<p>how much is this actually taken into consideration during the apication process? It just feels slightly negligible to me, but hopefully I'm completely wrong!</p>
<p>It certainly affects your opportunities, so yes, it is considered. I don’t know that I would call it a hook, though.</p>
<p>MIT doesn’t really have “hooks”. But yes, it affects your application. Being a first gen student is hard, because your parents don’t know what system you’re working in or what you’re going through, and MIT wants to know that that’s part of your story. It may be a small part compared to everything else, but it’s still worth mentioning.</p>
<p>Yes, because it indicates your opportunity. I’m friends with someone who grew up poor with a very young mother who didn’t know what she was doing (raising her) and never went to college, held down a real job, etc. They’ve moved across the country ~6 times in a few years and she went to high school online because she hated public school so much. Naturally she has had less opportunity than kids whose parents are doctors, lawyers, etc.</p>
<p>Well, I’m a first-gen college student, and I can tell you from experience that it was immensely harder for me during high school and the application process than it was for my friends with parents who went to college. My parents knew virtually nothing about SATs, ACTs, interviews, AP tests, advanced math and science classes, awards, scholarships, the admitting process, etc, so I was entirely on my own to figure all that stuff out for myself. Because neither of my parents had degrees, it was a lot harder for them to find a stable job with only a high school education. For much of my life we lived in financial instability and it eventually ripped my family apart. I was under a lot of pressure in high school to “stop wasting your time with those dumb extracurriculars and AP classes, be realistic and get a damn job”. So, a lot of us first-gens didn’t exactly grow up in a safe and stable world where we were told about opportunities and careers in the math/science field or how to “get ahead,” if there ever was such a way. In the end I made a success of myself with a lot of motivation and dedication, but it was on a harder difficulty level than someone with parents who have PhDs.</p>
<p>ahh atari1994 it’s shocking how similar our stories are, everything you said was right on the money. Hust throw a divorce In there along with living with other family members and we mine as well be twins. But alright Thankyou for the replies, I always think of what I’m going to put on my MIT application and think it’s so much less than everyone else’s and how I wish that I could’ve had some ofthe opportunities they had with research and summer camps and competitions, I’m not trying to earn pity in any way, I just hope that the Adcomms see my situation.</p>
<p>I think that the word “hook” is overused.</p>
<p>Maybe I am wrong, but I thought a hooked applicant is someone that the adcom looks at and says “I really want someone with that <fill in=”" the="" hook=""> to come here.</fill></p>
<p>That hook could be:
- Star athlete
- Child of big time donor
- Winner of top awards (Intel, IMO, etc)
- Top performer (broadway, music, etc)
- Published award winning author</p>
<p>The example you give isn’t a hook. It is extenuating circumstances that give context for an adcom to be able to compare you to other applicants who have been more fortunate.</p>
<p>I agree with piper that the idea of “hooks” is kind of misleading (and, contra collegedad2013, “child of a big time donor” is definitely not one for us). </p>
<p>With that said - FGC is something we definitely value highly in our process. FWIW, both our dean of admissions and our director of admissions are FGC MIT alums. The President of MIT is FGC too. </p>
<p>You may be interested in [Home</a> | First Generation Project](<a href=“http://fgp.mit.edu%5DHome”>http://fgp.mit.edu) as well.</p>
<p>sorry i suppose “hook” is the wrong word. ive just been so caught up in reading the “2017 Rd results” and seeing FGC as one of the hooks in the given template and figured id ask… sorry for the ignorance ;p But thank you all so much for the replies! its nice to hear its taen into consideration highly, kind of raises my diminishing hopes.</p>
<p>Well since MITChris weighed in, I can’t add much but I’ll try.</p>
<p>Who you are and what you had to work with is absolutely taken into consideration.</p>
<p>I think the trick is to be able to describe your progress and who you in the context of what you had to work with (vs. focusing on what you had to work with).</p>
<p>Also, I didn’t mean to imply that MIT cared about the "big donor’ hook. I was using it as an example to describe a hook (albeit in the MIT forum). It is a hook, but some colleges care more about some hooks than others.</p>
<p>I think it is ridiculous to provide special treatment to first gen applicants because they lack resources/information on SAT,internships,AP etc. That may have been a problem 20 yrs ago, but now with internet there are tons of information (including the MIT admission site !) available at the click of a mouse. Its a matter of showing interest.</p>
<p>^ It’s cute how you assume everyone has easy internet access, or that that somehow makes all other resources equal.</p>
<p>Speaking as a first gen student I have to say it was difficult going through high school and the admission process. My parents had no working knowledge about the American high school system. They don’t even speak english and most of their days are spent working away.
