<p>other than the obvious URM, recruited athlete, and legacy? My daughter studied intensively abroad in Europe for a summer following her junior year and I'm pretty sure it helped a lot (of course she is majoring in French and Econ). My son is part of a band w/two CDs cut and has performed at The Stone Pony, night clubs in New York etc. What else qualifies as a hook?</p>
<p>I would add developmental admit to URM, legacy and recruited athlete. The things your kids did may stand out but are not considered “hooks”.</p>
<p>Travel is not a hook as it usually is something available to those who can afford it and not for exceptional academic ability. This includes volunteer work et al in poor countries/regions of the US. Volunteer work done in one’s own city is probably more impressive- the student gives time and doesn’t get the fringe benefits of travel outside their area. Not all students have opportunites like your kids did- money for Europe and location near NYC. Colleges need to factor in opportunities available to a student. Exceptional students- getting national awards for academics or arts, exceptional athletes- capable of playing college level sports, disadvantaged students- discriminated against ethnic groups, poverty are hooks. The advantages obtained through wealth are not.</p>
<p>yes that is true, much as how one cannot penalize a student attending a H.S. that offers very few or no AP classes. Our kids are indeed fortunate. I would say while perhaps not a hook, my D was interviewed for McGill and at one point the counselor switched to French midstream in the interview. It was readily apparent my D was as fluent and facile as the interviewer, after 4 years of Honors French and a summer abroad studying French 7-8 hours per day and living w/a local family. So while not a hook per se… Let’s just say she was accepted at McGill. I think sometimes what may constitute a hook depends on who is reading the application. If something weird or quirky resonates, it could be a variable that gets a kid a second look.</p>
<p>McGill is not a school on the radar for most US students. I’m not surprised someone tested her French ability given the dual languages of Canada. US schools wouldn’t have a reason to consider that.</p>
<p>Both my kid are first gen college and they both were admitted to all the colleges they applied. I hadn’t thought of it as a “hook” before but perhaps it was.</p>
<p>McGill is in Qu</p>
<p>A hook is anything that makes you unique or different from the majority of kids with similar stats profiles. I was at an admissions session for our flagship this fall and the admissions officer said that for last year’s class they had no one from Montana and it was the only state not represented in that particular class…now if you would have been stats qualified and from Montana last year you would have had a “hook”…a reason for admissions to stop and seriously consider an application if all things are equal.</p>
<p>A hook is something that would bring added value to the institution or to the other members of the class. If you’re the only beneficiary of your special asset, then there’s no reason for the Admissions Committee to prize it.</p>
<p>Don’t get too hung up on hooks. One of my kids got into a top school with none of the above - he was just overall stellar.</p>
<p>Someone here long ago told me about “hooks” and “tips.” A hook is something that gets a kid admitted which has little or nothing to do with academic qualifications. Recruited athlete, first gen, URM, Daddy gave $10M to the university, Daddy is a US Senator, A-list movie star. As someone noted, these things benefit the school; they bring it money, or glory on the athletic field, satisfy legal requirements or institutional goals, or garner press attention (Brooke Shields at Princeton).</p>
<p>A tip is something that’s related to academic or other qualifications and makes the kid stand out in a pool of similarly qualified applicants; it “tips” the application into the “Admit” pile. It’s that sparkle on the application, and it can vary from school to school. A stellar student who has also done significant community service work has a tip over a stellar student who hasn’t, if that’s what the school values. </p>
<p>OP, my D’s college might consider your D’s travel as a tip; they place a lot of emphasis on international study and study abroad.</p>
<p>LasMa, that is an interesting and valid distinction. I guess it all relates to what is that extra thing that pushes the decision into the yes column. My point is that it can sometimes be something subtle, other than the well-known hooks. International study is an advantage even though it does come w/the trappings of being able to afford it. It signifies to Adcom a level of maturity from the prospective student at a young age, a willingness to explore and step outside the comfort zone of one’s own school and peer community for a period of time, the demonstration of living a long distance from home w/new people in a new environment–even one where the student may not be totally fluent in the home language, and the desire to develop a special skill. Quite aside from the issue of academics (which is addressed by metrics such as class rank, GPA, course rigor, SATs), it adds some comfort that the student can handle the basic environment of being away from home, and also add something to the college community in the way of a different perspective having live abroad for a period of time.</p>
