No, it won’t. But what you make out of it can.
Seriously, these kinds of threads need to stop. If you had some kind of life-changing event happen to you or if you regularly face a significant challenge, DON’T ASK ABOUT IT ON THIS FORUM. Chances are, the challenge itself won’t improve your chances.
What will matter, though, is if you continued to strive forward and succeed in academics like how a normal student would. Now that would be impressive.
If you still feel like you’re entitled to have improved chances of getting into X college, then take your challenge and make something out of it.
If you have diabetes, organize a fundraiser or 5K to raise awareness…
…If you were once homeless, start a charity drive to help provide for those who were once in your shoes…
…If your parents are divorced, start an organization to motivate the 4,000,000+ students who will also witness their parents’ divorce to stay in school…
But DON’T ask on this forum if it’ll help you get into a certain college.
YAAAASSS …Bless this thread…couldn’t agree more.
Will reading this thread get me into cornell pls help
More people need to read this, especially from my school 
@AnEpicIndian @Wingachu @Gatortristan Will my chances at Cornell increase if i donate a kidney
@thegrant only if it’s both
Will I get into Princeton if I throw an apple at the Queen of England?
Yes! So many people are looking for a ‘hook’ and they don’t realize that a hook only works if you’ve got something to show for it. You can’t say “my parents got divorced when I was 17” and then center your essay around the struggles you went through during your parents divorce. Being a child to divorced parents is nothing special or even remotely unusual. The same can be said for basically any ‘hook’ though.
Growing up in a poor immigrant family is not a hook. Succeeding and getting amazing grades and participating in school clubs and summer research activities while growing up in a poor immigrant family might be a hook. I emphasize -might-.
I think the best hook is to have a well rounded application.
@DarkEclipse - Only if it’s on a Tuesday.
@comfortablycurt Tuesday?! But I was planning on throwing tomatoes at the King of Spain on that day! Argh.
Good luck getting into Princeton if you’re going to spend your time throwing tomatoes at the King of Spain. That’s just silly.
I got the most liked comment on an internet article one time.
Does that help?
@comfortablycurt Gasp How dare you?! Do not disregard the art of tomato-throwing!
“I got into my school with a sprained ankle, ask me how!!!”
BTW: How do I pay for it? I have an EFC of 0 and they want me to pay!!
Facebook Likes are directly proportional to academic success.
Seriously though, this is a topic that I see on here a lot. People seem to come up with all kinds of activities or situations that they feel make them unique, and most of these situations really aren’t unique at all. I’ve seen people ask if having ADD/ADHD or growing up in a poor household was a ‘hook’. They argued that graduating from high school with ADD/ADHD or low income put them in a unique and incredibly difficult situation…and it just doesn’t. It makes them look like they’re scrambling for some kind of hook to make them stand out. The hook would be growing up in a poor household with ADD/ADHD, and managing to find your focus in the study of science which lead you to winning a national science competition…or something else that’s roughly comparable.
The way I see it, you only have a ‘hook’ if it emerges naturally from the information that you are putting on your application. If you have to actively figure out what your hook is…you probably don’t have one.