Hooks : What hooks do you have? How important are they?

<p>then again whats so special about a urm/legacy/athlete</p>

<p>TASP and RSI considered hooks?</p>

<p>nmehta:</p>

<p>I think your paradigm for college admissions is off kilter. Colleges are looking for people who bring something to the college community. If the community has sports teams, orchestras, theater productions, opera, a debate team, etc, then it needs high-level athletes, musicians, actors, singers, and debaters. Obviously, people who win prestigious competitions, be the academic, musical, athletic, or what have you, are very attractive because they are very rare.</p>

<p>Bringing experience of living in different countries? Well, that's useful and, all things being equal with other applicants, an admissions department may decide that bringing that global perspective to the classroom brings something to the community. Being a URM is not all that rare, but all things being equal, bringing the perspective of a different culture and different life experience might be useful. But those are tips, not hooks. </p>

<p>I think my definition of a hook holds true. A hook is something that makes an admissions department hope you have the academic credentials to succeed at a given school. A tip is something that gives you an edge in a pool of students whose academic credentials look much like yours.</p>

<p>i agree tarhunt that colleges are looking for people that will add to their university, but that doesn't mean that athletes, musicians, actors, singers, and debaters are extremely rare.</p>

<p>an old thread on hooks in general
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/144779-hookology-101-special-college-applicant-qualities-admissions-advantages.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/144779-hookology-101-special-college-applicant-qualities-admissions-advantages.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>...with many links to discussions on specific types of hooks, from legacies to first generation....</p>

<p>
[quote]
agree tarhunt that colleges are looking for people that will add to their university, but that doesn't mean that athletes, musicians, actors, singers, and debaters are extremely rare.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>May I humbly request that, in the future, you actually read my posts before commenting on them?</p>

<p>I did NOT say that they were rare. I said, </p>

<p>
[quote]
If the community has sports teams, orchestras, theater productions, opera, a debate team, etc, then it needs high-level athletes, musicians, actors, singers, and debaters. Obviously, people who win prestigious competitions, be the academic, musical, athletic, or what have you, are very attractive because they are very rare.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Are you contending that high-level athletes, musicians, actors, singers, and debaters are a dime-a-dozen? Are you contending that people who win prestigious competitions grow on trees?</p>

<p>What, exactly, are you contending?</p>

<p>PapaChicken:</p>

<p>Excellent link. Thanks.</p>

<p>Tarhunt, the problem is that probably MOST ivy-leage prospects have some of those 'hooks' that you named. Truly, those kinds of atheletes, musicians are rare. However, the problem is that in a place like HYPS, there are a bunch of people with debate team awards, state band award (or whatever you call them), intel, siemens, etc. So, the value of a hook depends on their rarity (obviously, being recruited by NCAA is VERY rare).</p>

<p>tarhunt i never said that you said they were rare, my last post was in reference to someone who did indeed say that, it wasn't meant to target you in any way, just to bolster my argument against the last person</p>