MIT - EA, Worth it? What are my chances?

jessiehl
Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:41:22 +0000

shravas and jessiehl, I’m very new to CC so I’m probably confused about “hooks” since I’ve never heard it elsewhere before besides here. Can someone care to explain it to me?



Don’t worry. In my experience, probably three-quarters of CC are confused about “hooks”.

There’s not really an agreed-upon definition of what a “hook” is, which is part of the problem. My best understanding is that a “hook” is something that, on its own, makes a school want you and makes you stand out in the pool. Among other things, this means that a hook for MIT would need to be something both unusual among qualified MIT applicants and unusually appealing to MIT, which makes having a true hook at MIT difficult, because there are a lot of highly accomplished and unique people in the pool. I know a guy who had published two major papers in prestigious mathematics journals by the time he was 16 (he also had a perfect score on the USAMO and was a two-time IMO gold medalist). That is a hook. Another guy I know was not only the lead actor in a major movie as a child, but overcame extreme disability and chronic illness in order to be academically qualified for MIT while also working extensively as a disabled-rights activist. That is also a hook.

My view is that there are very few MIT applicants with true hooks (as opposed to what I call “tips” - factors that can tip the balance in your favor when you’re being compared to others with similar qualifications), and that most of the people who get in don’t have one. I certainly didn’t have one.

Even if you use a looser definition of “hook” than I do (and many people do use a looser definition), it still needs to be something uncommon, memorable, and appealing, in the context of that school’s applicant pool.

Note that what a “hook” is differs depending on the school. At some schools, being a National Merit Finalist is a hook, for instance, while at MIT it’s probably more common than not.