<p>If one is qualified for academic abilities, what else is needed??? What are hooks???</p>
<p>Does it have to be something other than studying?
I personally believe that a good student does not have to be extremely good at some music or sport.
Aren't varsity sports or some music enough???</p>
<p>hooks:</p>
<p>celebrity
under-represented minority
legacy
development candidate</p>
<p>I think hooks are special talents/something special about you.</p>
<p>Academic abilities are NOT hooks - perfect SAT, high GPA, etc.</p>
<p>If you're a purely academic person, go get into some competition to prove you're smarter than everyone else.</p>
<p>And it's a hook if you go fill the void that is my chances thread.</p>
<p>I'm more of a math science person and if you are the same kind of person, the following may interest you:
RSI (Research Summer Institute): a summer research program at MIT which gives you like 70-80% chance at getting into MIT, and maybe 60%ish chance at Harvard. A Huge hook. (About 5% admit rate)</p>
<p>TASP (not sure what this stands for): A summer camp like RSI, but it's for humanities and not math/science based. Nearly as prestigious as RSI (About a 9% admit rate i think). There are many different areas of studies (TASP is broken down into 5 different camps which study different subjects ranging from foreign policy to like poetry and stuff).</p>
<p>AMC/AIME/USAMO/MOSP/IMO: The premier math competition for high schoolers. Everyone can take the AMC 12/AMC 10. Top 12000 qualify for the AIME (American Invitational Mathematical Examination). The top 375 or so scorers on the AIME are invited to take the USAMO (The United States of America Mathematical Olympiad). Then it gets complicated but basically 30 or so of the highest scorers get into MOSP, a training camp to develop the olympiad team for the USA (top 6 problem solvers in the country). There's also a separate camp for freshman funded by Akamai (this camp is associated with MOSP and invites the top 30 freshman in the country). Then the IMO is the international mathematical olympiad. This would be a huge hook (MOSP would be considered a hook as well, USAMO not so much of a hook, but still looks quite good).</p>
<p>USABO,USAPHO,USACO (the science olympiads, B=Biology, PH=Physics, C=Chemistry): There's also a contest for computer sciences I believe. I'm not familiar with these competitions but they're structured in a way similar to the math competition.</p>
<p>Siemens Westinghouse, Intel STS, ISEF: 3 main science research competitions, if you can put together a project and do well in one of these, it would be considered a hook, I think that generally Intel STS>Westinghouse>ISEF is what most people think (I myself have never done research so this is just hearsay from friends who have).</p>
<p>Hope this post helps! RSI and TASP you have nothing to lose from applying, if you're especially talented in math/science, then the other competitions may be for you! (P.S., if you have alot of time you could always write a book and try to get it published)</p>
<p>development candidate- what do you mean? how is that a hook?</p>
<p>I sure hope going to IMO is regarded far more highly than being black.</p>
<p>A good hook can be any of the following:
-Under Repersented Minorty Status
-Coming from a small, mostly rural, state
-National <insert subject="" name=""> olympiad winner
-Intel Science finalist
-Very good research (aka almost curing cancer)
-Child of very generous almuni (the building named after type)
-Spending 50 hours a week setting up a program to teach blind Eskimo amputee orphans how to read braile with their tounge.</insert></p>
<p>A hook is not:
-validictorian
-perfect SAT score
-Being Asian
-Who's Who (anyone remember [thread=35723]Hot Ivy's infomous flame war?[/thread])
-NHS
-almost all community service activities</p>
<p>Note that even if you have several good hooks you can still be rejected.</p>
<p>Not as much as you may think. Several canadian IMOers were rejected from harvard SCEA and african american's with their stats (minus being an IMOer) would have had a very very strong chance of getting in.</p>
<p>Legacy is hardly a hook nowadays.</p>
<p>Depend's on how important of a legacy you are. If you're George Bush III, I'm sure you'll get more than a slight advantage when applying to Yale :). However, finale is correct for the vast majority of legacies, they receive only a little boost to their application for being the child of an alumni who does not contribute large amounts of money to the university that they are applying to.</p>
<p>There was a student on collegeconfidential last year who was a 6th generation legacy at Harvard. He was rejected. Just an example though...From what I've heard, legacy only carries weight, if at all, in the ED round.</p>
<p>also, legacy becomes it own hook, only AFTER you have another hook to match it with.</p>
<p>6th generation....wow..</p>
<p>would a hook be:</p>
<p>Doing research and publishing it in a journal?
Teaching semi-rural chinese kids english?
Working as a translator and travel guide to everywhere in China?</p>
<p>Would any of the above be considered a hook?</p>
<p>I was a congressional page last semester in the House of Reps.</p>
<p>Can this combined with Congressional internship and political activism in the community be a hook?</p>
<p>can loving public speaking and public policy/international politics/reading the economist be a hook as seen through</p>
<p>i'm a jr, unfortunately not as lucky (but just as passionate) as last year
ymca youth and gov (mock congress-like) nominee to national conference once and nominated as an alternate this year, having a position in the club
extemporaneous speaking- competed at states all four years of hs, competed at harvard tournament since soph, and won 8th in state soph year
FBLA state champion team for parliamentary procedure (didnot do activity this year unfortunately)
county youth council
accepted in Governor's School of Public Issues and the State of New Jersey
Founder of Young Democrats in town
mock trial best witness award soph and attorney position jr</p>
<p>
[quote]
Doing research and publishing it in a journal?
[/quote]
Yes. Try to get a rec from the co-author.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Teaching semi-rural chinese kids english?
Working as a translator and travel guide to everywhere in China?
[/quote]
Only a clear hook if non-Asian. Otherwise very good.</p>
<p>
[quote]
can loving public speaking and public policy/international politics/reading the economist be a hook as seen through
[/quote]
No, almost every applicant to top schools claims to read The Economist. It only counts if you show passion by getting involved.</p>
<p>
[quote]
development candidate- what do you mean? how is that a hook?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Development candidate-potential to give generous sums of money to the school through parents or other means.</p>