Do I have a "hook"?

Applying to College
1

<p>Trying to be something you're not is never a good idea, but playing off a hook doesn't seem like such an immoral strategy for college admissions.</p>

<p>Personally, I'm a vegetarian and utilitarian (that's a relatively obscure philosophy that revolves around the greatest happiness principle). I firmly believe in equality of all life and I am literally devoting myself and my lifetime to utilitarianism. It drives all decisions I make, including choosing a college, major, and career.
-Does this constitute a hook?</p>

2

<p>Nope.</p>

<p>10char</p>

3

<p>No A hook is something that a college must have such as excellent players for its well regarded football team or a tuba player for its band</p>

4

<p>Def not.</p>

<p>Hook = URM status, development admit, legacy, recruited athlete.</p>

5

<p>Hmmm, but I’m sure even if not mine, that there are less stereotypical hooks. I mean, a hook is something that makes you stick out from the crowd; race, athleticism, etc. aren’t the only things that stand out.</p>

6

<p>No, a hook is something that a college must have in its student body. No college must have vegetarians or utilitarians.</p>

<p>Most colleges also make decisions overwhelmingly based on students’ stats (with the exception of giving tips to people like multimillionaire donors’ kids and potential varsity football players). Students political orientations and the type of food the students eat doesn’t matter. It’s only the very top colleges --places like HPY- that have such an overabundance of high stat applicants that the colleges can pick and choose from among their outstanding applicants to select the ones who’ll most contribute to an active campus that represents all types of diversity.</p>

7

<p>At top colleges, most applicants have something that makes them stick out from the crowd, but not even a 2300 on the SATs is considered a hook. I think a hook has to improve a college’s image; URM status makes a college more diverse, and they can report that on their class profiles, and star athletes are great for publicity and can bring in money for the school.</p>

8

<p>Everyone has some sort of dietary and ethical system preferences. I would think that making a point of being a vegetarian and utilitarian would actually work against you because it implies yours are somehow better.</p>

9

<p>Is a congressional intern working in D.C. a hook?</p>

10

<p>Joining a unique EC for years, knowing how to play gamelan and javanese tradition, are they hooks?</p>

11

<p>HOOKS: URM, 1st Gen, Recruitable athlete, development case (ie family donated money to develop a building on campus or something- this has to be significant.), maybe (probably not) legacies.</p>

<p>EVERYTHING else is not a hook. Not congressional interns, not javanese traditions (hello, everyone has traditions), and not unique ECs.</p>

12

<p>No, those are not.</p>

13

<p>Y’know, I can pretend I’m a pagan gypsy confucianist rastafarian for the uniqueness and all, but it doesn’t mean a damn thing since </p>

<p>a. colleges can’t verify your lifestyle, so anybody can say whatever they want
b. Openly preferring a lifestyle choice is a very, very dangerous proposition.</p>

14

<p>equality of all life? so that means you hold people in the same esteem as, say, mosquitoes or the HIV?</p>

15

<p>HIV, being a virus, is arguably not alive.</p>

16

<p>it is arguable, but in the name of equality i’m inclined to include them as genetic material capable of adaptive reproduction by self-assembly.</p>

17

<p>I consider saying “the HIV” to be akin to saying “using the email”. There’s an extra “the” and it just sounds stupid.</p>

18

<p>How about being an Olympic athlete? Does that count as a hook? Just wondering.</p>

19

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<p>Theoretically you’d be recruited and/or celebrity, so yes. If neither, then no.</p>

20

<p>@yurtle: dude, by any means, you misunderstood my question. Of course everyone has its tradition, but that’s not what i meant. </p>

<p>And Yale has gamelans, or so I heard ;)</p>