And, after going to info sessions at a number of top schools, I detected a bias against strong math/science students. They are more impressed by high SAT CR scores. I found it quite off-putting that the tour guides liked to talk about how you can meet your math requirements using classes that are quite non-math-like. Obviously, MIT was different, but admissions has their own odd “hacker” ethic. I’m not sure that’s how their professors would pick students.</p>
<p>The RIT medal and the RPI medal might talk about money, but it’s not clear that it is any more than what one could get anyway due to need-based criteria. In my son’s case, RIT would not believe that he really wanted to go there, even as a safety school.</p>
<p>My point is anecdotal and perhaps not common. It seems that because of his level in math (even though he got a 770 on the SAT-CR), the guidance counselors see him as a tech/engineer type rather than a future theoretical physicist or concert pianist. (He would be a better match for the U. of Rochester/Eastman.) They wanted to match him up with that kind of award, even if the school did not match. Would they have given him a vocational school award just because it has the word “technology” in it’s title? This just reinforces my view that non-math/science people can’t make proper holistic judgments. I applaud any college that brings in direct participation from the departments.</p>
<p>Here is the deal with the book awards. Your high school has to be selected to even give out the award in the first place (not sure how this process works, but previous posters seem to know…). Anyway, each award recipient has to fill a certain criteria that the college gives the high school (and the high school can add to this criteria). All of the awards ask that the recipient is academically talented. Where they differ is in what other qualities the recipient must have. For examples, the Wellesley Book award is for a girl who has outstanding achievements, scholarship, leadership and service. The Harvard one is for someone who “combines outstanding scholarship with achievement in other fields.” Getting it does not necessarily mean you have the highest GPA, but it might. Anyway, no, you did not receive this award because Harvard wants you (even though they might, I don’t know), the awards are ways to get more kids to learn about the colleges.</p>
<p>Not sure why an old thread has been brought back, but since it was: Latin4Life, book awards are a function of alumni associations whose missions are to generate interest in the colleges. They, not the colleges, choose the high schools (and if your area has no alumni association for a particular college, there won’t be an award) and supply the often supremely general criteria (it’s quite possible that the alumni associations coordinate with the colleges to achieve uniform standards, but the colleges are not in contact with the high schools with respect to book awards at all). Typically the school guidance office will take the list of available awards and parcel them out to the upper echelon students as they see fit, without regard for whether any student has an interest in a particular school (which they are unlikely to know about at this point anyway). There may be some favoritism involved–in my S’s case, I’m pretty sure he got one of the non-Ivy awards because his counselor just liked him. There will surely be an article in the school newspaper listing the recipients, and if it’s a small enough community, an article in the local paper. And then everyone will forget about that year’s books awards–forever. In any case, these awards certainly should be included on college applications as a nice, but not dazzling, entry, but they won’t impress the college whose name is on the award, not will they imply to any other college that the institution is a second choice. There’s no downside, and not much upside.</p>