I often see it in posts–ex: “An applicant should aim for a higher score unless they are hooked”–what does that mean?
A hook is something about them that makes it easier to get in- legacy, first generation, athlete, etc.
I think of it as the college admissions office in question having an official policy of giving certain nominated individuals or sometimes that type of applicant special consideration in admissions. Recruited athletes at most colleges are hooked–the coach is able to designate some number of applicants to admissions for such special consideration. Often children of certain staff or faculty are hooked as a group. Legacy applicants may or may not be as per school policy. Increasingly FGLIs might be. In some cases, certain performing arts students assuming they are the basic equivalent of a recruited athlete (meaning some sort of performing arts official tells Admissions they particularly want this applicant). Deans can sometimes put applicants on a list due to donations or applicant fame. And so on.
It is a bit of a blurry line, but this is in distinction from things which could be a positive in holistic review but not in any special way. Like, it could be a positive to be a very good debater, but I would not call a debater “hooked” unless the debate coach could actually identify them and get special treatment for them in the way recruited athletes, sometimes performing artists, somethings donors’ kids, and so on can get.
Edit: Oh, and often a hooked applicant MIGHT be able to get admitted with somewhat worse “numbers” than they could if unhooked, but that can be complicated. Like these days, legacy admits to the most selective colleges might not have notably worse numbers. I think if you looked at activities and such, then you might see legacy status sometimes substituting for really special activities. But there are so many high numbers legacy applicants these days that they don’t end up admitting many without high numbers.
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A hook is something a college needs or greatly wants. A college needs athletes to fill their teams. A college strongly wants diversity.
The key hooks:
- Recruited athlete
- Underrepresented minority (although the recent SCOTUS ruling impacts this)
- Legacy
- Child of major donor, world leader, celebrity
- Celebrity in their own right
How each college values hooks will vary by college.
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A hooked applicant is one that a particular college particularly wants to add to the class – above others with similar or even higher measurable statistics. Some hooks include recruited athletes, celebrity status, child of a huge donor, etc. An applicant would know if they are “hooked.”
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FGLI = First Generation (going to college) and Low Income
In addition to the explanations above, often the children of faculty are priority applicants.
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Institutional priority. If the school has to have a soccer team, it let’s the soccer coach have a certain number of “picks” subject to meeting a certain threshold. Those picks are hooked.
If the development office wants to prioritize a category of donors, they will be hooked.
If the school wants 20% of the class to be FGLI, that could be a hook.
Often, the hook is set outside the admissions office. So as mentioned, while admissions will have a mandate to deliver a well-rounded capable class, they will have the freedom to do that. So being a debater, artist, or having an interest in Classics may help in that regard, but it’s not a hook.