I have just received a book award and after looking this up I am still a little bit unclear on what it means for me. Can anyone clear this up? Have heard about it being essentially a teacher reccomendation, waive application fee, etc.
I know of a student who had her fee waived for another top tier college book award. She was ultimately denied admission.
Book awards are typically given out by a college’s alumni associations. Students who receive them are selected by their schools (usually some combination of teachers, administrators and guidance counselors are involved in the selection), typically because they are strong active students. If an award carries a fee waiver, it will typically say so in a letter or attachment to the award. I do not believe that the Harvard Book Award gives you a fee waiver.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1220700-harvard-book-award-question.html
It’s basically public relations by the local Harvard alumni club to your school because they wish to maintain a “presence”. You can bet your last penny that the neighboring district’s low income/blue collar school never has an Harvard (or Yale or RIT) alum dropping off the book prize for their honors ceremonies.
My alumni club (Yale) gave them to a handful of schools (0-3) any given year, only based upon the request of some local alum who had graduated from that school. They were a waste of money and when I was its president, I ended the practice.
Congrats but it simply means your faculty/staff view you as one of the top juniors. It means nothing to colleges that the rest of your transcript/profile won’t already prominently display. Congrats on THAT accomplishment-- the book award? Hopefully it’s a good read. Never heard of it allowing you an app waiver however.
@T26E4 thank you! This was along the lines of what id read, just needed some clarification.
My son got a book award from an Ivy League school. It was the only school that rejected him, out of 11 applications.
@MaineLonghorn oh wow! Guess that goes to show how little it means in the grand scheme of things
It was almost a relief for him that he was rejected there, because neither one of us felt it was right for him. Hard to explain why - just didn’t like the vibes on campus.