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<p>Yeah, ditto. I had absolutely no hook…ORM, and came from an OK public school. I worked my butt off, took advantage of every single opportunity I had…and by CHANCE was accepted. Does NOT mean you lose hope. The possibility is there, and it doesnt mean people w/out hooks DONT get accepted. The process is definitely not cut and dry, and it really comes down to what sticks with your admissions officer and how far they’re willing to support your application.</p>
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<p>Exactly. Trust me, out of the thousands of people that are rejected the large majority of them would/will have been extremely strong candidates, and it’s almost guaranteed that there will be at least a few that are like what the OP described. It never was a full-proof process & I doubt it ever will be–there are way to many external factors (esp “hooks”) that sway decisions one way or another…or change the context of everything.</p>
<p>And personally, if I was an admissions officer, who’d gone through application after application for months, and then was asked to specify why a certain student was rejected over and over…my mind would explode. What would you say? So much of the process is through dialogue and debating during committee about the merits of each application, and I doubt they write more than a few words as to why they ultimately rejected someone on more than 20,000 applications. It’s crazy and difficult to ever give a straightforward response…</p>
<p>Oh, and Me=pomegranate!!, where is the valedictorian going next year? And did you have a hook to get into Cornell (congrats, btw!) ?</p>