Do I have a HOOK?

<p>besides, i don't know how much demand there is for calculator games lol
Canes, yeah i'd say go ahead and do it.
should I give colleges a link to my site? In that case, I'm going to want to put a lot more work into it, since I haven't worked on it for a while
you really think "Poker" wold be a turnoff? I thought about it earlier but dismissed it. What do you other people think...?</p>

<p>Well, the thing is, if you have a conservative reader, it'll do more harm than good, you see? I mean, from your site Poker hasn't been even added yet, so you could just take it off from the future programs for now and insert it back when you get accepted in MIT. ha ha. But yeah, you should give them the link bc it's pretty cool.
But the other problem is, would other MIT applicants be able to do the same thing? I'm not a comp wiz so I wouldn't know...</p>

<p>there surely are other programmers out there.
and calclator programming is viewd by some as kind of lame compared to computer programming. nevertheless, I like to think my calculator games are pretty cool</p>

<p>i just saw something quite nice. On the common app when i check 'hispanic' it lets me select spain. Do you think by me checking hispanic and caucasian colleges will be fine with that?</p>

<p>yes Canes! just check both hispanic and caucasian! lol</p>

<p>Canes12, stick w/ the calculator issue, sheesh... jk
Yeah, your calc games are cool, only I can't follow your instructions bc I suck at it... ha ha</p>

<p>" "Gifted Program" ? Never heard of it. Are u sure it's legit."</p>

<p>Yes, it's school board and government sponsored. </p>

<p>Are these hooks?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I manage the finances of an environmental organization that deals with hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Its sponsored by the government, the school board and airline companies in regards of carbon offsetting.</p></li>
<li><p>I am the Editor-in-Chief for an Canada-wide organization that deals with Youth Involvement. In which I have to edit and create layouts bi-weekly for newspapers that are handed out to hundreds of thousands of students.</p></li>
<li><p>I am a Youth-Senator for the Parliament. Only 65 elected in the whole country.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>"Oh, and a hook is something you can't control (race, legacy, developmental case, etc)"</p>

<p>Not entirely true. Being a recruited athlete is a hook, and one can certainly control their athletic training.</p>

<p>gecko..those are spectacular EC's. yeah, the reason I never heard of those is becuase you're from Canada. I'm beginning to think what qualifies as a hook is a rather subjective call</p>

<p>^^ what you said is true, and one can train up to a certain point, but for the most part, the recruited athletes that i know were just blessed with natural talent</p>

<p>
[quote]
Oh, and a hook is something you can't control (race, legacy, developmental case, etc)

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Absolutely untrue. Winning the Siemens Intel is definitely a hook. I know someone who did, and she actually received recruiting calls from faculty at many of the top schools, including Harvard. I know another woman who won the Geneva Piano Competition, and she was also highly recruited. Other hooks include holding high national office in various organizations, and there are lesser, regional hooks, as well.</p>

<p>But most of what people want to think are hooks are just tips.</p>

<p>Hooks are, as their name implies, things that will in effect make the university accept you -- how could they reject you? It's difficult, then, for internationals to have a hook, because even ones with amazing ECs and such have a small chance of getting in.</p>

<p>There are many types of hooks, the three most common being URM, athlete, legacy/donor. But ones that distinguish you on a very high level -- such as winning the Siemens competition, being international president of Key Club, or placing first in a competition like USAMO or IMO -- can be considered hooks, too.</p>

<p>kyledavid:</p>

<p>URM is not a hook. Simply being a URM will not make a university accept you (in fact, nothing will accomplish THAT). URM status is a tip. In Shakespeare's words, URM status will generally cause the admissions department to "look to like" (not that that did much for Juliette). But I have served on two admissions committees and I can absolutely assure you that neither of them treated URM status as more than a tip. That is, when it comes down to deciding who, among the last group we were considering, would gain admission, URM status (assuming it was also first generation and from particular neighborhoods) was important.</p>

<p>That's all it is.</p>

<p>As for legacies, that varies by school. UVA, for instance, grants in-state status to legacies so that they are considered part of the in-state pool. To the best of my knowledge, that's the only advantage. It's a considerable one if you're out of state, but it hardly MAKES the university accept you.</p>

<p>"recruited athletes that i know were just blessed with natural talent"</p>

<p>Be very careful with statements like this. Many of you young CC posters are gifted intellectually, but it won't count for much if you didn't work hard in your classes, and study for your SATs. Same with athletes. You can have all the talent in the world, and blow capitalizing on the hook by having a less-than-stellar season, getting injured, or burning out. Further, to take advantage of the athletic hook at a selective school requires a top academic profile FIRST. I won't quote cliches about the ratio of talent and hard work. I'd be preaching to the choir :)</p>

<p>nice posts guys.
I'm going to say something controversial and biased: I think intellectual talent is so much more valuable than athletic talent. Intellectual talent changes the world... athletic talent-- not so much. and with all these students (15% of student body reserved for athletes) getting into ivies on athletic talent and good but hardly spectacular academics... sigh. I don't even understand why ivies so aggresively recruit athletes. They've never been known for their athletics, and they never will be.
so I just have a tip?</p>

<p>Tarhunt: I would consider URM status a hook, given that the person is a strong applicant anyway (though this given applies to all other hooks, too). The "makes the university accept you" point was obviously an exaggeration.</p>

<p>riverrunner thats true. my neighbor was a basketball prodigy, he was 6-7 as a sophomore in high school and he was amazing, always had college coaches at his games, and he started getting phone calls from them too (im not even sure if they are allowed to do this at his grade level). yet he never went to practice because he knew the coach would let him play anyway. thats how good he was. anyway, we all expected him to go to duke or another top basketball program but he dropped out of high school and is now sitting at home doing nothing. sucks for him, he could have done so many great things. anyway, he WAS naturally that good and all the other all-star athletes i know are naturally good too. but, they are not smart enough for a top school, and even if they were, they would rather go to a great sports school.</p>

<p>
[quote]
The "makes the university accept you" point was obviously an exaggeration.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>OK. It's all in the definition. If you define hook differently from the way I define it, then anything that fits that definition becomes a hook, n'est pas?</p>

<p>The way I define hook, URM status doesn't qualify. I define hook as that which makes a college hope that you are qualified to attend so that they can admit you. I've never seen URM status create that kind of desire in a school, but I can't say that it never happens anywhere, obviously.</p>

<p>What I've seen URM status do is tip you into an acceptance letter if you are in a pool of potential applicant, all of whom are qualified.</p>

<p>I hate how people often enslave themselves to the mindset statement "lol u cant control a hook lol@j00n00b" </p>

<p>A hook can certainly be controlled - theoretically, let's same someone discovered the cure to a deadly disease in his teens. That is a definite hook, and he would be accepted over all the URMs, legacies, and recruited athletes. That is a self-made 'hook'. While this case is undoubtedly infinietly unlikely, this theoretical example shows that a hook can be created for top schools.</p>

<p>My understanding of URM status was that schools have a certain percentage of their incoming class that they want to be under represented. (lets say 10%-15%) Their goal is to fill those seats with the top minorities that apply, however, just like athletes, those seats are reserved specifically for minorities. This means that the URM's that apply aren't being evaluated against the entire applicant pool, but instead against the other URM's (because they are vying for the same reserved seats.) This often results in URM's being admitted with lower stats than the normal applicants because their applicant pool is often smaller. So while a person's race may not be something that will make a college bend over backwards for you, it does place an applicant in a much less competitive situation which is great for those whose stats are strong to begin with. I could, however, be completely mislead when it comes to this process. Just something I thought I heard once.</p>