<p>DrPheno, that’s great advice for creating an integrated, persuasive application based on an interest. The OP was asking about hooks, though, and hooks are things that are so desired by a college that they can even compensate for less-than-stellar other aspects of an application. The OP can spin his interest and experience in several ways that might make his application more memorable, but it’s not the kind of thing that, by itself, would fulfill a particular need of Stanford’s (there are already loads of people here who came with backgrounds in programming, website design, open source activities, etc. etc. ) nor would it help the college further any particular institutional goals. I am not denigrating the OP’s chances in any way nor discouraging him, or anyone, from applying, just trying to help people understand what distinguishes a real hook from things like interesting ECs. That way people may have more realistic ideas of their prospects. Ciao.</p>