I am confused, is URM a hook or an advantage. I thought that a hook was something that almost guaranteed admission.
I know! 
Ok, super moderator, here’s a question. Is an Autism Spectrum diagnosis that was discussed in the application a hook? Are kids with Autism an URM? Some schools are at least giving lip service to “Neurodiversity initiatives” (e.g. Stanford, William & Mary)
I don’t believe it would be a hook in general although I can’t speak to any one particular college or program. There will be a number of applicants who are on the spectrum.
I do believe that if accepted the Disability Office would work with the student to help him/her succeed at the college.
Hooks are something that gives you an admission advantage; specifically, underrepresented minority at a school that wants more diversity (Black, Hispanic, Native American/Pacific Islander), legacy, donor child, recruited athlete, maybe geographical diversity, if coming from an area from which the college gets very few applications.
A “spike” is extraordinary achievement in an academic or non-academic field, that the college desires. Usually, this is achievement that is nationally or internationally recognized, such as Olympic athlete in a non-NCAA sport, professional actor/actress, very high level musician/dancer/singer, national competition winner in any academic field, being a well-recognized published author.
LGBTQ status, non-neurotypical status, etc. are not hooks. Geographical diversity can be a hook, but one needs to be from an area that the college wants, from which they get very few applications, such as Montana to Harvard, or rural West Va to Stanford.
I wouldn’t be surprised if 5% of admitted students overall at high level institutions are non-neurotypical, probably 10% at selective engineering schools. Girls I knew who went to RPI said, “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.” Point is, highly selective schools are not seeking non-neurotypical students. They’ll certainly take them if their academic achievement is extraordinary, but being on the spectrum is not a selling point when it comes to college admissions.
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Applicants who identify as male might be a hook at some SLACs (small liberal arts colleges) that have many more female applicants, e.g., Vassar. If you look at the Common Data Sets, you’ll see applicant and acceptance #s broken out by male/female.
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Sometimes. But sometimes not.
Greta Thunberg is hooked. Were she not famous, she might not be. Same for David Hogg, the Parkland shooting activist.
Bill Gates’ children might be hooked, assuming a large donation from dad. A million is probably not enough to be hooked.
A celebrity is hooked: Emma Watson, Natalie Portman.
Being a D1 recruited athlete is a hook.
Here is a list of prestigious awards. If you win one of the more important ones, you are hooked. This thread is old and some of these competitions are obsolete now, but you will get a general sense of which ones really matter. List of Top, Prestigious Awards - #20 by bernie_gabrielle
A high achieving URM student who is above and beyond just grades might be hooked. Or if you are this kid: Teen Accepted to Stanford After Writing #BlackLivesMatter 100 Times on Application
I’d say URM is not quite the hook it used to be, and is now probably more of an advantage than a hook. I think the same is true for first Gen to college and low SES background. You still have to have all the stuff that they look for.
Not hooks: LGBTQI, ASD, chronic illness, extremely challenging life circumstances, and similar. Those things can all be compelling, but they aren’t hooks.
You might want to read this old thread on the “average” excellent student. Your child will end up at the best place for them. The original “Average” Excellent student graduates today
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I don’t think this is a hook…but it might be a small admissions advantage.
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Agree with @thumper1 , being male applying to a college that skews female definitely helps but does not rise to the level of a hook.
Hook = high likelihood of being admitted to a selective school. It’s a thing that acts as a strong thumb on the admissions scale, not a feather on that scale. There just aren’t that many things in that category.
Also, to split hairs, being a d3 recruited athlete is just as much of a hook at d3 schools as being a d1 recruited athlete.
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I’m going to push back on this (b/c I do every time I see it!). It bugs me when these young women are trotted out as examples of getting in b/c of fame- and it’s almost always these three! They all earned their places.
Yes, Malia Obama got into Harvard- and Sasha Obama is at UMi. Malia & Sasha went to a prep school in which the top of the class (which Malia was) goes to Ivies/super selectives, and kids in the middle of the class (which Sasha was) go to schools like UMi.
Emma Watson got into Brown with exam results that would have made her an exceptional applicant even if she wasn’t famous: 10A* + 2 A at GCSEs, putting her in the top 0.5% of UK students- at a time when she was making a Harry Potter movie every year.
Malala had 6A* (including in Chemistry & Physics) + 4A at GCSE, taken just 3 years after she was shot. She got into Oxford with a standard offer (ie, conditional on achieving the required A-level marks), which she did.
tl;dr- can we please use examples of students who clearly would not have gotten in someplace w/o the fame connection, rather than (even if inadvertently) undercutting the achievements of these young women who would have been very likely to get the offers they did without having the fame connection?
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100% correct. They worked very hard. But let’s be honest. Being famous helped them all.
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Lets talk about other kids, Andrew Barth Feldman got into Harvard, he was the teenager who was Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway and the winner of the Jimmys his year.
Jazz Jennings is also going to Harvard
Someone in our town is both a Regeneron finalist and a member of the National Youth orchestra, Is that a hook?
I did not say nor did I mean mean to imply that the women I gave as examples were not qualified for the college they attended – they may well have been accepted if they didn’t have a degree of fame. However, I do think their fame did give them an advantage in terms of admissions over similarly qualified applicants.
Similarly some recruited athletes and legacy applicants may also be extremely well qualified on their own academic merits but their hook can turn a good chance of admssions into more of a sure thing.
Since debating is not permitted on CC we may have to agree to disagree on this one.
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It is rather doubtful that a college like Stanford that has lots of CS and engineering majors would see students on the autism spectrum as underrepresented.
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There are most likely many ways in which being famous has helped them- and probably ways in which it has hurt as well.
But: I think Malia would have gotten into Harvard whether her father was still a state senator in Illinois or a sitting president. Arguably, she had several possible hooks: URM, legacy (though Law, not UG, which doesn’t carry as much weight), and fame. On the other hand, the students at the top of the class at her HS (which she was) get into Harvard year after year. There is no reason to think that it would have been less true for her. Ditto Sasha into UMi.
I also think Emma Watson would have gotten into Brown even if she wasn’t famous: Brown takes a good number of UK students every year, and they would know that her results were top of the top.
And most of all, I think that trotting out these three young women every.single.time as examples of how it helps to be famous isn’t fair to them. I don’t see anybody trotting out Jerry Seinfeld’s son at Duke, or SJP & Matthew Broderick’s son at Brown, or Rob Lowe’s son at Stanford.
eta, sorry @happy1 - posted before I saw your post!
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Let’s get back to the OP’s situation now
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Ex-military is also a hook (student, not parent) for many colleges
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Thank you al for explaining what this term meant.
A hook is something the school prioritizes and has say it wants. Institutional priority. And often specific to you and particular school. if Bates has said it wants to enroll more kids from Maine, that could be a hook. That could make you more desirable than if you were applying from MA. But you still need to be one of the better applicants from Maine!
It is usually recruited athlete, legacy, first gen, URM, etc. And as noted, URM is determined by a school itself. I know several Asian American kids who were wooed to attend diversity fly-ins at schools in PA, ME, and the Midwest.
There are many ways your application can stand out and you can be an attractive candidate. Most schools don’t have a stated goal of having an Olympic medalist in a sport in which they don’t field a team, but many would be delighted to admit a qualified student who fit that description.
As wisely noted above, you generally can’t create a hook.
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