Hey all!
I wanted to ask if these are hooks:
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My father is the only person in my entire extended family to go to college
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I, myself, am an immigrant from a 3rd world country
Just curious
No
Hmm
if the 3rd world country (not a term I’d use in a college application, by the way) is a very underrepresented one in the US, and if you moved here recently enough to still be able to properly identify with that country, it could be a diversity advantage at some colleges, but it wouldn’t swing an entire application. An Ivy adcom member told my daughter it would be a check mark on her application if she applied there (she didn’t, though), and I suspect it was a check mark at her ED school too. But definitely not enough in itself.
If the country of origin is one that sends a lot of immigrants to the US, or if you moved here when you were a small child and are American to all intents and purposes, then I don’t think there is an diversity advantage.
To expand…a hook is a reason why a college would want you in particular over other applicants with similar traits/academics etc. If you had a hook you would know it. Generally a hook refers to things like being a recruited athlete (ex. the coach wants YOU to play quarterback on the football team), being the child of a big donor (who they hope will donate even more money), having some kind of fame or incredible accomplishment that that would bring positive attention to the college (ex. Malala) or something along those lines. There are many threads about “hooks” on CC that you can read. Very few people have hooks.
You are not the only person who has only one family member who has gone to college (in fact you would not even be considered first generation) and there will be many immigrants from third world countries applying to college. You can try to use your background and weave it into an interesting essay, find meaningful ECs etc. but it is not a hook.
Common Hooks.
First gen. No parents attended college.
Legacy- as defined by school (some accept parents grad school, grandparent or sibling as examples some don’t)
Recruited athlete.
Guaranteed walk on athlete.
Parents are professors or work at school.
URM. Under represented minority students to help build a diversified and balanced student body Generally accepted to be students whose background and cultural identity is Hispanic, African-American, Native American, Pacific Islander, Native Alaskan & Native Hawaiian (not to be confused with resident status within Hawaii)
Development Candidate. Potential for large donation from family. Each school will have different levels to be helpful. Some will require donating a building level gifts to be a real “hook”
Other hooks.
Celebrity. Also to include child of celebrity including famous politicians, celebrated business executives, important faces of a cause (think David Hogg), athletes in non recruited sports. Ie world championship and Olympic level. Think Figure Skating and retired Olympic women’s gymnastics champions. This can also double as development candidate. You know it when you see it in this category.
Significant national and international awards. And there are many but some help more than others depending on level of recognition rigor and rarity. Such international math/science Olympiad medalist Intel or other such regarded science scholars nat Hispanic scholar (see URM). NMF. Wendy’s All American winners and finalists. Significant writing awards and the like.
Questbridge Finalists and matches.
Legitimate authored scholarship. Named within research at university level and published in academic peer reviewed journals
Significant achievement and notariety in the development of a marketable technology or business
I’m sure there are others but this is what seem to have the highest level of impact on admission decisions. “All other things being equal” between qualified pools of applicants. Not be confused with the normal holistic view. Things that take you out of one pile and into another.
These may not be hooks but they are things that will complicate your relationship to college admissions and how you feel about being at college (maybe you will feel more proud but maybe also feel more out of place in certain environments). Think of them as something you need to reflect on as you find a well-matched school. Personally, I think you can use any terms you want in your application to refer to where you come from. If you feel more comfortable using “Third World” over terms like developing or poor, use it. There is a lot of history and fight in people who define themselves as “third world”.
^ Coming from a “third world” country myself, and practicing a profession where we commonly divide the world according to levels of development for analysis, it is a term that has not really been used for a couple of decades - not so much because of what had become regarded by some as an insulting implication but more simply due to the virtual disappearance of the second world making it obsolete. So again, it’s not something I’d use in a college application, especially from someone born after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But I guess OP could try use the “fight” angle, whatever that may mean for a college application.
@SJ2727 I have seen it used as a radical term of identity more recently. But I’m old so even that may be obsolete in the wider academic world (I looked it up and the minority center at Harvard was called the Third World Center in 1980). Old fogey admissions people might be gripped by nostalgic longing. But I also think it’s important to speak with one’s own language, what one would naturally express. Immigrants from less developed countries tell me all the time they come from the third world. And the second world still exists in a lot of people’s minds - it’s just shifted to China and reformed in former Soviet territory. Even during the Cold War the “Second World” was barely a concept in most people’s minds.