<p>It depends on the alumni group in your area. I live in western Michigan and go to a Catholic school and I got it. <em>shrugs</em></p>
<p>Like people have stated before, it's not really that huge of a deal when it comes to admissions.</p>
<p>O... so I need to find if there are any alumni that once went to my school
??? And then they need to sponsor a book??? Gosh!!! Can't I just suggest to my school that we should start an annual Harvard Book Award???</p>
<p>No, it's HARVARD alumni that give the book. I suppose that you could get your guidance department to hunt down the alumni group in your area, but that seems a bit greedy to me.</p>
<p>Yes, that's what I meant, sorry. lol Greedy? maybe. But that is a pretty good idea considering the alumni might not even know about (or forgot aout) donating a Harvard Book....?</p>
<p>This is a fact at my school.... every single person who won
the Harvard book award for the last ten years did not get
into Harvard but got waitlisted while on the average my
school sends 2-3 to Harvard each year ....
...........:eek:...........:</p>
<p>interesting arwen... maybe the mysterious HBA actually is given to a Harvard hopeful whom the school finds "unfitting". lol I am just kidding of course, but your evidence poses a few questions!!!</p>
<p>In our school, HBA used to be given to top junior for years. But not this year, after we got a new principal whose kid is also in our school. This year it's a my-mom-work-here award, we think. No one can figure out why except the recipient's mom works at our school. He is not among the top students and does not have any extraordinary story/activity. There are many other juniors, who did not get any awards, better qualified according to the guideline "rigorous curriculum, ...community service....". So it can not be considered a big deal to the admission office, if they know what's going on. It's all up to each school.</p>
<p>so ther's no way to win it if your school doesn't participate?</p>
<p>As several people have pointed out, please don't waste time wanting this award or wishing you could get it. It is not from Harvard, and means nothing to the admissions office. It is a book, donated by local alums, and the school alone decides who gets it, and the criteria vary by school. My daughter's school has had it for years, and there is little correlation to who gets into harvard - it's just really low-cost PR for Harvard. So please, don't waste energy over it!</p>
<p>PS: This year, her school gave Yale and Dartmouth book awards as well. I'm betting no correlation there, either! :)</p>
<p>yeah schools definitely do it diff.. the girl at my school who got this award is a fairly decent student, but not even in top 10%. however, she does do a lot of stuco stuff. and the girl that's like number 4 in the class got the URoch award....just a little skewed</p>
<p>hmm. i just got talked to by my counselor for the award, adn apparently all the counselors talk about who they wanted to chose for it. apparently they selected me because of "socio-economic disadvantage" ( i moved to america, low income family, etc) and because they felt that i had the best chance in winning (top 1% in my class, ECs )
. however, unlike being just given the award, apparently there's a contest for my area. i have to write/ act/ make a video/do math caluclations and there's an award ceremony to award ONE prize book and then other awards as well. so i think it probably varies among the alumni districts.
i</p>
<p>I got the award last year from the alumni association, but my teachers picked me. I have good grades and stuff, like top 5%, but I'm not into the grade competition stuff so no speaking parts at graduation for me. I really think they just like me. The alumni association wanted me to come to a dinner w/ winners from other schools, but I have zero interest in competitive schools like H so I didn't go. It's really just something to put on your app.</p>