Does anybody have any experience with BS admissions regarding hooks? BS have high matriculation rates because they admit students who already have good hooks for Ivy acceptance but what happens if these hooks cannot be nurtured as an extracurricular at the BS? I understand if the student is a top athlete and can show off their talents in varsity sports and go to state championships such as football, volleyball, rowing, etc. But what if the student has a hook in a sport that the BS doesn’t offer (boxing) or if varsity level doesn’t matter (fencing)? Or if the student’s hook is being on broadway? These students have to go outside of BS to continue their hook. So is BS out of the question? Do these BS look to accept them as day students only or can the BS give these students exceptions to leave campus during the week?
Taking the admissions question off the table for a month moment, the question of how a student nurtures a talent outside of BS is a big old “it depends.”
Some schools are more flexible than others. Some schools will insist that the student’s primary focus is the BS, and will not allow outside activities to be used in lieu of the schools required activities. Other schools are more flexible.
However, even where the school is flexible, the logistics of scheduling, transportation, etc is complicated and will require a great deal of commitment from the parents.
As far as admissions, a hook is something that a school needs, or at least strongly wants. A school wants legacy for potential future donations. A school needs athletes for its teams. Does a school need a boxer? Probably not. It may help in admissions, but it’s probably not a hook.
The boarding schools I know personally do not support out of school activities at all. In fact they make it harder for the most part, both with policies and with the general set up. Even for sports stars I would not recommend this path.
I think if a student has a serious extracurricular interest they pursue, they would want to be in the environment that best allows them to do that. Not in one that involves jumping through logistical hoops. For example, it’s a lot easier for an equestrian to be at a school w stables or a competitive skier to be at a school with a ski team than to try to figure out how to ride or race while at another school.
And yes, if an extracurricular interest is one that is outside the parameters of most boarding schools, than BS may not be the best option.
The only hooks that matter are (in order of preference):
Development
Varsity level Athlete (College Coach Recruitable)
Legacy/Fac-brat
URM
The rest of the things are nice to have (Broadway), but do not rise to the level of a ‘hook’.
If it doesn’t benefit the school, it’s not really a “hook”. There’s a difference between being a memorable/distinctive applicant and having a “hook”.
What qualifies as a good “hook” varies according to a school’s priorities. Some schools prioritize performing arts over athletics, for example.
I might just be clueless, but I haven’t heard “development” listed as a hook before. What does it mean?
When your parents give tons of money, but not in a Varsity Blues way.
You know, the thing that mystified me the most about Varsity Blues is that there were so many perfectly legal ways that money could have been used to get some of those kids into their colleges of choice.
No need to fake a sport.
Like how Will Danoff gave Middlesex a new performing arts center. If your parents are that level and you are applying to the school you will get in.
Makes sense. I’m also guessing that having parents with the potential to be huge donors gives those kids an edge in admissions. Like Tom Brady’s kid.
DS was attending a K-12 school that had boarding in high school only. He got heavily involved in a performing arts extracurricular in middle school. Everything was fine until he got to ninth grade as a day student. The school insisted he had to do extracurriculars on campus until 5 or 6 pm daily. Some extracurriculars required weekends as well. Although the school had a wide variety of ECs, none of them were DS’ EC that he had cultivated over the previous several years. After less than one semester of staying at school until 6pm, then driving to his EC 45 miles away for several hours of practice almost daily, he was applying as a boarder to other BS that did have his extracurricular on campus. He was accepted to 2 and is now at a school that specializes in performing arts.
Indeed. Celeb kids are often sought after. In Brady’s case, he would be a huge draw if he can coach the football kids!
Some schools call it development, while others might call it advancement. The essential function of those departments is fundraising.
Private schools are run as businesses in the sense that they need to have more income than expenses in order to stay afloat. More often than not, tuitions alone are not enough to cover the salaries and capital expenditures of the schools, in which cases the schools would have to depend on donations. Children/grandchildren of major donors are usually considered development cases and evaluated separately, hence the term “development hook” or “development preference.”
The schools are not coy about the need for funds. They have formal Development Offices. It is the job of the Development Director to raise funds for the school through strategic programs (such as The Annual Fund which all you new BS parents will become familiar with before long) and targeted outreach. Choate’s Development Office operatives travel the planet in search of these necessary whales.
Yup. At our school there’s even a job opening right now for a Major Gift Officer.
Unless the school doesn’t have football… In which case, only Brady’s $ would be the hook.
…And they are always happy to have parent and student volunteers. 
I don’t think the money they paid would have gotten their kids into the those colleges. Do they have the money to do it? Probably. Do they want to spend millions on it? No. So they paid much less to fake a sport or test. Cheaper that way but much riskier. Unfortunately it didn’t work out well in the end.
I have been waiting to say this, so here it goes….
My kid is a 3 + sport athlete who has worked hard for over a decade and made many sacrifices, as well as joyful commitment. If anyone dares to photo-shop or paste their kid’s face on my Kiddo’s athletic body, I will be the one going to jail…and it won’t be for paying off an admissions person or coach! 