<p>I'm curious...</p>
<p>What wowes Princeton adcoms regardless of how many applicants have it?</p>
<p>A URM? A legacy?</p>
<p>A few examples:
Recruited athlete on coach's list
IMO medalist
Child of a very generous donor
Intel/Siemens winner</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure if u got a Medal at Bio, chem, physics, or the computer science olympiad, it would be a hook. (not just math)</p>
<p>^^ pretty much any of the national competitions, I'd say. The person who won the linguistics olympiad (NACLO) last year is going to Harvard now.</p>
<p>Well, perhaps not a "hook," but "really impressive and increases chances."</p>
<p>36 or 2400 from a URM would probably be considered a hook.</p>
<p>I think it depends on your area of foucs. </p>
<p>If you are applying as a hard math/science student, the different olympiad/siemens/intel award winners would be hooks. Also, some study with nobel prize winning mathmeticians/scientists and solving/creating integral theories would be hooks.</p>
<p>If you are applying as a linguistics student, the linguistics olympiad winner would be a hook. So would a transcript with a 5 on every AP language class there is (or IB), or a published book on your own language theory. Speaing/writing over 5 languages would also be a hook.</p>
<p>If you are applying as a humanitarian/public service advocate, starting your own successful national/state community service project, getting a national communtiy service recogition award are possible hooks.</p>
<p>The 'hooks' are there for every field, but Math/sciences are just the most well known. If you can't/don't want to solve math theories or be the next Einstein you can still be an extremely qualified candidate.</p>
<p>Publishing a novel. Playing a rare instrument (the harp?) that the university needs for the orchestra. Performing in a TV show or film.</p>
<p>Fortunately, it is possible for some of us to get in without "hooks". It's just not quite as likely.</p>
<p>Honestly though, admissions has probably seen it all. All you can do really do is put together the strongest application you can and hope for the best.</p>
<p>I think most people know their strengths and weaknesses, and a hook is not something that one can easily get. A big "strength" is not necessarily a hook.</p>
<p>Also, I personally think doing very well in linguistics olympiad and wanting to be a linguistics major is not nearly as impressive as doing very well in linguistics olympiad and wanting to be a math or chem major.</p>
<p>Greg Brockman won an IChO silver medal in 2006 and is going to be a math major at Harvard...yeah I'd say that's pretty baller.</p>
<p>What elements make a painting, photograph, or landscape exceptionally attractive? Most of the time, it's not just one aspect; it's the overall aura. It also involves the old saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." In the case of college admissions, the beholder is the adcom. Your "beauty" is your overall attractiveness, based on a number of selection criteria, including the all-important institutional priorities that vary from year to year.</p>
<p>IMO, applicants should not try to build their application "marketing" plan around a central aspect (hook, if indeed there is one). However, there should be a kind of sentient application theme at work that portrays the applicant in some inferential way. For example, if the applicant is a rough and tumble football, rugby, or LAXer and also expresses himself well in writing, a good application theme might be "poet-warrior."</p>
<p>The key is what I call "student profile marketing." Take inventory of who you are and then highlight your component aspects in a revealing portrait, not unlike a photograph, painting, or landscape. The metaphorical fall of light and shadow, so to speak, in an application can pay larger dividends than a so-called hook can, if handled correctly. Putting together an artful application like this can be a lot like herding cats, but the planning, development, and refinement is definitely time well spent.</p>
<p>WOW- that was a great visual Dave! Thanks!</p>