<p>Hey guys I'm a rising senior and I really want to go to Stanford or Princeton. I'm from a small rural town with limited resources, white male, valedictorian, 2140 SAT, taking all of the available APs, two varsity sports, play music, blah blah blah. Basically, I know that I fit all of the basic requirements for getting into top tier schools but I'm scared I'm too much of a vanilla candidate to stand out.</p>
<p>Does this qualify as a hook? I'm very interested in French. I'm taking AP next year, and I went to France last summer and stayed with a family there. I'm going to a competitive (50 in the state of Virginia get in) governor's school immersion program for 3 weeks this summer. I'm also planning on organizing a pen-pal program with my local middle school in the fall with students from the town I stayed in in France (I personally know and stayed with a director of education there).</p>
<p>I'm honestly not too concerned because the ivies are such a rat race anyway, and I know there are plenty of great schools that would accept me regardless. But what do you guys think?</p>
<p>Not a hook. Just a nice EC.</p>
<p>Not a hook. Just a nice EC.</p>
<p>A hook is being a URM, recruited athlete, legacy, or development admit. Anything else is just a nice EC, award, etc.</p>
<p>A hook is a quality of an applicant that meets a college or university’s institutional want or need. For example, most colleges have a football team, and football teams need linebackers. So if you’re one of the most sought-after high-school linebackers in Texas, that’s a hook. Most colleges need generous donors. If you come from a family that is likely to bestow a major gift on the college, you’re hooked. Most colleges want their alumni to be happy. Happy alumni donate to the college, and happy alumni are also good PR for the college. One way to make alumni happy is to give their children a leg-up in admissions. So if you’re a legacy, admitting you would help fulfill an institutional want. Many colleges like celebrity students. When Emma Watson applied to Brown, and Chelsea Clinton applied to Stanford, they were hooked.</p>
<p>But do colleges have an institutional need for, or for that matter a shortage of, students who are interested in French? Not really. You may be able to spin your interest in French into a reasonable personal essay or something, but, no, it’s not really a hook.</p>
<p>^^^Thanks for the clarification. I must be thinking of a spike.</p>
<p>Many colleges need guys to major in French, but staying with a family and organizing a penpal thing with middle schoolers is light. as you have described it. Not a hook, not really a great EC. And, maybe not a serious question.</p>
<p>Only a spike if you can describe achievements related to it and have the rest of the goods that will attract adcoms’ attention. If you think you are vanilla, work on that. Turn some of the “blah, blah, blah” into something better. Now’s your chance.</p>