<p>What all do people consider "hooks" for colleges? I mean I know of 1st gen college student and URM status, but what others are there?</p>
<p>recruited athlete, legacy, and big-time donors to the school.</p>
<p>would you consider founding a club at your school and developing it a hook?</p>
<p>also if you wrote one of your essays about this would it come off as too typical of someone trying to impress an adcom</p>
<p>Starting a club is not a hook. It may bump you ahead of other applicants, but there is no special piles for anything besides the three categories listed above.</p>
<p>Some top schools really value geographic diversity (top student in N Dakota?) as well as socio-economic diversity.</p>
<p>And I agree w/Knightshield: starting a club isn't a hook for the type of schools that consider ECs. That would be rather typical, frankly</p>
<p>A REALLY uncommon major declared, or apply in a program they're trying hard to build (i.e. woman applying to Duke engineering - just applying to the engineering school is like +10% to the acceptance rate, and then DOUBLE that if you're a girl).</p>
<p>How much of an advantage is it to have a lot of hooks when applying to big name institutions?</p>
<p>anything that gives you an edge over the competition is a good thing. for big name institutions, even a slight edge could be an advantage over possibly hundreds of applicants.</p>
<p>sishu</p>
<p>what are some really uncommon Majors?</p>
<p>The best way to determine a hook...</p>
<p>Take something unique you did. If you think that out of 3,000+ people, you are the only person who can claim that accomplishment/experience, or if only a few people in the nation have it, then that's a hook.</p>
<p>Winning Intel Contest or Siemon</p>
<p>Being a firefighter</p>
<p>Training pets at the zoo in Israel</p>
<p>Some of the better examples of hooks i've seen on this site, hahaha.</p>
<p>This delves into it somewhat too:</p>
<p>Basically, something really unique and awesome can be a hook. Perhaps you're Key Club International president (and I mean, the president of ALL districts). Or perhaps you wrote an influential book. Or perhaps you started an organization that raised many thousands of dollars for a certain cause.</p>
<p>The traditional "hooks" are URM, legacy, and athlete.</p>
<p>Another way of looking at it: according to this article</p>
<p>about 5% of the applicant pool are "clear admits" (in 1998, that was about 900 of the ~18,000 that applied). So, a hook might be construed as something that only 5% of the applicant pool would have, thus placing you in the top 1000 or so students.</p>
<p>What about like, having been born here but had to live in another country for 7 or 8 years because your parents couldn't afford to have you? Could I somehow incorporate that into something unique about me?</p>
<p>That's definitely a unique case. You might discuss how it changed you in your essays.</p>
<p>I lived abroad for 7 years, and incorporated the experience into my essay. I don't know if it was a hook, but it probably set me apart from most other applicants. My test scores were about at my school's average, my GPA maybe a little below.</p>
<p>My D has what might be considered a 'hook', a professional acting career with some good credits. Trouble is, she hasn't performed professionally since sophomore year, and really doesn't want to pursue it for a living. Wonder if it will still help? Or will it be considered too old to count?</p>
<p>Well it was still during her high school career so it's still a very unique EC :D</p>