<p>^^</p>
<p>Weird that Stephen Hawking would rely on someone who doesn’t understand the proper use of the apostrophe.</p>
<p>“seven part movie franchise”
I thought it was 8 now? ;)</p>
<p>I think LasMas has the right line of thinking on this. Also, what is a a “hook” or “tip” for one school may not be for another. It helps to really research the school you are applying to -what is its mission? Has it announced any new program that it is trying to promote? Is it trying to change its demographics?</p>
<p>For example, D2 applied to a selective women’s college with stats in the bottom 25%. She hit the mark with her essay about going out for the boys’ wrestling team and ultimately winning a conference championship. While that proved to be a “tip” for a women’s college which would naturally be looking for daring, unusual women, another school might look unfavorably upon such an activity. D had other impressive extracurriculars, but the wrestling was the one that caught the attention of admissions.</p>
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<p>Not necessarily “unqualified” - at the most selective institutions, the school may only be able to take a small fraction of its applicants while the vast majority of its applicant pool is academically qualified. The hook can help to determine which of those otherwise equally-qualified candidates get the nod.</p>
<p>Honors and accomplishments at the state and national level can be strong assets in this regard. So can a record of significant accomplishment despite a lack of available local resources (toward that end, I wonder sometimes if very bright students who go to underachieving public HSs don’t have an advantage over those who go to elite prep schools). </p>
<p>Having an unmistakeable purpose in pursuing admission to a certain highly-selected university can also give an application a special appeal. It’s one thing to say “I want to go to XYZ because it’s world-renowned for academic excellence” and quite another to say “I want to go to XYZ because in studying the field in which I plan to major, I became fascinated by the cutting-edge research being conducted in the field by Dr. Smith in your ABC department. I contacted Dr. Smith with questions about his/her work and was delighted when s/he invited me to drop by for a chat during my campus visit. If granted admission, I plan to be a volunteer assistant in Dr. Smith’s office . . . etc.”</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school. As two examples, Brown seems to love well-known actors and their offspring, while Harvard seems to love the children of well-known politicians and world leaders.</p>
<p>Having billionaire parents well known for their philanthropy.</p>
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<p>I think either of those categories are popular with most Ivies. </p>
<p>It might just be that the actor group likes Brown better, and the World Leaders prefer Harvard.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t think that Brown would recoil in horror from some the General Secretary of the U.N.'s brilliant daughter or someone like that.</p>
<p>“Ideal hook”? How about being a legacy URM athlete rated 5 stars at the QB position by all the recruiting sites . . . with unweighted GPA and test scores placing in the top quartile of the entering class?</p>
<p>Female URM + Engineering major.</p>
<p>^ used to be me :[ But now i’m more into Poli Science & Econ…lol.</p>
<p>Being a Celeb, having parents that donated a building for the school…</p>
<p>Sorry. A female URM engineer is only a tip. A friend’s daughter got very little merit aid at Purdue despite being in this category and a diligent student.</p>
<p>One not identified yet in this thread is a “feeder school,” like Andover. An established relationship whereby a high school, private or public has an “in” with a particular college or colleges, known to accept many students from that HS each year.</p>