Hook, for an average kid

Applying to College
1

<p>Other than grades, I feel like I'm a pretty unremarkable kid, and it's a bit deflating coming here, and reading how kids that would seem godlike in certain aspects are reduced to their second and third choices for colleges due to their lack of something on their college application.</p>

<p>I'll put my question here, so you won't have to read through the rest of the post if you don't want to. I've had good grades, and am expecting good test scores. But I have limited ec's and I'm not sure if I have a "hook". My question is: Is being adopted from South Korea, by white parents, into an almost entirely white community, and growing up with seven fingers, going to aid me in college admissions? If you want to keep reading you can, but from here down is just other things that I think will affect the admissions process.</p>

<p>I'm currently a junior at a pretty good high school (last year, I think we sent 1 kid to Yale, 2 to MIT, and another kid was accepted at Harvard but opted for Case Western) in a suburb of Pittsburgh. My grades have always been pretty good, I've had straight A's so far, and as of now, it looks as if that will continue. I've taken a lot of honors classes in my freshmen and sophmore years, and I'm currently enrolled in 3 AP courses. I've been accelerated in Math since fourth grade, and plan on taking Calculus 3 at either my local community college or the University of Pittsburgh during my senior year (or perhaps summer before) of high school. I've yet to take the SAT, but based on practice tests and my PSAT as a sophmore, I'm expecting to score at least 2100, probably in the neighborhood of 2250. </p>

<p>Now on the the extremely unremarkable part. I played tennis my freshman and sophmore years, but unfortunately, I suffered a shoulder dislocation the end of last season. I went through physical therapy, and my shoulder feels pretty good, but I am unable to play tennis without pain, and the quality of my play is severely affected, so I probably won't be playing tennis this year. I've done Model UN my freshman and sophmore years and will continue with that, and I'm trying to start a high school curling club with some friends due to my inability to play tennis this season. I've done some volunteering, but nothing as focused or as incredible as 10,000 hours researching the cure for cancer. As far as ec's, that's about it. I've always been the kid that likes to come home after school, and either hang out with friends, or spend time with family (my sister's baby was born two years ago, she works, and they live with my family).</p>

2

<p>I’m not sure if it’s a hook, but it has potential to be subjects of REMARKABLE essays.</p>

3

<p>Well if you help with babysitting your neice/nephew it’d count as an EC, just so you’re aware of that. (: It is a position of responsibility, after all. I’ve no idea about the hook-element though, sorry. ]:</p>

4

<p>The “average” student does not have a hook, they why hooks are a plus.</p>

<p>You will be judged in the context of how you grew up. If you were adopted by an affluent family as an infant an grew up in an affluent community, they will expect from you what they expect from your peers.</p>

<p>I’m going to try to be sensitive here about having seven fingers. If it has dramatically impacted your life and you have something interesting to say about it, by all means do. But your post comes across like many that leave people joking about HYPS being filled with one armed albinos who lived on two dollars a week since birth.</p>

5

<p>As I have repeated several times, a hook in my opinion is something allows the candidate to short circuit the admission process and get the adcom to overlook most of the negatives of the candidates, instead just focusing on one or two factors. Hooks are very limited in nature (athletics, legacy, child prodigy, big donor etc.). Having a unique childhood or even a difficult childhood does not qualify. However, if you can make something out of it e.g. a great essay, that would be powerful. Also, you need to have good grades, good scores, EC’s, recommendations to begin with. If you have all of that and you are able to bring out how your circumstances has affected you, you could become very competitive. If your record is not strong, then you do not have a chance.</p>

6

<p>Have your parents told you how much they can afford to pay for your college each year? If you will be needing F/A, do you know what their EFC is? </p>

<p>If your parents can’t pay much (I don’t know if they are helping your sister out financially care for her baby), then you might need to look at schools that will give you merit money.</p>