Fortunately we do have internet but like PiperXP said it doesn’t open up all resources to us. I couldn’t just talk to my parent about helping me in securing an internship or to even pay for AP and SAT tests.
I was actually shocked when I found out that my friends’ parents actually did their FAFSA, IDOC, and CSS too.</p>
<p>MITprospect, i understand the SAT thing, i did absolutely fine on them, and the APs i did excellent on too… but internships and research opportunitites are an entirely different story. More often than not, first gen students dont have the amount of money that students with college graduate parents have (not true in all cases, but it is for mine and many others i know). Thus, the opportunities are thinned out a bit more for them. That means no summer camps, no research over the summer for 5+ thousand dollars, and no special courses to boost a resume. This also means that the student also has much more pressure on them, yes there is the internet, but they also have to do schoolwork, sports, clubs, volunteer service, and hobbies. This is where parents generally come into the equation. Is it partially the students responsibility to look up college info? Yes. But to organize everything by themselves would be absolutely absurd, on top of everything else that they already are tied too. Not saying its impossible, because there definitely are kids who do it (ME!), its just strenuous. This is where the adcomms take into account the first- gen “hook” as i would assume the rest of the posters are explaining</p>
<p>My boyfriend comes from a poor family with a single mom (I say family but its just the two of them). He went to high school online due to them never having a stable life/home situation (no longterm jobs etc) and earned money to pay for his own community college courses after hs. As a first gen college student with no guidance counselor he had nowhere to go for advice. He didn’t even know what the common app was until I mentioned it once.</p>
<p>It is ignorant to pretend that he’s had the same opportunities that I - a middle class girl from a dual-income family w/ educator parents - had. Of course first gen students hace a different standard; their experiences are vastly different.</p>
<p>@curiosity4321 There are a lot of internships that are free or provide a financial assistance to needy students. And adcoms do discount a lot of the paid 5k-10k summer programs. So there is no advantage to those who attend the expensive programs.</p>
<p>All I am saying is that first gen by itself should not be a factor. Yes there are failing schools (unfortunately too many) that have very little resources. Should the students from such schools be given a break ? yes - all students from the school should be given a break not just first gen. But a first gen student who goes to a well resourced public school - that paid for his/her AP exams, offered free AP tutoring, college counselling, summer placement help & subsidized SAT prep - gets special treatment, that is what is wrong. Believe me, it happens.</p>
<p>^ Are you kidding me? Do you think that the internships out there that are free/offer finaid have enough to assist every needy student? </p>
<p>Do you think that first gen students are equally likely to be told about and pushed towards new opportunities? </p>
<p>Do you think home life doesn’t matter? I’ll tell you that, as someone whose father went to college but mother did not, that my father was key in me trying to reach for things, going to college, etc. This is no fault of my mother, but she just didn’t know of this world of college education and what it could do for me. Resources at high school are great, but they don’t make up for having a home environment. Students who push past this - with their uneducated, well-meaning family telling them that college is too expensive, why would you want to go far away, why are you spending money on tests when you can go to the school down the street, etc - are people I want at MIT.</p>
<p>That said, you’re looking at this first gen thing all wrong. A first gen student from a wealthy high school is not considered in the exact same way as a first gen student from a poorer high school. Both are relevant factors.</p>
<p>It is the admission officers job to figure out when being a first gen is or isn’t a disadvantage for a particular prospective student. Just like it is their job to figure out when a long list of EC’s is just a laundry list to pad a resume or a list from a very passionate/well rounded student. They have ways to figure this out! That’s why there are so many components to the application. Someone claiming that they are a first gen, will also have LORs discuss how impressed they are with the student’s accomplishments despite not having much outside support. The EC may report how self driven and motivated the student seems. The admissions officer is letting the entire application tell a complete story.
MIT seems to do a heck of a job with this responsibility. I say that because MIT students on CC seem to be really happy with the awesomeness of their fellow students. What I hear about the student body is the main reason that MIT became my first choice school.</p>
<p>thankyou for all the replies, i just really hope that the adcomms see that even in my situation (first gen, multi divorced parents, low income) that i have made the mo’st out of my high school career and more importatnly - life. Ive done well in school, on the SATs, gotten science awards in my school’s TSA, done community service at the hospital my mom works at, played varsity lacrosse for three years, and built strong relationships with all my teachers. Most importantly ive followed my passion for building things in a way that i could, not in internships and summer research programs at top universities, but in the confines of my own bedroom with the endless capabilities contained in those little colored bricks we all call legos . I just hope that they see past the “immaturity” of the hobby, and realize what ive learned over the years of the obsession.</p>