<p>You might try searching “What is a hook” under CC’s goggle advanced search. Here’s what I got</p>
<p>[College</a> Confidential Site Search Results](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/search_results.htm]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/search_results.htm)</p>
<p>Hope this works, it’s a post by Kyledavid</p>
<p>Senior Member</p>
<p>Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 7,811</p>
<p>What is a Hook?</p>
<p>This delves into it somewhat too:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html</a></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><a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/st...01fea501.shtml[/url]”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/st...01fea501.shtml</a></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>