How Admission Decisions Are Made: Hooks Chanhassen MN

How Admission Decisions Are Made: Hooks

A hook, in admission parlance, is any advantage that makes you attractive to a particular college. This varies from school to school and from year to year. You may try to hide your hooks, preferring to be admitted on only your merit, or you may choose to fight furiously to exploit even your most inconsequential connections.

Having a hook can give you a higher rating from the get-go or even move your application from the deny pile into the admit (or waitlist) stack. They most often come into play when admission officers are judging equally qualified candidates. If a college has to select one of two students who look the same on paper and one is the child of an alumnus and the other is not, the alumni’s child is probably going to be the one decorating a dorm room in the fall.

However, connections aren’t everything, especially if you don’t have the grades or the ability to be successful. In most cases, your connections won’t be enough to overcome a poor academic record. One college even turned down its own president’s son — he just couldn’t make the cut!

Wondering what hooks are most revered among admission officers? It varies, but some are pretty universal.

Alumni connections
Don’t assume that you’re a shoo-in just because your mom or dad went to your dream school, but you can expect that your folder will be reviewed very carefully. If you’re denied for any reason, the decision will be painful for the college.

Author: Amy Ambler

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