<p>My friend is first generation, and comes from a family with a low income. His mother never even went to high school, and no one in his home besides him speaks English besides him. In other words, for the option, "primary language spoken at home"- it wasn't English. He has a brother who has down syndrome and he is the main person to take care of him at home and anywhere he goes. Aditionally, my friend has co-founded a small reading and writing workshop for children with disabilities and also does research with a neurologist on mental disabilities.
He is Asian and lives in New York.
Does he have any hooks, based on the previous info?</p>
<p>Further more, he has applied to MIT, Yale, Columbia, and Cornell, and a few lower ranked schools.</p>
<p>He does not have a hook, but he has tip factors and an interesting story.</p>
<p>Since a “hook” is some characteristic that a college feels it must have in its student body, I agree with hmom5.</p>
<p>How much will these tip factors help boost his admission chances?
He basically fits the “Match between you and MIT”. He has a passion to help others with mental retardation, and has went out, despite his modest background, to help such individuals.</p>
<p>No one can give an informed opinion about how weighty the tip factors may be. It will depend on how individual admissions officers respond and what the rest of the applicant pool is like. It also will depend upon how he explains those factors in his essay and application.</p>
<p>His story might garner more interest than other similar applicants, but it doesn’t significantly boost his chances. You also have to consider that he’s an ORM and it still largely depends on how competitive his stats are.</p>
<p>A hook is something makes the adcom ignore most other factors and concentrate on one factor or attribute e.g. athelte or legacy. Being first generation or poor or having difficult family circumstances are not hooks. They can be converted into something that makes the adcom sit up (a great essay etc.) However, the student still needs to have good scores, GPA, recommendations etc, and to that if they can add compelling story, it will improve their chances. A compelling story in itself is not enough unless it is something like “Homeless to Harvard” type exceptions.</p>
<p>It’ll definitely help and not hurt.</p>
<p>Asians are ORMs. It’s like an anti-hook.</p>
<p>I’m sure that he was able to write great essays, though.</p>
<p>Who cares if he has a hook for college or not?</p>
<p>He sounds like a really great person and will undoubtedly continue to go on and do amazing things! Probably more amazing things than about half of the kids at those schools you mentioned anyway - and he certainly doesn’t need to go to MIT in order to do that.</p>
<p>Kudos to your friend. We need more people like him and less people like “OMG Should I join ModelUN and found Pre-Med Society tomorrow so I can get into Harvard? CHanSe ME!!!11one.”</p>
<p>But yeah if he’s smart too I would say he’s pretty likely to get in. I for one would be honored to be his classmate.</p>