What is a hook for T25 schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Extreme poverty
Foster care
Extreme wealth
Legacy donor
Native American
Boarding prep school
Missing limb
Opera singer
Stage actor
TV actor
National prize winner
Published author of authentic book
Scientific research recognized nationally
Former conjoined twin

[Anonymous]

For T25 today:

First generation
Pell grant
Recruited athlete
Famous/Very wealthy parents - i.e. Harvard's Z list
Children of faculty
ROTC
Certain feeder high schools - i.e. Collegiate, Horace Mann, Harvard-Westlake
Geographical diversity - i.e. Alaska, Wyoming

I think that's about it for T25. Also, typically at T25 schools 15-20 percent of seats are reserved for international students. Otherwise, almost every admit is going to be an accomplished student with leadership positions - so that's not unique or anything special. Legacy these days is mostly helpful in tie-breaker situations. Athlete is probably the most useful - Stanford football, Harvard hockey, Vanderbilt baseball and so on. It's unclear how the longtime URM hook is going to play out in the foreseeable future. There was huge variation this year among the T25 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

What?

There are 20,000 high schools in America, and last year Harvard took a little more than 2,000 students. The average American high school sends 1 student to Harvard every 10 years. Many high schools go longer than that without sending anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

What?

There are 20,000 high schools in America, and last year Harvard took a little more than 2,000 students. The average American high school sends 1 student to Harvard every 10 years. Many high schools go longer than that without sending anyone.

MoCo publics (nothing special) send 2 to Harvard per year. Not easy, but certainly not "impossible."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

What?

There are 20,000 high schools in America, and last year Harvard took a little more than 2,000 students. The average American high school sends 1 student to Harvard every 10 years. Many high schools go longer than that without sending anyone.

MoCo publics (nothing special) send 2 to Harvard per year. Not easy, but certainly not "impossible."

That's a far cry from the "worst inner city high schools" like Anacostia High School which I doubt has sent anyone to Harvard in the last 20 years.

Also, to say they are nothing special is also incorrect. 8 of the 10 best public high schools in all of MD are in MoCo, not to mention Blair Magnet on top of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

This really is NOT true. The worst inner city or very rural schools are sending 1 student to HYP maybe once a decade. I live in rural america and even the valedictorian at the local public HS is going to the state flagship. This is true of almost all of the other rural communities in my area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Extreme poverty
Foster care
Extreme wealth
Legacy donor
Native American
Boarding prep school
Missing limb
Opera singer
Stage actor
TV actor
National prize winner
Published author of authentic book
Scientific research recognized nationally
Former conjoined twin

Feels like it’s a no brainer to lop off the pinky toe if that’s a hook. Feels like you can reasonably claim that’s a “limb”.

You guys are so funny. But when our DS with extremely high stats and interesting EC was rejected from Ivy, Stanford and MIT my DH did say that they take kids with missing limbs etc.. or something of that sort. This is the second time someone mentioned it.. maybe there is some truth to it.

[Anonymous]

Low income, First generation, and rural are all now hooks for elite schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can we pleas just make a list?

Recruited athlete
Child of A-list celebrity
Child actor/celebrity themselves
Olympic medalist


Um. What else?

Define hook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For T25 today:

First generation
Pell grant
Recruited athlete
Famous/Very wealthy parents - i.e. Harvard's Z list
Children of faculty
ROTC
Certain feeder high schools - i.e. Collegiate, Horace Mann, Harvard-Westlake
Geographical diversity - i.e. Alaska, Wyoming

I think that's about it for T25. Also, typically at T25 schools 15-20 percent of seats are reserved for international students. Otherwise, almost every admit is going to be an accomplished student with leadership positions - so that's not unique or anything special. Legacy these days is mostly helpful in tie-breaker situations. Athlete is probably the most useful - Stanford football, Harvard hockey, Vanderbilt baseball and so on. It's unclear how the longtime URM hook is going to play out in the foreseeable future. There was huge variation this year among the T25 schools.

