<p>I was wondering if there was any major that you put down on the application (maybe it was the common application that asked for your most likely major...) that would more likely get you into Yale? I was wondering because I started thinking about it and I assumed a math major is one of the less common declared or intended majors. So, anyways...</p>
<p>An intended major is not a hook. If you’re the top high school classics scholar in the country, for instance, that would be the hook, not the intended classics major.</p>
<p>^^Right. Colleges know that many kids change their minds about majors once they get to college. A major is not a hook, although significant achievement in an academic area can certainly help your application.</p>
<p>The only people with hooks are URMs, developmental admits, celebrities or children of celebrities, and recruited athletes (and the lucrative student who cures cancer). Everything else is a tip or a bonus. I know what you mean when you’re asking if it’s a hook (you’re asking if it will help your application, basically), but hook is a particular term. Hooked applicants get a second look or some bonus to their application above and beyond all or most other circumstances. Hooks are not ECs (with the exception of athletics), grades, test scores, majors, or anything else really tangible on an application.</p>
<p>Has cancer been cured yet?</p>
<p>belly- </p>
<p>Lol…I still believe that it is a work in progress</p>
<p>OP-</p>
<p>You are kind of in the same boat that I am in. I am planning on majoring in Bio and am also going to apply SCEA to Yale this fall. Two quick things. One majoring in a math/science subject is not all that common at Yale…dont get me wrong there are quite a few of those kind of people at Yale, but you would definately make up a minority. People seem to think that because Yale likes diversity in all forms that focusing on a math or science based topic will aid you slightly in admissions. However, as others have said, your major is not a hook. Hooks involved race, athletics, and connections…so instead of thinking “hook” think “unfair advantages.” But ya, its definately not a hook.</p>
<p>I sort of disagree. Less about Yale than elsewhere. Brown & Columbia, for example, bluntly say they have x spaces for engineers. That is one area where a woman has an advantage; they are under-represented in engineering so applying as one gives something of a hook. If Yale has these hooks, they’re quiet about them.</p>