Definition of Hook

<p>People around here are obsessed with hooks. We all want to develop a hook. Is reading a long book with big words a hook? Is eating a balanced breakfast each day a hook?</p>

<p>No. The way the terms are usually used, a hook = something you are. An EC = something you do.</p>

<p>ECs:
Music
Clubs
Sports
Dance
Research
Community Service
Leadership
etc.</p>

<p>Hooks:
URM
Legacy
S/D of a prof. at the college
Billionaire parents
1st in family to go to college
From remote, under-represented state or country.
Etc.</p>

<p>See the difference? You can’t normally create or develop a hook.<br>
Either you’ve got a hook or you don’t. So give up obsessing over hooks and start using your time more profitably on studying for the SAT, polishing up your essays, or excelling at your ECs.</p>

<p>I couldn’t agree more with this! I understand we all want to get in, but I’m turned off by the obsession with hooks on this forum!</p>

<p>yes! thankyou, now hopefully the hook phase will pass…</p>

<p>not a chance lol</p>

<p>I’m sure approaching the whole application process in a less obsessive manner would make a good impression on most of the admissions officers. Chill out and don’t worry so much about hooks.</p>

<p>I disagree. I think winning a gold medal in International Math Olympiad is a hook. Or being the developer and owner of a multi-million dollar business. </p>

<p>I think most of your listed EC’s could be a hook…</p>

<p>-Music: best trumpet player in the world
-Sports: gold medal in Athens olympics
-Research: cured cancer
Community Service: started int’l nonprofit that raised $3.4 billion
Leadership: owner of multi-million business</p>

<p>Now I know this sounds silly, but there can be a hook that is “manufactured.” Now very few people could meet this criteria, which is part of the defintion of a hook. But I bet there are people w/ good stats that are rejected that would have been accepted if they had any of the above. </p>

<p>A hook means different things at different schools. For example, at UCI, a perfect SAT would be a major hook, wheras at Harvard it is not. It is all relative to the selectivity of the school in question.</p>

<p>I think what some people are calling “hooks” are really “tipping factors”…ie, if Harvard is interested in a particular EC, instrument, sport, something like that one year, it may give you a little boost in the admissions process. The thing is, however, that no one knows what factors will be tipping factors until the admissions committees are sitting down and looking at all the applications. So tokenadult’s right…chill out and do things you LIKE. Don’t do things just because there’s a slim chance it might help you.</p>

<p>The bottom line is Harvard’s going to look at your whole application and make a decision on the whole thing… so no use arguing over semantics</p>

<p>yeah i wish that was the case. i really dont believe that harvard wouldnt be swayed by a significant accomplishment. I mean, i believe that every application has 5 parts, GPA, SAT/other test scores, EC’s/comm service/awards (grouped because they’re all sought in one direction), Essay, and the hook</p>

<p>That’s not how the schools rank you though–well, at least at Harvard. A “hook” as in “IMO Gold Medalist” would just mean your EC rating, one of about 8 I think, would be a 1 (the highest.)</p>

<p>A hook is something you can’t ‘buy’. Travel will never be a hook, neither will attending a non ‘invitation only’ program. Talents, achievements by hard work, birth, can all produce a hook it they lead to a position where you are one in 50,000 or so. The 50,000 are the pool of Ivy applicants.</p>

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<p>It’s not just semantics. A hook and an EC are different concepts, not just different names for the same thing. Many people on CC confuse them.</p>

<p>An EC is something you do and hopefully do well. You might win glorious awards in your EC. You might even be best in the country. You can (and should) seek to improve in your ECs</p>

<p>A hook is something that you are that gets you classified into a different category of applicants. You are not considered in the same light as other applicants. You could be rich, or a URM, or a grandchild of the university founder, or a Bush, or a Kennedy. With the possibility of somehow getting rich as a teenager. There isn’t much you can do about hooks.</p>

<p>Would extraordinary achievement in a sport be considered a hook?</p>

<p>Yes, especially if you can get recruited.</p>

<p>Right, the effort and diligence it takes to develop into a sought-after sports recruit is a way to “manufacture” a hook, though, even there native ability ("what you ‘are’ ")is arguably a very big factor. Beyond that, I completely agree with coureur. Applicants who think that Latin or community service is a hook are misguided.</p>

<p>The few common manufactured hooks, as opposed to natural hooks, that I can think of are Intel, RSI, USAMO, and recruited athlete.</p>

<p>I’m going to gently disagree with stele32 here (and with the others who have posted similar comments), because the specific examples given of EC accomplishments are darn near ROUTINE in Harvard’s applicant pool, and they don’t have the stand-out value for a Harvard application that they might have for an application to another school. Many other threads have shown that having “lots of ECs” is usually a losing admissions strategy at Harvard. Much better is to take a particular EC or two to a very high level. That’s not a “hook” so much as it’s almost a threshold requirement for admission at Harvard.</p>

<p>tokenadult-seriously? is that true? i mean, i’m really confused. I’m thinking of starting a national nonprofit, I already have quite a few memebers, but i have only two years to take it before I am eligible for transfer at harvard. im really dedicated to it, is that considered a ‘hook’?</p>

<p>atem - right…</p>

<p>I have to disagree with you on the EC/hooks that I mentioned. I’ll admit that there are many recruited athletes who ultimately are not accepted, but I have seen very few people with RSI who have rejected by Harvard, the same for the other ones. By no means at all are these ECs routine; only about 75 students attend RSI each year. This is compared to the 1600 who are accepted to Harvard each year, and the 23,000 who apply to Harvard each year.</p>