<p>Hi everyone,
I received the Harvard Prize Book in June of this year. Does anyone know if it is in any way helpful in terms (hook?) of being offered admission to Harvard?</p>
<p>No, everyone gets them</p>
<p>No, no help .</p>
<p>yea you should put book awards on the app but it's not given weight in anyway other than okay, this kid got a book award. Book awards just show you're an outstanding student, which by applying to Harvard, they probably already know you are.</p>
<p>In itself H Book prize is not a hook. No school level award
typically is a hook at a top 10 school.</p>
<p>HOWEVER</p>
<p>in most schools it signifies the supposedly "top" student. In
schools that do not rank it thus signals the top student. Your
Harvard regional admissiosn officer who will be conversant with
your school's designation of the award will thus know you are
the top student.</p>
<p>What is the Harvard prize book?</p>
<p>It is given to a student chosen by the school, given out by the local alumni association.</p>
<p>Book awards doesn't do much.</p>
<p>I did a little searching and found this: Post.Harvard:</a> Clubs/Prizebook</p>
<p>
[quote]
the Harvard Prize Book has been an important way for Harvard Club members to help attract talented young people to Harvard and the opportunities in Cambridge.
[/quote]
[quote]
Harvard Clubs should contact the local high school principal and guidance counselor to introduce the program and to select the student to receive the award.
[/quote]
So it's awarded by local authorities and used more as a recruitment tool. Cool prize, but not a major hook.</p>
<p>every</a> time I see one of these threads about hooks I think of this</p>
<p>Thanks for all the comments...I just wanted to get some opinions as to if it might help me or not.....:o)</p>
<p>The kid who got the Harvard Book Award in my school wasn't even close to being the top student. He was just a kid with a lot of connections who was really popular. I truly don't think it holds much weight.</p>
<p>well...I am not really popular :o) but, I am a full IB student with a 4.8 gpa and current Valedictorian...maybe that's my hook! lol</p>
<p>My D won this at her unranked school and she was accepted at H. It's a very nice award to get. Nothing makes you a shoe-in, however. Congratulations and good luck!</p>
<p>Most of the students who got Book Awards at my HS weren't even close to being top students.</p>
<p>My H interviewer was the same person who donated my Harvard Book...and I didn't even realize it until April LOL</p>
<p>as mammall said, it's a nice award to receive. Let's leave it at that. Nothing is a shoe-in, but everything you can add can only help.</p>
<p>Congrats on the wonderful award and best of luck to you with your appl. at Harvard.</p>
<p>Agree with everyone else, it's certainly not a hook and may not help you at all (other than recognizing things like EC involvement, GPA, and test scores that the school sees already). A true hook is something like a legacy, URM, first-generation, or recruited athlete--something that would make the school want you essentially regardless of stats. However, I'm sure you're a viable candidate. Just don't count on expressing that with the book prize.</p>
<p>My school doesn't even give out book awards. In fact, until I registered on CC, I didn't even know what these things were.</p>
<p>Do they still use a custom book for the Harvard Book Prizes? It used to be a chronology of world history -- somewhat confusingly organized, but incredibly useful as a quick reference for finding dates and figuring out which Hapsburgs married each other and what the sides were in the War of Spanish Succession. I swear, my Harvard Prize Book is, after the OED and an atlas, the most consulted reference work in my house, even though it cuts off around 1950.</p>
<p>^my book was a bio on FDR...but yours sounds very useful.</p>
<p>Mine was the cool book by Martin Nowak who teaches at H</p>