<p>I've heard of hooks and I've seen examples like division I athlete, parents willing/able to make huge donation, celebrity status/fame. I want to know if what I've done qualifies, and if not at least how close I am (I know that sounds weird...).</p>
<p>When I was 12 I founded the Pink Polka Dots Guild, an organization that has raised more than $350,000 for brain cancer research. We've been in Teen Vogue twice, on the Nate Berkus Show, and flown to New York by Oprah. I'm not famous or anything in general, but among Seattle-area philanthropy circles and US brain-cancer-research circles, I am pretty well known. Will this help significantly in college admissions?</p>
<p>Also, do non-Ivy colleges really follow the concept of "hooks"? (and do Ivies really, or is that a CC thing?)</p>
<p>Yes, hooks are real, and not just a CC invention. Your impressive community service is not a hook, but it will certainly help you with admissions.</p>
<p>Most of what people consider as possible hooks other than recruited athlete are things that do not depend on what you do as much as who you are (e.g. child of alumnus, faculty member, big donor, well known politician, or author of a book on tiger parenting; URM).</p>
<p>But what actually is or is not a hook depends on the school. Even when URM is a hook, the definition of what URM is depends on the school.</p>
<p>It’s not as if any colleges, even Ivies, go through the stack of applications saying, “Let’s see, can we find some applicants with hooks?” Hook isn’t exactly an admissions criterion.</p>
<p>Rather, there are some qualities that many colleges really value in their admissions process. These may include celebrity, or being 6’10" with a great jump hook, or your family’s ability and willingness to build new chemistry labs. But nobody on the inside says, “Oh, here’s a hook, so let’s give this applicant a boost.” Instead, “the concept of ‘hooks’” really originated on the outside, with people who watch the admissions process obsessively and try to handicap their own (or their kids’ or their clients’) chances of admission. These folks on the outside do tend to talk of hooks only in connection with selective colleges and universities, but I suspect that’s because at institutions that aren’t selective, the question is moot.</p>
<p>You know what a good hook is? If you are a homosexual african american with 2 lesbian mothers, a football athlete and a cello player. Now that is a hook!</p>
<p>Nah, pure native-american girl, adopted by two gay latino dads, born in bangladesh, raised in zambia, teen mother of 2, works 30 hours a week because dads are unemployed, and missing 3 limbs from car accident!</p>
<p>Not a ‘hook’ as that term is commonly used in CC. However, very impressive and will make you stand out, which at the end of the day, may have the same result.</p>
<p>I don’t claim to know much on this subject but I think there is still the minimum SAT/GPA that needs to be satisfied. I think you need to at least have that foot in the door and then they start looking at what sets you apart. If you do have the high GPA/SAT scores, along with your charity work, sure, you got a better chance than a lot of others.</p>
<p>An exception would be athletes who get recruited. For example, I know this person who made Olympic trial swim. She got recruited at a top college. She did have a fairly decent GPA/scores as well.</p>