<p>Ok so there is always a debate over what constitutes as a hook and what does not. So I decided we make a cumulative list of all hooks and “anti-hooks,” if you will.</p>
<p>Hooks:
URM (Under represented minority) - Black, latino, etc.
Under represented location - Hawaii (usually), North Dakota, Oregon, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, etc.
Legacy - usually the child or grandchild of someone that attended</p>
<p>Anti-hooks:
ORM (Over represented minority) - Asian
Over Represented location - Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, California</p>
<p>Hooks:
URM (Under represented minority) - Black, latino, etc.
Under represented location - Hawaii (usually), North Dakota, Oregon, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, etc.
Legacy - usually the child or grandchild of someone that attended
willing to donate money. A lot of money. As in $50 million.</p>
<p>Anti-hooks:
ORM (Over represented minority) - Asian
Over Represented location - Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, California
needing financial aid.</p>
<p>@Maters We’re talking about what constitutes a hook that would make an applicant appealing to an Admissions Officer, not what would make a school appealing to the applicant.</p>
<p>^^I thought what the post meant was that the AO would look badly on a school where a student withdrew late in summer or would look kindly on a student from a school where students came well prepared. In the same vein as the thread about feeder schools to Harvard. Does a student get greater consideration because they come from a well known school?</p>
<p>I have to wonder if the geographic thing is really the case. During my sons revisit day I was shocked by the number of kids from Mass. I would say almost half of the kids revisiting. I don’t, however, know how many kids from Mass applied, but the accepted numbers were overwhelming.<br>
Certainly being from an underrepresented state helps, but I don’t think being from Mass hurts!</p>
<p>This was at Groton. I guess it’s possible that it wasn’t representative, plus I don’t know how many accepted. I just remember being shocked at the number of kids from Mass. I think that the second day had less ,but still significant, but at least a third.</p>
<p>I wanted to add that there were probably a good amount of day students in that mix as well, didn’t think about that.
Also, not sure about next year. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about that!</p>
<p>At one of the (very competitve) schools we visitited, I frankly asked where the admissions priorities where and was told “in the middle of our country”. Apparently there is a bit of a cultural barrier about sending kids away from families in that area, as people there think it is only for reform school type issues.</p>
<p>Maybe you are right and there is just more cultural “buy in” among the schools in the mid-west that keeps those families from applying. In any event this was a top tier school telling me this is what they were looking for as a top priority, FWIW…</p>
<ul>
<li><p>It’s very costly & logistically complicated to attend a school beyond driving distance. </p></li>
<li><p>It’s costly for AOs to do recruiting trips that involve flying; therefore, they will focus on visiting high population areas like the Bay Area, rather than rural interior. Look on the Admissions websites for different school; they often list their travel schedule-- I’ve seen Atlanta & Chicago mentioned, but never Omaha or Cheyenne.</p></li>
<li><p>outside the northeast U.S., boarding school is not part of the culture. It’s simply not on people’s radar as an option. Where my kids were in middle school, not even the teachers had heard of andover or exeter. </p></li>
<li><p>BS is very expensive. The monied families are concentrated in cities that border the big waters, as are outreach programs for low socioeconomic class kids.</p></li>
<li><p>chicken & egg…</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Very true. I happen to be from the Midwest, and maybe two teachers even knew boarding school was a thing (and one of them even went to a local public school called Andover!!!) </p>
<p>I still have trouble remembering that people are raised to want to go to boarding schools-- that’s it’s in their blood. Boarding school is something I learned about two years ago, and now I’ve changed the course of my life completely haha.</p>
<p>(Side note: many of my friends are too in the middle as far as financial aid goes to even think about private school. I know many schools are very generous, but they would still be overlooked for FA since they could technically afford it)</p>