<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>