<p>My hooks as a transfer ( I apply in the fall for admission in Fall '06) :</p>
<p>African-American
Foster Child ( until age 18)
Non-Traditional Education</p>
<p>-Started my own company <a href=“http://www.strikegold.tk%5B/url%5D”>www.strikegold.tk</a>
-Publishing a book (short stories and poems)
-Patented traffic regulation invention - getting it implemented by the police
-International experience (indian ethnicity, born and lived in norway for 15 years, moved to korea, travelled to 21 countries so far)
-can speak 4 languages (Norwegian, Spanish, Hindi, English)
-skipped 10th grade</p>
<p>got rejected from: Princeton, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke (this is with only the 1st and last 3 hooks mentioned. The other stuff was done later in my senior year).</p>
<p>I outdrank my interviewer.</p>
<p>just kidding</p>
<p>callthecops, I went to your website; I just thought you would like to know…ahh…you spelled “organization” wrong every time.</p>
<p>thats the british spelling…</p>
<p>Possible hook (?):
- Debated under a top 3 (in the nation) Speech & Debate organization</p>
<p>Don’t know if this counts for much - 2700 hours of significant Community Service with leadership at the state level; national awards.</p>
<ul>
<li>Member (Main Robot Driver) of a National Champion FIRST Robotics Team</li>
<li>Dad is a donating alumnus at NYU</li>
<li>Started my own enormously popular text-based MMORPG</li>
</ul>
<p>One of the reasons you may have been rejected from the schools you mentioned is that it appears the business you have established is not legal under U.S. Securities laws. Selling investment advice and trading stocks for others is a highly regulated business and you don’t mention that you have any of the licenses or qualifications necessary to participate. In addition, it is illegal to guarantee any return on risky investments as you do in your option 2. It doesn’t matter that you contribute all of the profits to charity. </p>
<p>Furthermore, your business harkens back to a time at the turn of the century that a lot of people would like to forget. It was a time when many people passed themselves off as investment gurus who’s advice could make people all kinds of money. Sadly, the markets in 2000-2003 showed that for the most part, they were charlatans, and a lot of people lost a lot of money in that time.</p>
<p>Finally, I would point out to you that one of the schools you applied to, Dartmouth, is the home of the Tuck School of Business. One of the best known professors there is Kenneth French (<a href=“http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/[/url]”>http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/</a>), who is well known in finance as the “French” in the Fama-French 3-factor model for explaining stock returns. The basic underlieing assumption of this model is that markets are efficient, and it is futile to try to actively pick stocks that will exceed risk adjusted market returns. Unfortunately, that is just what you imply that you are doing in your business.</p>
<p>While I commend you for your enterprise in establishing a business, I feel I have to be blunt here. Your business’ questionable legality and the fact that its premise is contrary to academic research makes it a negative hook. Sorry.</p>
<p>Thanks for that. I’m taking a year off now and it will get a korean license in the next few months. Would this make much of a difference when I apply again?</p>
<p>and yeah, I pull out of stocks every 2 days and dont expect much of an increment greater than 0.3 percent total per day maximum…Im not investing in just one company hoping for sudden boosts…</p>
<p>i got 400% stock market equity increase over the past 4 years</p>
<p>…in a stock market game. (virtual stock exchange).</p>
<p>does that show economics skill? …for wharton btw</p>
<p>i guess that’s my little huh hook</p>
<p>Let’s see, I wrote about taking care of my autistic brother 24/7 and I got in to UCSD (still haven’t decided yet)</p>
<p>callthecops,
It sounds to me that you are “day trading” or very close to it. That’s a term that has become synonymous with “gambling.” It is not something that I would brag about to an adcom, especially at an elite school. The major financial thinking in academia today draws its roots from the Efficient Market Hypothesis and the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Do a little research on these subjects and I think you will see that what you are doing does not fit. </p>
<p>If you really want to get into an elite school, I would suggest that you find another hook. </p>
<p>And by the way, until you get licensed and follow all of the regulations in the country or countries from which you draw your customers, your business is a disaster waiting to happen. Everything goes well as long as you make money, but if you start to lose it, people can turn nasty very quickly. And if you are not doing everything right, guess where the blame is going to fall. Be very careful.</p>
<p>Chanman,</p>
<p>I assume you are kidding.</p>
<p>callthecops, i don’t mean to be insulting, another problem with your site is that it not professional developed.</p>
<p>it’s not on a real server. geocities, can never be used. no exceptions. ever. even on their professional servers, it would be more advised for 1&1, who guarantee more uptime. </p>
<p>repeating background is a strict no-no. public email is also horrible.</p>
<p>i think perhaps this may have cut you off. although, i am saddened that you did not get into the colleges that you wished, using this as a hook could ONLY have hurt. if you had not personally posted in the forums, i would have bet money with a stranger that your site was a scam because it was not professionally designed</p>
<p>I guess you are right. Its in for a facelift and a .com address soon. I HAVE made money off the market and I HAVE given $5000 to charity so far from it, but i guess its gotta be more professional. The whole thing started off as a personal contact thing where I started investing for others. This became an offshoot. Most of my customers so far have been people who I personally know.</p>
<p>I wonder how colleges would look at the whole thing when the site’s all professional and the whole thing gets a new look and is registered. any ideas?</p>
<p>My hook is that I am in the top 5 for state for crew, so hopefully I will get recruited by an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>because the adcmons lack the time to check out each site. talk more about how you earned money and donated it. not all of them have the knack of telling the difference between a web site and a word doc. </p>
<p>therefore, it may make more sense to rather tell about how you gave 5000 to charity from profits alone. that is a very impressive figure.</p>
<p>please bear in mind, you do not have to heed my advice, i am only a junior. however, i am looking at it through a non-biased view, and such so could be similar to what a similar adcmon felt</p>
<p>""Chanman,</p>
<p>I assume you are kidding.'“”</p>
<p>i’m not kidding. i have a 400% increase in profit over the last 4 years in the stock market. 1 million to 4.3 million or something.</p>
<p>in the virtual stock market game. (GAME@!!!)</p>
<p>if only it was real…i’d be rich.</p>