Hooks/Ways to Stand Out for 10th Grade Private School

Prep School Admissions
1

Hi all,

I am applying as a sophomore for Fall 2022 to Loomis Chaffee, Miss Porter’s, and Suffield Academy. Right now I am mainly concerned with hooks: I feel like I do not have any significant awards that would make me stand out.

My strongest suit is definitely ELA as I am a strong writer and I really would like to be admitted to Loomis for this reason: I attended their summer writing program and received a lot of great feedback, and I think I could truly thrive at Loomis because of this. I actually wrote a persuasive essay that the writing instructor really liked!

In addition, I am heavily involved in studying Chinese, as I have been taking a Chinese class for years and going to take the AP exam as a freshman in 2022.

Grades:
High Honors for all middle school years
Lowest grade 95% right now
Taking all Honors Classes

EC’s
Model UN
Secretary for Student Government
Cancer Club: I’ve also been team captain for American Cancer Society events and have gotten good county placings in terms of fundraising
School Newspaper
Freshman Soccer Team
Community Service: preparing meals for people with critical health conditions

I took the SSAT a few weeks ago and got 97 percentile overall; 93% for Verbal, 99% for Reading, and 82% for Quantitative.

Finally, I have a couple of Honor Roll Awards from 7-8th grade but that’s really it for awards. I’ve just never felt the need to submit anything to competitions for the past few years, and I don’t want to make that an obstacle now. Is there any feedback/advice for what I can do to make myself stand out more? Like in interviews/essays?

I implore you; be brutally honest, haha. Thanks!

2

Forgot to mention: I have been playing Violin for a couple of years, but it’s nothing super exceptional.

3

You sound like a VERY strong candidate IMO

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4

You are a very solid candidate. Especially for the schools you listed.

You can’t creat a hook so relax about your application.

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5

Here are the most common hooks:

  1. Legacy
  2. Development
  3. Faculty child
  4. URM
  5. Athlete

Of the list above 1-4 are predetermined so you can’t really change them. Athletic hook is possible, but takes several years of mastery before you’d be considered a legitimate recruit.

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6

These might not be “hooks” as people traditionally think of them, but can be presented as showing qualities that people like - compassion, generosity, and leadership, for starters.

This could be your “hook” - or at least distinguish yourself from the crowd, if you have an interesting/compelling story about it. Use it in essays, if you can, and definitely in interviews.

If you’re into it because you’re tagging along with your parent, or just a member of a youth organization, it might not distinguish you. But if it’s something that you’ve taken some initiative in, or chosen to do, that might be interesting. How did you choose to become a member of the Cancer Club?

Great grades, great SSAT scores, Model UN - there are many applicants with those qualifications. You want to differentiate yourself as interesting. And I suspect you are very interesting - just let yourself shine!

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