What qualifies something as a hook

I’ve heard the word going around a lot on What Are My Chances and from rising seniors at my school, but I really don’t know much about it. I Googled it and it told me that it is something that a particular college would want me for. Is it like specific for each college? Or is it just a general thing - like a passion that I have for a certain subject that makes me a good applicant. Can someone give me an example of a hook?

Also, I’m very passionate about programming/CS. My life is CS. Most of my academic competitions, my classes, my ECs, and my job literally orbit computer science. Would that be considered a hook?

Hooks can be for athletics, ethnic diversity, international citizenship, institutional legacy and loyalty, musical and artistic needs, component schools or special academic programs, and in some cases, even gender. Not CS.

Hey, thanks for replying. I am a varsity athlete, I am a first-generation American, a USA-only citizen, no legacy, no musical or artistic talent (I can draw I guess, but I’m no Da Vinci), I attend a highly competitive vocational school for engineering/STEM, and am a caucasian male. I think that answered everything in order. What now?

What now? Pick a broad range of schools and include at least one Safety where you are a SURE thing, you would be HAPPY to attend, and can definitely AFFORD it.

Common examples of hooks are:

Under Represented Minorities (URM)
Recruited athletes
Legacies
Development cases: children of people who are likely to become generous donors
First generation
Children of celebrities and politicians
Children of faculty

Note that, except in the case of recruited athletes, all of the above hooks are BY NATURE, i.e., by simple fate of being born to a certain family.

Then, there are hooks that are, on the other hand, BY NURTURE:

Olympic medalist
International violin virtuoso with Carnegie Hall appearances
Intel ISEF winner
UN speaker
Chess grandmaster
Patented inventor
etc. etc.

Note, also, that such hooks play a greater role in college admissions at highly selective schools. At single-digit selectivity rate at these schools with so many excellent applicants than they know what to do with, these hooks can make a significant difference.

Also note that not all hooks are of equal value. Each college has its own priorities and these priorities can even change from year to year in its attempt to build a particular class.

“Also, I’m very passionate about programming/CS. My life is CS. Most of my academic competitions, my classes, my ECs, and my job literally orbit computer science. Would that be considered a hook?”

In short, yes, as long as you can stand out from a crowd of applicants with a similar “passion.” If you don’t stand out, and CS and programming is ALL you’re about (“My life is CS”), there’s a danger then of being labeled “one-dimensional,” i.e., not well-rounded. Whatever your passion, it’s far better to be either “pointy” (stand out from the crowd) or well-rounded.

Lastly, I’d note that, other than the obvious examples of hooks listed above, there are many instances of well-rounded applicants being admitted to these highly selective schools. So, even if your parents can’t afford to donate $10M to a school of your top choice, non-athletic, not a concertizing virtuoso, haven’t published a NYT best selling book, etc., don’t be discouraged. Don’t look around at what others do, either. Just follow your own path with deepest interest and the results will take care by themselves.

Hey, thanks for the in depth answer, I really appreciate it. I may have exaggerated when I said “CS is my life.” If you click on my profile and look at my latest chance me, I listed everything that makes me more than one dimensional. I think I stand out from the crowd, personally. My passion for CS is reflected in many things that I do, but I do a lot of other stuff as well. I have a clear focus to what I do, but I don’t let that overtake my life. I still do a lot of other stuff, I just want to make it clear on college apps that I am very driven in what I do the most, in very specific things (like CS).

And yea, we aren’t millionaires. I’m not the child of a professor, but I am close with my employer, who happens to be a professor at one of my reach schools.

Keep in mind that very few people have hooks.

Wait… Not everyone has one? I thought it was just commonplace. .____.

Hooks are specific to the schools that need them.
@happy1 is correct; very few students have hooks.

You aren’t a URM
You aren’t a **recruited athlete/b
First generation, yes but this is becoming very common
Your family is not a “donor”.
You aren’t a celebrity.

Oh and CS isn’t a hook.
This field is very competitive and it is full/impacted at many universities.

Right now you don’t have an ACT/SAT to see where you might be in range.

So focus on your classes and get your testing done.

The UC’s will not provide any funding of any type to OOS students. Fees are $60K per year with no financial help.
So you can cross those off of your list.

The problem for the hookless is that many seats are taken at selective schools by the few who do have hooks.

Unfortunately you do not have any hooks going for you based on what you listed for yourself. If you are a varsity athlete, and become good enough, to be recruited, then that may potentially be your hook. Being passionate about one subject just won’t do. Some kids I know who are rising seniors, being ranked extremely high in their sports nationally, have already been recruited by top colleges, just awaiting admissions office decision now. That is a significant hook.

