<p>I know this might seem like a really callous question, but would having a disease such as HIV and being a young person "help" in the admissions process?</p>
<p>Not a troll post.</p>
<p>Possibly, if you could write a great essay about it.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Of course, officially there’s not such thing as a “hook.” Applications don’t have a box that says, “Check here if you’re ‘hooked.’” But we all know that the concept that exists only informally is very real. Here’s what it means, de facto at least.</p>
<p>A hook is a quality of an applicant that meets a college or university’s institutional want or need. For example, most colleges have a football team, and football teams need linebackers. So if you’re one of the most sought-after high-school linebackers in Texas, that’s a hook. Most colleges need generous donors. If you come from a family that is likely to bestow a major gift on the college, you’re hooked. Most colleges want their alumni to be happy. Happy alumni donate to the college, and happy alumni are also good PR for the college. One way to make alumni happy is to give their children a leg-up in admissions. So if you’re a legacy, admitting you would help fulfill an institutional want. Many colleges like celebrity students. When Emma Watson applied to Brown, and Chelsea Clinton applied to Stanford, they were hooked.</p>
<p>But do colleges have an institutional need or desire for HIV-positive students? Not really. An HIV-positive applicant have a compelling personal story, and he or she may be able to wring a superlative personal narrative out of an otherwise most unfortunate situation. A compelling story, well told, may make the applicant stand out in the pool of qualified students. </p>
<p>But, no, it’s not really a hook.</p>
<p>I agree with Sikorsky. It could make for a strong essay that helps set you apart from other applicants and bring life to the numbers (which end up fairly indistinguishable once you hit a certain point in the process), but it’s not a hook.</p>
<p>This is a hook for you, but not for the college. If you can somehow base your essay off of that, and perhaps how you coped with it, then that can speak volumes about you. You won’t be a “hook” for the college, but you might be able to “hook” the colleges with your essay.</p>
<p>^
Which is not a hook in the sense of college admissions. It’s more appropriately called a well-written essay.</p>