I have been self studying the Korean language for nearly 5 years now and I am nearly fluent. I also spend a great deal of time dabbling in other languages and learning about their cultures. I was planning on using this (my passion for lanuage and culture) as somewhat of a hook on my application. Would this be considered a “hook”? Or would it at least catch the eyes of colleges?
Not a hook. It’s a hobby.
I think I mentioned this in another thread but hooks are
- URM (Black, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander)
- Recruited Athlete
- Legacy (Your relatives went to that school)
- Last name is Obama, Kennedy, Bush
- Your dad or relative just donated huge amounts of money to the university that you're applying to.
Your passion is a good topic for an essay but not a hook.
It could be a great EC if you did something with it, like won a national Korean speaking contest, say, or submitted and had published an op-ed piece in Korean. But on its own, it is not a hook IMO.
@rdeng2614 Also to add to your list, First-gen College student is sometimes considered.
Not a hook (which has a specific meaning explained above), but IMO it’s a very nice EC. I don’t think you have to win an award for it to count; it shows great self-motivation and language skill! I think it’d catch the eye of many colleges on the activity list.
It’d help if you can get some kind of external confirmation of “near fluency,” though. That’s an incredibly high bar. I’ve spoken a (non-Western) foreign language for 20+ years and am very good and comfortable in it, do meetings and all, but I’d be stumped by a conversation on Nietzsche. That’d be fluency. So “near fluency” would be “can follow a conversation on Nietzsche well though getting a bit lost as the abstract language increases, and can read novels for fun, as long as they’re not too super-literary.” I’ve seen people claim “fluency” who have maybe a tenth of my speaking ability. It’s ridiculous.
You can judge yourself on these criteria:
https://careers.state.gov/gateway/lang_prof_def.html
You may want to get a language assessment. If you’re truly near fluency, that’s amazing; anyway, it sounds as if you could potentially place out of language requirements at some colleges. And I’d call it a fantastic EC!
Is having a mom with schizophrenia a hook?
It isn’t a hook but if you do something like take the CSAT or korean SAT subject tests it could prove and show that you self studied korean effectively. Only problem is the koreans prepped for the CSAT since second grade… but that could be a good thing if you somehow get a decent score.
No
@duke707 I see you are new to CC but next time it would be better to start a new thread with your question rather than ask a question pertaining only to you and, in effect, taking over another person’s thread.
And neither the OP or duke707 has a “hook” IMO - refer to post #2 above.