Hm, sucks. I was originally intending on being a recruited athlete, and I definitely had potential to do so. I then decided that I had a better chance if I focused on academics and other ECs. In order to be a recruit, I would definitely sacrifice almost everything else I did, my grades and future scores would be lower, and my ECs list would be empty. I hope my decision to change focus will help me in the long run.

Then again, maybe I’ll win the lottery and have a library with my last name on it in a few years. /(._.)/

Re the male gender hook, following are national universities with a gender gap of at least 3 percentage points favoring men. Figures shown are admission rates for women and men, as well as point differentials.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/03/14/want-a-college-admissions-edge-these-schools-might-give-you-a-gender-advantage/?utm_term=.ec2e501a6925

You can’t “intend” to become a recruited athlete.
Generally with hooks, you don’t really force it. You either are or you aren’t.

As a recruited athlete you would have, by now, had experienced some interest by the colleges and universities.

Have you competed in USTA satellite or open tournaments? Students who are recruited athletes usually are very skilled athletes and can balance their activities with their sport, because they are ranked and so adept at their sport.

As a recruited athlete, you have to play in college. These sports impact your time.

You start the college year earlier than your classmates, and you stay later. You have to have good time management skills because you do fly out to different colleges when competing. You did know that?

My 3 children were recruited athletes in tennis and swim. One was recognized in her Junior year and was USTA ranked in our state. She had an injury, so she decided against going to her admitted school because she didn’t want to risk another injury. My eldest was recruited for swim but she found out the hours would conflict with her major; she went to that school anyway, but didn’t play the sport. My son was also in the stages of being recruited (USTA rank) but knew he wouldn’t have time to finish CE schoolwork and didn’t want to play; he went to another college.

Your GPA is good, but it is not great, which is what you would need to get a chance at some of those schools. Even students with perfect GPA’s get rejected. Your test scores would also have to be perfect.

You don’t have test scores yet, so it’s difficult to see where you would fit.

I think you really need to revise your list of schools. Get some realistic choices.

Hello there,

I have experienced college interest for sports, been ranked in USTA (highly), and I have worked with recruiting agents. I felt a skillcap at that point, which meant I’d have to drop some academic stuff in favor of progressing further (but not as much as I would like to) with tennis. Overall, I thought that pursuing academics would best favor me in the future, so I put my focus there.

Also, by the College Board scale my GPA is apparently a 4.0. Didn’t know that before. My school doesn’t offer a weighted GPA because we don’t have any “regular level” courses, everything is at an honors or AP level, so the weights would be applied the same to every student.

I haven’t taken any tests yet, but I am scoring well on my mock exams and still have months to improve. I don’t understand why my school list needs to be revised…

What @TiggerDad mentioned as nurtured hooks are actually referred to as a spike, which is something you’re extremely strong and talented in (Olympics, Carnegie Hall, famous publisher, etc.). Hooks are more things to consider from the applicant’s personal situation and/or background. Hooks are much more personal and situational, and usually involves with someone advocating for you to the admissions officers (coach, legacy parent, a professor who’s your dad, etc.) while spikes are more on the talent and passion side of things.

Your school list needs to be revised because the schools you have listed in other posts (ex. MIT, CalTech, Penn, Columbia, Carnegie Mellon etc.) generally have acceptance rates under 10%. Other schools you have listed (ex. Berkeley, GATech) are difficult admits for out of state students. Even a perfect GPA with a rigorous program, perfect standardized test scores, great ECs etc. will not guarantee you admission into these schools. Simply put, these colleges do not have enough space to accept all of the well qualified candidates.

Every year there are one or two truly outstanding students who post on CC that they do not get into any college or only got into a super safety school they don’t want to attend because they only focused their attention on the super competitive high end schools. The goal for EVERYONE, not matter how great his/her qualifications are should be to choose a group of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable and that they would be happy to attend. From the list I saw I’d say all of the schools on your list are reaches for everyone with the exception of NYU which is probably a match assuming it is affordable (NYU has a reputation for not being generous in terms of financial aid).

@happy1 I do have a few schools in mind. The admit rate for our state school (it’s one of the better state schools in the USA, but privacy reasons so can’t say which) from our high school is nearly 100%, and they almost always offer massive scholarships. I have a sure shot there. I have other schools in mind. I only posted the ones that I did on Chance Me, since I wanted to have an appreciation of my chances for my absolute top choices. I have safety schools as well. My main concern is in the highly competitive picks.

So, as a TLDR for this entire thread. I don’t have a hook. But I have a spike? Which from some surface research would be my passion for CS?

The profoundness of my interest for computers has a reputable presence on my resume. Would I write my essays about computers then? Idk if I am looking too far in the future, but any help is appreciated.