What are "hooks"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An affirmative action study by Princeton researchers in 2005 attempted to break down and compare the effects of the practice among racial and special groups. The data from the study represent admissions disadvantage and advantage in terms of SAT points (on 1600-point scale):

* Blacks: +230
* Hispanics: +185
* Asians: ?50
* Recruited athletes: +200
* Legacies (children of alumni): +160

I would think that Harvard would be similar.

Princeton has a long history of being unwelcome to AAs (and rarely the first choice for top AA students), although I think that it has gotten better lately. These are the best stats that I could find for Harvard:

http://features.thecrimson.com/2014/freshman-survey/admissions/

What are you saying here? Support for this statement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's more than simply academics, location, legacy and sports.

Your child can create his/her own "hook" by being interested in something, such as robotics or environmental education or late 17th century Flemish painting. Get an internship in his/her area of interest, do something related in school, go to summer programs in that area, get a part-time job, create a research project, etc. Build a resume.

I know this works. A friend's daughter got into every college she applied to because she created her own hook. She had an A- average at a good private school, and decent but not fabulous SATs. White, upper middle class female from large East Coast urban area. Nothing special about her. But she had a very specialized interest, got a great internship, did research projects in her area of interest. On her application, she told colleges that particular area was what she wanted to study and why she wanted to go to that college. She got into every college she applied to, including Harvard, where she went.

This kid had no legacy, and she even got FA from Harvard. In the end, she didn't even study her area of interest becuase at Harvard, she found a subject area that interested her more.

I imagine this approach can help pretty much every run of the mill average kid who, like many, doesn't have a clue what he/she wants to do in college or life, has ho-hum grades and stats. It will make your kid stand out from the crowd of average Joe's and Julias.

But see you don’t have to do all this stuff if you have a “hook.”

Conversely, if you don’t have a hook, you will have to do stuff like this to stand out from the crowd,

So, by your logic all 3,700 AA kids applying to Harvard this year are a "lock" for admissions. The 200 that are actually granted acceptance are simply chosen from a hat, because none of them were class valedictorians, Presidential Scholars, award winning poets, or world class jazz musicians (all of whom were in my class while there). Catch up with the time.

uh, 35,000 applied last year. Probablyl 37,000 this year. And, yes, every kid accepted is extraordinary in their own way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My hobby is building high power rockets. I emphasized this passion in my essays and I have no doubt that it helped me get into my engineering programs.

I'm also from Rhode Island, so I ticked that box too.

If you were transgender too (or openly Republican), you'd be golden.

I don't know if this is a snark or not but I know several young activists in the Republican party and that did get them into HYP and the Jefferson scholarship at UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My hobby is building high power rockets. I emphasized this passion in my essays and I have no doubt that it helped me get into my engineering programs.

I'm also from Rhode Island, so I ticked that box too.

If you were transgender too (or openly Republican), you'd be golden.

I wouldn't admit this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's more than simply academics, location, legacy and sports.

Your child can create his/her own "hook" by being interested in something, such as robotics or environmental education or late 17th century Flemish painting. Get an internship in his/her area of interest, do something related in school, go to summer programs in that area, get a part-time job, create a research project, etc. Build a resume.

I know this works. A friend's daughter got into every college she applied to because she created her own hook. She had an A- average at a good private school, and decent but not fabulous SATs. White, upper middle class female from large East Coast urban area. Nothing special about her. But she had a very specialized interest, got a great internship, did research projects in her area of interest. On her application, she told colleges that particular area was what she wanted to study and why she wanted to go to that college. She got into every college she applied to, including Harvard, where she went.

This kid had no legacy, and she even got FA from Harvard. In the end, she didn't even study her area of interest becuase at Harvard, she found a subject area that interested her more.

I imagine this approach can help pretty much every run of the mill average kid who, like many, doesn't have a clue what he/she wants to do in college or life, has ho-hum grades and stats. It will make your kid stand out from the crowd of average Joe's and Julias.

But see you don’t have to do all this stuff if you have a “hook.”

Conversely, if you don’t have a hook, you will have to do stuff like this to stand out from the crowd,

So, by your logic all 3,700 AA kids applying to Harvard this year are a "lock" for admissions. The 200 that are actually granted acceptance are simply chosen from a hat, because none of them were class valedictorians, Presidential Scholars, award winning poets, or world class jazz musicians (all of whom were in my class while there). Catch up with the time.

No by my logic very few of them (far less than 200 even) would have gotten in without their URM hook. in they weren’t AA.

Keep spewing racist nonsense.

Not PP, and not a racist, but I think PP is correct.

[Anonymous]

Michelle Obama went to Princeton.