<p>SEWcurious-</p>
<p>"high" is a highly relative term. What are your gpa/rank and SAT scores? </p>
<p>deadhead06-</p>
<p>I dunno if Harvard wants anyone that not only drinks, but (indirectly) brags about it in their app. Mention Bill Clinton if you want, but don't mention the drinking - it's a huge turn-off for colleges.</p>
<p>Is Oklahoma a geographical hook?</p>
<p>high 1400s to mid 1500s SAT score, lots of high 700s and 800s on SAT2s, all As and top class rankings in an uncompetitive high school..in other words, great grades and boards like so many others, but it is the letters and essays that catches the eye of the adcom members, how else to distinguish all of you wonderfully qualified students from each other? You all have excelled in so many ways, but you need to explain to the committee why you are special. You don't need a "hook", you just need to make your wonderful self seen.</p>
<p>hey guys imma junior and i was reading at the beggining of this thread how crimson said that he/she had been moving every 4 years and that would be his/her hook. Would this really work, cuz i am 15 and have lived in about 5 countries now. I have moved basically every 4 years. I've lived in India, then Canada, to Bahrain (Middle East), to England, and now to CT, U.S.A. Can i use this somehow as a hook?</p>
<p>This thread scares me. I'm not going to try and come up with some crazy "hook"
so someone confirm my feeling that you should be able to get in on good grades, scores, ecs, essays, and recs, without any sort of "hook."</p>
<p>What percentage of the class would be unhooked?</p>
<p>all i know is that the class of '09 is off the hook</p>
<p>... :-) ...</p>
<p>eyezonharvard: I got a 2250 (790cr,790m,670wr), have a 3.95 unweighted and am ranked 13/808 (just dropped from nine :( )</p>
<p>can someone plz answer my post ^^^^^</p>
<p>You can get into Harvard and Yale without a hook. Both of my sons got in and neither had a "hook". Just chill and write an honest application about who you really are.</p>
<p>well, does family circumstance count as a hook, like if your mom kind of left for another country when you were 7 and then you lived with your dad, from Mississippi and low income (well what harvard would think as low income). what about getting into a math and science school, do you thing all that stuff can be considered as hooks?</p>
<p>Instead of talking about things as hooks, talk about them as something that might make you an attractive candidate for Harvard. Yes, I think it is helpful if you show that you have persevered and even shone despite coming from a background where you have had to overcome adversaries. You may be able to weave this into your essay, or even better, make sure that those who write your letters comment on how you have overcome troubling circumstances. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>Okay so there are a lot of great hooks out there. but here's another question. how do colleges check any of your ECs? I knew a girl last year who lied on half of her application and got accepted into both Yale and Stanford.</p>
<p>whoa, that's terrible. I really don't know, but I think if the lies are too outlandish, the colleges will know. ie. You can't say you're a prodigy, or some internationally acclaimed musician or young scientist if you're not. The admin officials will know. Hopefully.</p>
<p>The girl you talked about probably wrote small fibs and got lucky, if not...then colleges seriously need to refine their system.</p>
<p>also I believe lying on the application is technically against the law because it rewuires your signature at the bottom stating that all the things you wrote on it were true.</p>
<p>SEWcurious-</p>
<p>I don't know if you're aware of this statistic or not. But in 2003, only 72 black students scored higher than 1500 on the SAT. 1500 on the old SAT is equivalent to around 2250 on the new SAT. So your SAT scores places you among the top few dozen black students. You're ranked in the top 1% of your grade, and I'm assuming that your SAT II, and AP grades are in line with your SAT scores. Throw in some random EC's (just to show that you're involved with your school) </p>
<p>So basically, you're one of the top 100 black students in these United States. </p>
<p>Harvard would have to dig real deep to find a reason to reject you.</p>
<p>Thats what i have heard but it doesn't make me any less nervous.</p>
<p>Haha, that's very understandable. After all, this is Harvard.</p>
<p>I'm in a situation similar to yours in so far as my Standardized test scores. However, my gpa/rank and EC's suck, so my chances are as good (bad?) as anybody's.</p>
<p>how do colleges really look at the new SAT score? According to the college board the new critical reading section can be compared to the old verbal section while the new math can be compared to the old math sectrion. The new writing section, however, isn't comparable to anything on the old test. I have heard most colleges aren;t even sure what to do with it. So even though i got a 2250 (which translates to an old 1500) isn't it really considered a 1580 because I got 790 on math and 790 on critical reading?</p>
<p>My saying that a 2250 translates into a 1500 is an oversimplification. Without knowledge of the score distributions for the new sat we're really just guessing as far as comparing the old SAT with the new SAT.</p>
<p>And no, it won't be a 1580 because you're not taking into account your writing which is significantly lower than your math and verbal.</p>