I was reading a thread over on the Harvard board about “hooks.” Everyone seems to think that being an AP scholar with distinction or winning your school’s science fair is hook. It’s not.
Interning at the White House is a hook. Winning an Olympic medal and writing a book about it is a hook. Signing a recording contract and creating a CD is a hook. Being a high end fashion model is a hook.
So, what’s your hook? lol
<p>I won the 3 gold medals in the world championships in 2003 for uh... swimming. I also published 16 scientific articles in the most prestigious journals out there. I'm also Bill Gates' personal financial advisor and the CEO to company X.</p>
<p>... I wish. haha! but any of those things would be hooks</p>
<p>Hooks could be even something simpler. For instance, you're living in poverty, you're fluent in another language, you're first generation, you're a URM. Then Again, being Bill Gate's Financial advisor is always good, too.</p>
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Hooks could be even something simpler. For instance, you're living in poverty, you're fluent in another language, you're first generation, you're a URM. Then Again, being Bill Gate's Financial advisor is always good, too
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<p>I am originally from India but i've been born and brought up in the middle east... Does knowing Hindi count as "another language" since i learned it at school? My first language is Sindhi ( an Indian dialect ).</p>
<p>From the Article: How Admission Decisions Are Made</p>
<p>A hook, in admission parlance, is any additional advantage that makes a candidate attractive to a particular college. This will vary from school to school and from year to year. Some candidates may try to hide their hooks, preferring to be admitted on only merit (parents tend to discourage this) while others will fight furiously to exploit even the most inconsequential connections. Such hooks may include athletic ability, minority status, veteran status, alumni connections, special talent (e.g., art, music, theater, writing, etc.), underrepresented socioeconomic background (e.g., first-generation college), geography, gender, VIP status, ability to pay full tuition, or miscellaneous institutional needs.</p>
<p>Having a hook can give a candidate a higher rating from the get-go or can pull an application from the deny pile and put it into the admit (or wait list) stack. Hooks come into play most often when judging equally qualified candidates. For example, if a college has to select one of two students who look the same on paper, and one is the daughter of an alumnus and the other is not, the daughter is probably going to get in over the non-connected student.</p>
<p>However, no matter how well connected or how gifted a student is outside of the classroom, if he doesnt have the grades or the ability, he wontor shouldntbe admitted. And, if he does get admitted for special reasons, those connections wont guarantee that he will succeed. One college even had to turn down its own presidents son!</p>
<p>The hooks below are the ones discussed most oftenand most passionately in admission committee meetings:</p>
<p>Alumni Connections
Athletes
Students of Color
Talent in the Arts</p>
<p>The Invisible HookInstitutional Needs</p>
<p>One reason that an applicant is admitted to a particular college while a similar- seeming (or even less able) applicant is not can be due to a fuzzy factor known as "institutional needs." These needs, explains Amherst Colleges Katharine Fretwell, are likely to vary from college to college, andeven within a single schoolfrom year to year. One season, says Fretwell, an institution may be after more women, Midwesterners, or hockey goalies; the next time around it could be scientists or string musicians. "Applicants do not have control over these needs and are rarely aware of them," she notes. "And, according to outside observers (candidates, their counselors, parents, or classmates), the influence of these priorities may create some mysterious admission decisions."</p>