Keep in mind that feeder schools heavily curate their student bodies and select for kids that would do well come college admissions time. Collegiate and Horace Mann are filled with scholarship URMs from Prep for Prep and similar organizations that dominate during the college admissions cycle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

What?

There are 20,000 high schools in America, and last year Harvard took a little more than 2,000 students. The average American high school sends 1 student to Harvard every 10 years. Many high schools go longer than that without sending anyone.

MoCo publics (nothing special) send 2 to Harvard per year. Not easy, but certainly not "impossible."

No, they don’t. The MCPS magnet high schools do well but most MCPS high schools send zero, including some of the highest ranked schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

What?

There are 20,000 high schools in America, and last year Harvard took a little more than 2,000 students. The average American high school sends 1 student to Harvard every 10 years. Many high schools go longer than that without sending anyone.

MoCo publics (nothing special) send 2 to Harvard per year. Not easy, but certainly not "impossible."

Why are you lying?

MoCo publics collectively sent SIX (6) students to Harvard last year. That’s 6 students out of over 300 applicants across MoCo publics. GDS alone sent 6 students to Harvard in 2024.

Fact checker: https://moco360.media/2023/09/13/where-montgomery-county-high-school-graduates-are-going-to-college/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

What?

There are 20,000 high schools in America, and last year Harvard took a little more than 2,000 students. The average American high school sends 1 student to Harvard every 10 years. Many high schools go longer than that without sending anyone.

MoCo publics (nothing special) send 2 to Harvard per year. Not easy, but certainly not "impossible."

Why are you lying?

MoCo publics collectively sent SIX (6) students to Harvard last year. That’s 6 students out of over 300 applicants across MoCo publics. GDS alone sent 6 students to Harvard in 2024.

Fact checker: https://moco360.media/2023/09/13/where-montgomery-county-high-school-graduates-are-going-to-college/

Private school parents whine all the time that their kid should have gone to public school, because it's so "easy" to get in from there. But even if 5 of the 6 kids that went to Harvard from GDS were "hooked" and none of the ones from MCPS were (almost certainly not true) that still means that the average kid from GDS is 16 times as likely to get in as the average kid from MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

What?

There are 20,000 high schools in America, and last year Harvard took a little more than 2,000 students. The average American high school sends 1 student to Harvard every 10 years. Many high schools go longer than that without sending anyone.

MoCo publics (nothing special) send 2 to Harvard per year. Not easy, but certainly not "impossible."

Why are you lying?

MoCo publics collectively sent SIX (6) students to Harvard last year. That’s 6 students out of over 300 applicants across MoCo publics. GDS alone sent 6 students to Harvard in 2024.

Fact checker: https://moco360.media/2023/09/13/where-montgomery-county-high-school-graduates-are-going-to-college/

Without knowing anything about the composition of these 6 students, this means little. I'm willing to bet it's a mix of legacy, urm, children of famous/connected people and athletes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest hook is simple being the top of your class. Even the worst inner city and back country rural schools send 1 student to Harvard per year. Look at the polaislist.com , which bases its data on Harvard yearbooks. However, when DCMoms hear that their DC needs to be at the top of the class, they claim that that is so unfair.

What?

There are 20,000 high schools in America, and last year Harvard took a little more than 2,000 students. The average American high school sends 1 student to Harvard every 10 years. Many high schools go longer than that without sending anyone.

MoCo publics (nothing special) send 2 to Harvard per year. Not easy, but certainly not "impossible."

Why are you lying?

MoCo publics collectively sent SIX (6) students to Harvard last year. That’s 6 students out of over 300 applicants across MoCo publics. GDS alone sent 6 students to Harvard in 2024.

Fact checker: https://moco360.media/2023/09/13/where-montgomery-county-high-school-graduates-are-going-to-college/

I took a look. 47 MoCo public school students got into HYP last year. That's not terrible for one county. But it's not as strong as previous years.