<p>It seems like you’re determined to consider your D’s study-abroad situation as a hook.</p>
<p>I would have to disagree that international study is necessarily an advantage.</p>
<p>As someone said above, it often pegs the student as an affluent one. That might not be an issue at McGill, but it is one at top US colleges. Now if the child raised the money themselves to go abroad or won a scholarship, that is a different story.</p>
<p>Lots and lots of kids go abroad today. In addition to the slew of summer programs, there are programs that send many during the school year for either a term or a year. This was once pretty much a prep school thing, but Rotary and others have made it much more widespread. </p>
<p>At the prep school where I worked, this became less popular in recent years. Kids wanting top colleges felt they needed to spend summers at competitive free summer programs, volunteering or working to be more competitive at top schools. No paid for summer programs was pretty much the rule. </p>
<p>The school year programs took them away from leadership roles and more advanced classes so fewer went abroad then.</p>
<p>The nutty US News world view has diminished high school study abroad.</p>
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<p>The same could be said about students who attending boarding school.</p>
<p>Travel/study abroad is not a hook for many of the reasons previously mentioned. For many select schools it is not a tip, because as others have stated, you will not be at a loss for students having studied abroad. </p>
<p>A student living abroad with their parents (work/military) and attending school in another country can be viewed as a 2-fer (the student can be categorized as an international student, by attending school outside of the US) and could be given a tip.</p>
<p>First gen is not a hook because many schools define first gen differntly. Some schools define first gen as the first in family to attend college period, while others define first gen as a student whose parents have not completed an undergrad degree. It becomes a tip when comibined with other factors such as low-income, title I school, etc.</p>
<p>hook or tip or swing factor for someone on the borderline–whatever you want to call it. The nuance of naming it is less important than whether it had an impact in the admission decision-making process. That we’ll never know and can only guess. She had a 1950 SAT, 3.5 UW GPA w/no other hooks and was accepted OOS at UMich, UCLA, Bucknell, McGill. Something got her in as she is not a URM, not a recruited athlete, not first gen, nor from a small state (in fact from NJ, where almost all applicants seems to come from).</p>
<p>The problem here is semantics. “Hook” has developed a fairly specific meaning here on cc (and probably elsewhere). It doesn’t mean “that unique impressive thing that my kid has.” It means certain well-known factors that colleges give extra weight to, and which don’t really have much to do with the kid’s academic achievements. That’s why the usual list is URM, recruited athlete, legacy, development, and maybe first generation. It doesn’t include published research, climbing Mount Everest, publishing a novel, curing a tropical disease, or winning a Nobel prize, even though all those things would really help in getting you into a selective college.</p>
<p>she did have tremendous course rigor and a Top 10% class rank and played 4 years varsity Soccer (team went to State Championship Game) and track. But almost all applicants have ECs like that or close to that. A couple of small colleges expressed interest in her for soccer, but she had no intention of playing in college at all.</p>
<p>sybbie, as to whether first-gen is a hook depends on the school. If a school has identified an institutional priority to increase the number of first-generation college students on their campus (however they define first-gen), then for that school it is a hook. </p>
<p>That is the case for many so-called “hooks” – it depends on the school. A kid from New Hampshire doesn’t provide geographic diversity for Dartmouth, but might for Pomona. </p>
<p>I think the problem with how the OP is defining a “hook” is that it results in all those posts from high school students who want to know if they can find a “hook” in the next month that will get them into Yale.</p>
<p>times sure have changed. Even as part of the Baby Boom I could have gotten into the University of California w/a 3.0 GPA and little more than a normal body temperature. Now we are talking about 2300-2400 SATs, 4.0 GPAs, Valedictorian or Salutatorian, and needing a hook to boot. Okay I exaggerate ( not for the Ivies), but you get the point. What’s more, when you graduated, you had a decent job waiting or fairly simple admission process to grad school. My nephew recently graduated Phi Beta Kappa and 4.0+ from Cornell w/math courses i cannot even pronounce. He could not find a decent internship after junior year and now works ungodly hours for a good but not great salary consulting.</p>