<p>Ok, thanks everyone. I understand that those two things are not hooks now.</p>
<p>Would it be wise to write my college essay about how I worked night and day learning English, eventually transferring out of the bilingual program at a terrible elementary school and attending the highest-ranked public high school in Illinois (my high school was recently ranked one of the top 25 national "public elite" high schools)?</p>
<p>Or should I write about something else?</p>
<p>Thanks again.</p>
<p>Those two things aren't necessarily hooks, but certainly are tips. Yale has made it a point to admit more students from the lower socio-economic class, so if they have two equally qualified students, one upper class, and one lower class, I'm inclined to say that Yale would rather have the lower class student.</p>
<p>but Yale is need blind, so they won't know the financial status of their applicants when evaluating applications.</p>
<p>no, they will - you either check 'applying for financial aid' or you don't. But anyway, need blind just means that they admit independent of whether you need aid or not, not that they don't know whether you need it or not. </p>
<p>And I understand they are also alert to people who try to game the system by checking the box, but I really haven't had much interest in understanding the ins and outs of how they try to figure it out...:) so can't add any depth to that comment</p>
<p>Sure, go ahead and apply. You don't mention your birth country, but I would think some would be a hook. My H's step-niece (figure that one out) goes free to Cornell because she was a documented refugee - from Kurdistan! She came about 7 years ago and is doing very well there.</p>
<p>So, apply! Just apply to some other places too!</p>
<p>(And, can you clue us in: why NOT the Questbridge? You seem like the perfect QB person.)</p>
<p>well its kinda late to apply to questbridge for him anyways.</p>