<p>With all due respect, a newsletter isn't much. A newspaper, maybe, but not a newsletter. Anyone with access to Word and a Kinko's can put one of those out.</p>
<p>lol yea I know that's why it was pretty easy.</p>
<p>But if it was highly respected in my community, could it be significant on my application?</p>
<p>No. I honestly don't think so. Put it on there as an extracurricular or volunteer work, but it's not going to get you in anywhere. Again, with all due respect, it's just a newsletter.</p>
<p>ok, fair enough.</p>
<p>I received 2 national Jewish awards for my involvement in the Jewish and Zionist community.</p>
<p>Could this be a hook?</p>
<p>lol you are too obsessed with a hook.</p>
<p>ofcourse I'm obsessed with the hook.... from what I get from this forum - hooks are the only way to be accepted by an Ivy.</p>
<p>I received 2 national Jewish awards for my involvement in the Jewish and Zionist community.</p>
<p>Could this be a hook?</p>
<p>"Bobby, would you say that a combination of EC's, towards which you show passion and comitment for a long time, are some what of a hook? (or something that will get you into Harvard)"</p>
<p>No. A hook is some one thing, not a combination of things. Being an Intel finalist is a hook; being very involved in swimming, student government, and the homeless shelter is not a hook because (1) you're talking about many things, not one thing, which goes against the definition of a hook, and (2) almost every single applicant to Harvard has shown passion and commitment to a combination of ECs.</p>
<p>To answer the part in parentheses, yes, it will help; it's almost required that you show your commitment in ECs. But it is not a hook.</p>
<p>I received 2 national Jewish awards for my involvement in the Jewish and Zionist community.</p>
<p>If is was really competitive and hard to obtain, and if you can explain that on the app, it can be a hook.</p>
<p>Yes, it was given to 5 HS students throughout the US every year.</p>
<p>So you would consider this a partial hook?</p>
<p>
[quote]
lol you are too obsessed with a hook.
[/quote]
I sort of agree with this ... but I'd apporach it by turning around your original question. It's not a hunt for what is a hook ... your hook is the topic/activities that when you write or talk about them they 1) describe where you have spent time and energy and 2) bring out the best in you ... your hook will allow the school to see the potential of who you can be. It doesn't have to be a big deal (national science competition winner) ... it just has to be something that brings out the best in you!</p>
<p>No. If you need to ask about something being a "hook," it's not a hook. Stop thinking about it. Make sure the rest of your application is solid and move on.</p>
<p>allright, I appreciate everyone's responses.</p>
<p>Exactly, if you have to ask, it's not a hook. A hook is when everyone you know refers to you as the kid who: won Intel or Siemens, wrote the bestseller, has an art show featuring you at MOMA, Raised a quarter of a million dollars for, won the Tour de France while undergoing cemotherapy, Is an olympic champion, international debate champ in 4 languages, lion tamer!</p>
<p>Orrican, I don't want to discourage you. If you have great stats and activities you're proud of, write the best application you can. Much is luck after the numbers and formalities. Non lion tamers do get in! Just don't ask us to say there's a good chance, because give anyone shy of a 4.0 at top prep/2400/national champ/legacy, it would be lying to say good chance.</p>
<p>ok NO G8 SN. </p>
<p>My SAT score is 2340 - without even studying,
and my IQ has been proven (by testing) to be 133.</p>
<p>People as idiotic as you should not be on this forum.
If your SAT score is higher than 2000, then I'm the Queen of England.</p>
<p>orrican, there are plenty of people with scores 2340 and higher who don't feel the need to brag when somebody debates a point that they make. what would the world be like if everyone ran around stating their SAT score and the person with the higher score won the argument automatically?</p>
<p>You can't "prove" an IQ. That's one of the stupidest things someone could possibly say in an argument about intelligence. You don't "have" an IQ to begin with -- you have an IQ /score/. Your score can change every time you take it, and there are a thousand different factors that affect the outcome. It's actually quite like the SAT.</p>
<p>you are absolutely right Jessgill.</p>
<p>Except that when someone calls you a "joke" and "pathetic", the rules of conventional argument are no longer valid. I won't stand by while some stranger who's clearly a moron insults me.</p>
<p>And an IQ score can indeed be proven. The largest variation of scores for one person (who's not a child ofcourse) is 3-4 points, assuming you are taking different tests each time.</p>
<p>Aside from orrican being obsessed with a hook, his attitude is coming off as annoying and obnoxious. He wants to take something that he admits was easy to do and turn it into something its not: a hook. Furthermore, he somewhat admits he wouldn't mind the deception that colleges not know how easy it was for him to do, and get credit because other people said he did a good job.</p>
<p>I must say, and I mean this sincerely and not to be rude: orrican, and anyone else who relates to him: you need an attitude adjustment. If your desire to go to an ivy looks like an obsession, admissions officers will figure that out. Furthermore, ivies don't WANT people who are obsessed with getting in. They want people who are passionate about what they do and why they do it. They want the person who took that easy-to-do newsletter and turned it into a research symposium, or a daily-updated website community with analysis. These are the people who have hooks.</p>
<p>Think about it this way: If you went on an interview for an ivy (which you should do if you want to show your interest in attending) , what are you going to substantially be able to say abotu your newsletter? Could you talk about it intelligently for 30 to 45 minutes? Would you be able to , for that period of time, convince someone what you were doing was more than a simple easy task? Probably not.</p>
<p>Aside from lacking the content, the attitude I get ...looking for an easy way into a hook....suggests a "plugger" mentality....the kid who plugs through the AP classes, gets good grades and scores, but never really did anything more to make the resume look good.</p>
<p>This might not be you. But if it isn't , you need to take a good look in the mirror and present yourself a lot better than you are presenting yourself to this board.</p>
<p>Yeah, you don't deserve to be called names, thats foul. But you need to be honest with yourself, and people need to honestly tell you that you come off as having a lazy streak...not ivy material.</p>
<p>You don't have a hook, it doesn't matter. Your stats put you in the range where admission is a crapshoot. Even people with real, developed hooks don't always get in.</p>
<p>Like everyone else here, you're going to have to prove you have a great personality through your essays, recs, and interviews. Show that you are an intellectual who does stuff because he enjoys them, not hoping that something you do becomes a "hook".</p>
<p>you can be a person with an IQ of 160 and still have a 1500/2400 SAT score... really... Or even have bad grades in HS... How would someone who's never even seen the word "torenteisoudfidljsfklds" supposed to know that it means? Geniuses aren't psychics. The SAT doesn't determine your intelligence. It tests how well you know readin', ritin', n' rithmetic.'</p>