Скачать или смотреть Hook and ending for Harvard, Columbia, Princeton essay

WHY DID MY HOOK WORK?

There’s a couple different reasons why in my case. And yes I cannot believe an essay about POTATOES (running FULLY with that metaphor) got me into some crazy schools. As someone who got into every college I applied for (all 17) and currently work with students across the world to help them get into their dream schools, I tell my students to use these strategies:

IN MEDIA RES.
My hook captures your attention because we start without explanation. There’s no exposition dumping or too much contextualizing. The first two sentences are short and snazzy. Now I don’t just leave my readers in the dust; I contextualize it in the next paragraph. But the hook does its job: it keeps you reading.

BAIT AND SWITCH.
“lights up on a couch potato.” you would think that I’m talking about myself perhaps; a person who is brainrotting on their phone on the couch. but the LITERALLY makes you stop in your tracks, and the following paragraph makes you realize that yes I was talking about a literal man-turned-potato-stuck-to-his-couch. a bait and switch can be an effective way to pull in your reader. for example, one of my students painted a picture of his dad waking him up at 5am to help out at the flea market. you would think that as a kid, he would HATE that. the bait and switch ends up being that he LOVED getting up early to help out his family (and it’s what set him on his path in business).

WHAT’S YOUR POTENTIAL?
I showcase my potential in both the beginning and ending. I make the presumptuous and grandiose claim that one day I’ll win a Tony Award. and at the end, I talk about how “one potato can yield an entire harvest more.” It’s a metaphor for my prolificness, how I will never stop writing and creating. I leave admissions officers with a “big picture” of my future impact.

want to read this supplemental essay that got me into Harvard, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Columbia, and Princeton? It’s on my website along with every single other essay I wrote (all 40+)! no gatekeeping here.

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