<p>Would completing an internship for a tech startup and receiving a shining letter of rec from the CEO count as a hook?</p>
<p>unless you started the startup or directly contributed to the financial growth of the company, I would say...not really.</p>
<p>That's still pretty cool...stop making people feel bad, he's trying...just make sure your essays rock</p>
<p>^sorry, i thought he was asking for a realistic advice :P</p>
<p>as mercruz said, "just make sure your essays rock."</p>
<p>Startups are something that I am passionate and I will make that evident in my application.</p>
<p>Thanks mercruz for the positive attitude. I will do everything I can do make my essays rock and to reveal who I am to the admissions people at Stanford.</p>
<p>gqunit, I appreciate the realistic advice.</p>
<p>Do you think focusing on a brief startup experience would be better then focusing on a run of the mill well rounded bright kid activities (i.e. debate, nhs, student government)?</p>
<p>Sorry I couldn't resist being realistic on the border of sarcasm...But really, I don't think that I, or anybody, can be qualified to assess your chances as of right now. If you can give us a description of what you actually have done for the start up, I think our comments may be of more use.</p>
<p>To answer your last question, it depends. </p>
<p>As I previously said, we don't know what your "startup experience" is, so we can't compare that to the "run of the mill well rounded bright kid activities." You have to remember, though, many people who apply to Stanford turns their "run of the mill" activities into a hook by going to nationals, getting special recognitions, etc.</p>