Hook Examples???

Applying to College
1

<p>So I know that hooks are extremely helpful for college admissions. One of my hooks is that I started a business three years ago and I'm now 17. Can anyone name off a few more examples that could be helpful?</p>

2

<p>Wrong. A hook is an institutional need such as being a recruited athlete, an underrepresented minority, being a legacy applicant, and/or the child of someone who donates a large amount of money to that school.</p>

3

<p>The Search function (on the R above the list of threads) works well for questions with a distinctive key word, try it for ‘hook’.</p>

4

<p>I believe hooks are generally considered to be a characteristic about you (as opposed to one of your accomplishments) that makes you more attractive to colleges - specifically one that either makes the campus more diverse or one that brings a lot of money to the college. Some other ones that cortana431 did not list include being the first in your family to go to college (very modest hook), being famous or otherwise well-known, and sometimes your gender at a school where your gender is severely underrepresented (e.g., a girl at Caltech or a guy at Vassar).</p>

5

<p>

Not really. It’s actually more about accomplishments than characteristics. Take recruited athletes, who make up the largest segment of the hooked population. For them, it’s all about what they’ve accomplished. But beyond athletes, accomplishments matter at least as much as characteristics. Simply being a legacy or a URM doesn’t mean squat if one isn’t academically qualified. An average URM isn’t hooked; an academically strong URM is.</p>

<p>

First in family and underrepresented gender are tips at best. Son/daughter of a President/Senator or the occasional Emma Watson type actress are hooks</p>

6

<p>Oh, of course. It needs to be clarified that a hook like URM or legacy or recruited athlete is NEVER a one-way ticket into any given college. I wrote all that under the assumption that your grades and app is completely up-to-par. </p>

<p>Also note that each college weighs things differently. A legacy might be a stronger hook at one college and a weaker hook at another. You can have a look at how each college weights everything in section C7 of their Common Data Sets.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/76444-links-common-data-sets-posted-colleges-29.html#post14544264[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/76444-links-common-data-sets-posted-colleges-29.html#post14544264&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>Ooooooo I was thinking more of NTA (Non Teenager Activity) advantages. These can all be achieved through hard work. But most of the hooks seem to be unachievable by hard work because they are just given.</p>

8

<p>Athletic accomplishment is “unachievable by hard work”?</p>

9

<p>Athletic accomplishment and recruited athlete are two different things. Someone could be a talented athlete and have “athletic accomplishment” but they might not be recruited which I think is more of the hook.</p>

10

<p>Yes, just being an accomplished athlete isn’t a hook. To be a recruited athlete one needs to be good enough at their sport for the coach to want them, and academically strong enough to be admitted to the school.</p>

<p>Which part of that is “unachievable by hard work”?</p>

11

<p>Most of the hooks are unachievable by hard work but in this case yes a recruited athlete is all about hard work even though it is extremely difficult to be a recruited athlete in the first place if you are applying to a somewhat competitive school.</p>

12

<p>Here’s an idea of something that might possibly rise to the level of a hook that is more about what you do as opposed to how you were born:</p>

<p>[Spirit</a> of Community Home Page](<a href=“http://spirit.prudential.com/view/page/soc]Spirit”>http://spirit.prudential.com/view/page/soc)</p>

<p>Each year two high school students from each state are selected for this recognition based on service to their community. When I attended the ceremony for this a few years ago I was seated at a luncheon table with four high school students. Three of the four were headed to Ivy League schools. I don’t know how much their CS impacted their admissions, but it surely didn’t hurt.</p>