Sophomore in pursuit of a hook.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello, CC! I am a sophomore in pursuit of a hook, as the title would imply. I plan upon applying to a few Ivies by the time my senior year comes around, and I would absolutely love to have something on my application that grabs the Board of Admissions and captivates them. I read an article about an MIT student who worked as a software engineer for Amtrak in high school, and I saw somebody's post here who has run a political blog for a number of years. I'm not worried about how my academics look, but I would love to have a hook.</p>

<p>For brevity's sake, I'm going to list the most important stuff on my extracurricular resum</p>

2

<p>The only absolute hooks are: recruited athlete, URM, legacy and development. Unless your parent’s have several spare million, I would:</p>

<p>-research your ancestors to see if a Native American may have been among them. If yes, register for tribe…or</p>

<p>-spend day and night on baseball</p>

<p>Those are probably your 2 best shots.</p>

3

<p>Perhaps absolute hook was not the best term to use. I am Jewish and highly doubt that I have Native American ancestry, and I am nowhere near good enough to become a baseball recruit. However, if this matters, I am a legacy at both Princeton and Yale. And my aunt teaches at UPenn.</p>

4

<p>I would use your musical talent to better your community. Like an interfaith orchestra or something. It sounds lame, but colleges eat that **** up. Go to foster homes and educate them about African culture and Chopin simultaneously. It’ll be a big hit.</p>

5

<p>Unfortunately, the saxophone has no place in the orchestra (besides with Ravel’s compositions). That’s a very good idea, however. I think I’ll demonstrate to these kids the power of pacifism as well, citing Gandhi as my inspiration.</p>

6

<p>I mean, it doesn’t have to be a literal orchestra. Just music-playing for foster kids tangent to education</p>

7

<p>I’ll actually look into that. Thank you!</p>

8

<p>That double legacy really helps.</p>

9

<p>I’ve heard similar testimonials, but I don’t want to leave anything to chance.</p>

10

<p>B-b-b-bump!</p>

11

<p>Legacy triples your chance at Princeton and doubles it at Yale. Frankly, I would not worry about other hooks with legacy, I’d worry about being academically competitive enough within the legacy group to make it in the door. You need SATs solidly in range and a strong class rank. Placing in Siemens would certainly help but since you already have a hook at two ivies, focus on maximizing it.</p>

12

<p>Currently, I am ranked #1 in my class, and I plan on taking the SAT for the first time in September. Thank you very much for the advice!</p>

13

<p>One last bump.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>What do you mean by “absolute hook”? Something that will guarantee acceptance? Because neither URM nor legacy will guarantee acceptance.</p>

15

<p>Sorry if this is unhelpful, but Catch 22 is a sick band :D</p>

16

<p>jamesford - as I mentioned in a later post, the word choice of “absolute” was not very good. My goal isn’t to guarantee acceptance - that would be absurd - but rather to make my head stand above the crowd.</p>

<p>monstor344 - hell to the yeah!</p>

17

<p>An absolute hook is something that’s certain to give your application special consideration. It means your folder gets a colored sticker that identifies you as someone who will get a more in depth read.</p>

18

<p>Well, in that case, I’m simply looking for something that will help me stand out.</p>

19

<p>That’s something you won’t find here because those who figure something truly differentiating out closely guard their secret. By definition, something that will make you stand out is something others have not thought of and accomplished.</p>

20

<p>You write well. Obviously most of that will (hopefully) come through in your essay, but getting more involved with local publications seems like a decent hook to me, and probably wouldn’t be too challenging or time consuming.</p>