<p>Hey CC!</p>
<p>I am a Canadian citizen, and am looking to apply to some US colleges. Both my parents didn't have the opportunity to earn a four year Bachelor degree (damn you, Cultural Revolution) and have trade school degrees. Is being first-generation still a hook if you're an international student? </p>
<p>it’s not a hook (nothing’s a hook if you’re international, except being full pay and from a not-too-represented country) but it IS taken into account since you’re both from an immigrant family and your parents didn’t complete (college? high school? middle school?)</p>
<p>Being first generation, legacy, a URM, or an athlete are hooks. Perhaps they aren’t as significant for international students, but they are hooks to counter what @MYOS1634 said.</p>
<p>Can anyone confirm? I am an International needing FA. </p>
<p>Please consider using your essays to convey compellingly how much a solid undergraduate education means to you AND base this on your – and your family’s – experiences without college educations. I suspect that could be an excellent “hook,” which will obviously also convey the fact – and more important, the significance – of “first generation.”</p>
<p>@TopTier Interesting! I’ve actually written a Common App essay on that, but haven’t edited it/read it for awhile. I suppose I had difficult properly conveying what I wanted to say.</p>
<p>@FuzzyPeaches22 : That’s nothing fifteen or twenty rigorous edits/rewrites can’t resolve. It’s your opportunity to distinguish your candidacy from a LOT of others.</p>
<p>@TopTier Would you like to give it a read? I’m going to pick it up again tonight and give it another go.</p>
<p>Sure, PM me when it is near complete. </p>
<p>Sorry, but few International students have a chance of receiving “financial aid” no matter how good or compelling your hook is. </p>
<p>Okay, I’ll amend this to say that if you’re a national or international-level athlete, even if you’re an international who needs FA, it’s a hook.
But otherwise, no, international-who-needs-FA is the ultimate anti-hook. </p>
<p>AnnieBeats, first generation is NOT a hook…it is a tip.</p>
<p>I’m applying to Penn, which is need-blind to Canadians, if that helps.
@GA2012MOM @MYOS1634 @aunt bea</p>
<p>^yes that would help.
But your odds are about 1 in 20 even like that - better than at other schools but I do hope you have good safeties and matches.</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 As an international requesting FA, I don’t have any matches or safeties in the states. I do have some in Canada though.</p>
<p>^ matches and safeties in Canada count 
- that’s all I meant. :)</p>
<p>@ga2012mom
</p>
<p>What exactly is the difference between a hook and a tip?</p>
<p>A hook means you’re in an entirely different category whereas tips/ nudges etc help you within the general pool. in that case it’d be the general pool of international students who need financial aid which is insanely competitive .</p>
<p>I’ll second what GA2012MOM said about first generation NOT being a hook. Hooks are traits that fill an institutional need. Colleges don’t “need” first gens in the way they need athletes, donors, happy alumni, etc.</p>
<p>^@sherpa: it depends on the college - some selective colleges actively recruit first generation students (such as Hamilton or Berea, for instance). However, this doesn’t apply here, since OP is international.</p>