I am currently a high school junior who filed a patent application when I was in 8th grade. This was a fully independent project, and just got my patent issued by the USPTO today. I have a genuine love for my fields of study and would love to pursue my passion in engineering during my time in college.
My question is: would an issued patent and published scientific research (more recent) constitute as an admissions hook? For a general idea of stats, I have a 4.5 gpa, just in top 10% of class, and participate on two local university engineering teams. I took the ACT/SAT sophomore year and received a 33 and 1860 respectively. My other questions relating to admission hooks is how colleges view them. My dream schools are Stanford, MIT, and USC; are my stats in line for a fair shot at acceptance. I understand that there are no guarantees in admissions, and I never intended on using my patent as a college admissions hook, but is my hook strong enough to distinguish me from other applications (I am Caucasian male in southeast U.S. btw)?
It is not a “hook”, but it is a very nice EC that can help your admissions (hooks are things like being a URM, legacy, recruited athlete, etc.). I certainly would make sure the patent is clear on your application (use additional information section to give a high level description if you need to). Honestly, your test scores and GPA aren’t tops, so it might not be enough to offset them. Stanford and MIT are still big reaches. But I’d say go for it (send the ACT, only send the SAT if the schools require all scores…). USC seems more of a match.
Depending on what the patent is for, and what your major is, this could be a very interesting thing. But no, this is not a hook. A hook is when someone inside the university has a particular power to overrule any disagreement about your admission - for example a sports coach who gets to hand-pick his or her recruits every year.
If you are particularly interested in pursuing the line of work that led to your patent, then you should be in touch with the research teams around the country that are working in that particular field. It is possible that one of the faculty members who work in that field would want you enough, and go have a chat with admissions.
@T26E4, I don’t think he double talked anywhere:
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For a general idea of stats, I have a 4.5 gpa, just in top 10% of class, and participate on two local university engineering teams. I took the ACT/SAT sophomore year and received a 33 and 1860 respectively.
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My test scores should improve this year. I am aiming for a 35 on the act.
Let me follow on – OP, I’m sorry for my confrontational tone. I understand the impulse to overstate oneself. But please present yourself authentically. People here really do want to help. But when posters play games of sorts, it’s disrespectful. I wish you luck
Not exactly. A hook is an attribute that meets an institutional need of a school. Few, if any, coaches have the “power to overrule” admission decisions, especially at schools like Stanford or MIT.
Ivy League recruits must meet the academic index threshold for their school.
MIT recruits receive only marginal help, even if well qualified.
All athletes must meet the NCAA minimums. No coach can overrule those.
@jsm2015 You could clearly tell who I was if I linked the patent application, or even the type of invention. Even now you could probably figure out my identity since not very many teenagers have patents in the first place.
As pointed out previously it’s probably not a hook. Having a patent is very unique in my opinion. I could only find about 20 people with news articles published about their invention.
In general the content of the patent is probably most important, and what kind of lessons you learned from the experience. In case you are wondering, I have one issued patent and another two provisional applications. One is a CIP of my issued and the other I am the first-named inventor, but had co-developers. @Anonymoose3
^ Both, probably. GPA without context is a meaningless number. A 4.5 sounds great! Super high! Until you ask what the scale is (4.5/8 is much less impressive). Or until you compare it to others (say the valedictorian has a 6.0…how good does a 4.5 look then?).
4.5/4. My school gives one additional quality point for honors and then another point for AP. We have a 7 point scale though. At my school valedictorian designation is given to anyone with a 4.7 or above, meaning there will roughly 10 valedictorians in my class. @bodangles
@coolweather My interest is genuine, not some hoax to get into college. My parents didn’t even work in a field remotely related to what my patent covered. My principal also gave me a recommendation which is quoted in a newspaper article about me. I would assume that colleges would think this is legit, because it is.