<p>My friend and I were talking about this earlier. </p>
<p>I told her that because I'm a swimmer, I could be potentially recruited to D1/Ivy schools because of my hooked athletic status. </p>
<p>She's a dancer for a local dance company and trains about 6 hours a day. She wanted to know if dancing (since technically she's an "athlete" too) counted as a hook for top schools. I told her I wasn't sure, so I came here to ask you CC'ers. :)</p>
<p>No, unless she dances professionally with a major company.</p>
<p>STOP ASKING FOR A HOOK
just kinda tell me you don’t think you’re good enough to get into a school- stop worrying about a hook and just create the best application possible- that’s all you need to do</p>
<p>WW,</p>
<p>Yours is a legitimate question asked in a reasonable manner. The comparison between a swimmer and a dancer, both of whom are dedicated to their activity is a valid one. As it turns out, as in other places in our society, athletics are generally “valued” more than artistic/cultural pursuits by colleges. </p>
<p>Whether or not one is a hooked candidate can affect a what colleges a student targets, so your friend was smart to ask and determine where dance realistically fits as an EC for her college search.</p>
<p>Best of luck to the both of you.</p>
<p>Redroses - thank you for that. I’m not an expert on how the whole thing works with dancers. She’s in the junior level of a professional dance program. How “major” would her company have to be?</p>
<p>entomom - thank you so much for the encouragement, as it’s much appreciated especially now when the time for uni’s getting close! 
(I’m a junior right now)</p>
<p>NervusBreakdown - try reading the entire question? I took the liberty of breaking it down into really small chunks of information, but I guess even that’s too much to read for some…</p>
<p>A hook? No, since she can’t be recruited. But it is desirable to have a talent so honed. A girl from my school last year was accepted to Princeton and off the waitlist at Harvard, where she now attends, with dance as her primary EC. I imagine that was a significant part of her application and acceptances. She now dances with Boston companies.</p>
<p>Many colleges and universities invite students to submit “arts supplements” if they are artistically talented–a portfolio of drawings or photographs, samples of creative writing, or videotapes of dance or musical performances. A really serious dance department will require an audition from prospective majors. How important such factors are in the admission decision varies by school; at a conservatory they would be crucial, but at a liberal-arts college it would be weighed with more traditional criteria like grades and scores.</p>
<p>I’m not sure exactly what counts as a “hook” but demonstrated artistic talent can certainly be a helpful factor in college admission, and some schools have scholarships reserved for such students.</p>