<p>I'm applying RD to Cornell and I'll list my stats, but I was wondering if I have a hook because my brother is currently a sophomore there. Does that count? Also, this past summer I did an internship at Weill Cornell (in NYC) for a month, shadowing a neurosurgeon. Is that a hook because it's also Cornell?</p>
<p>Race/Ethnicity: White (parents from Europe)
SAT: 2070 670M 730W 670CR
SAT II:770 Spanish Reading, 710 Math II
GPA: UW 3.65, taken all honors and AP courses that I can, except junior year I took regular history and senior year I dropped history because I had too many classes (that shouldn't affect me negatively especially because I don't plan to pursue history)</p>
<p>lots of EC's (more than anyone else in my grade) with leadership roles in all my sports (I do 3 sports)</p>
<p>I'm applying to Human Ecology for the Human Development major</p>
<p>Not a hook. My D is a freshman HD major. Her stats were slightly better than yours & we thought her chances for admission (ED) were perhaps around 40%? Did you have the neurosurgeon write a letter of rec. for you? That may help make you stand out a little.</p>
<p>Shadowing is not an impressive activity. You follow a doctor around passively. So, not a hook because it doesn’t demonstrate much about you. Not sure LOR’s from this neurosurgeon will be helpful since they basically don’t know you. For this reason, when you apply to med schools, they actually DON’T want LOR’s from doctors you’ve shadowed because they are generally worthless.</p>
<p>That said, the best way to make use of that internship is to incorporate it into your essay (if you’re planning on being premed). I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions based on shadowing a neurosurgeon though. It seems 80% of high schoolers want to become a neurosurgeon while only 0.5% of med students want to become a neurosurgeon so usually that’s a reflection of the naivete of the HS student.</p>
<p>While what you are describing is not “technically” a hook, both certainly can be used to your advantage in your essay depending on how you incorporate these details.</p>
<p>thanks for the replies
but I wasn’t asking whether the shadowing was a hook necessarily in itself, but the fact that I shadowed at Cornell (maybe it shows interest?) and the fact that my brother goes to Cornell.
no- I did not get a rec from the neurosurgeon for those reasons, he didn’t know me that well and I didn’t want to add an extra rec for no reason
I don’t want to do pre-med (too much work)
again, thanks for the quick responses</p>