What are hooks?
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Anonymous
| I keep reading how super talented students don't get in because they do not have a hook. What are these hooks? And what type of hooks should I focus on with my tenth grader? Thank you. |
Anonymous
| Most of them you're born with: URM, family money, athletic ability. So it's hard to build them up. |
Anonymous
|
Hooks are all the things that schools want. Top schools
Don’t need top students, they have More than they can accommodate. URM, world class athlete, famous newsmakers... |
Anonymous
| Creative vision. I just watched a YouTube video by a young lady who was accepted at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and a top design school. She had an impressive portfolio of paintings and sculptures, a clear interest in something other than taking SAT prep courses and getting good grades. Your kid should have a deep interest in something other than acquiring money and prestige. |
Anonymous
| What is URM? |
Anonymous
| A non-Asian POC. |
Anonymous
an under-represented minority |
Anonymous
| Wealth, power, family ties, kids of connected people, a preferred minority, anything other than hardworking students with nothing, just like it works out in life sometimes these hooks can give a person without special talent or work ethics a leg up. |
Anonymous
|
Things people say are important non-academic factors in the admissions process.
Things like diversity (at some schools that could be ethnic/racial, geographic, nationality...), legacy, and first generation college students are pretty common ones. Some people will assume that an activity (see the Eagle Scout conversation from a few weeks ago) can be a hook, but it's highly unlikely unless someone is nationally renowned for something. |
Anonymous
| Hooks are those aspects to a student application that help schools meet their own institutional needs. This includes legacy, donor /development, Cultural and geographic diversity, first gen etc. They are the things that strengthen applications sometimes although the are not achievements or accomplishments per se. Parents love to throw around the terms “hook” and “spike” like we’re insiders on the admissions process and obviously we aren’t. But in that context a spike refers to something the student has accomplished that stands out as particularly strong, e.g. winning a national science competition |