What do admissions staff think of catchy essay hooks?

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Babbitt4MVP

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Especially on shorter secondaries. Do you guys like them? Or do you often end up rolling your eyes at them? I sort of just want to get straight to the point with my secondaries, but I get that may not be super engaging or enjoyable to read.

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Hard pass
 
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A lot of really bad writing results from people trying to pull off a style that is beyond their skill level. It's not that hooks are inherently bad. It's just that the percentage of premeds who can actually write a good one is effectively zero.

Michael Crichton's PS may well have included a wonderful hook. The rest of us need to know our limitations and just do our best to put forth a solid argument for why we should be allowed into med school without making any glaring spelling and grammar errors.
 
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I suspected this was the case. It's puzzling then why so many articles and websites insist you have a hook.

Thank you all for your replies! You've made my life a little easier.
 
Catchy hooks are usually a lot less catchy than the person writing them thinks.
 
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Especially on shorter secondaries. Do you guys like them? Or do you often end up rolling your eyes at them? I sort of just want to get straight to the point with my secondaries, but I get that may not be super engaging or enjoyable to read.
After reading several thousand, there are no hooks anymore.
 
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Trying to use a clever hook with a witty line can be a real sinker. you dont want to bait the adcom reader with an intelligent opening and to switch to a silly ending. Frankly they smell fishy. I am an old man and see right thru these. so please dont do this on porpise and make a whale of a mistake. Med schools cast a wide net and throw back the little ones. and you dont want to be an applicant who sleeps with the fishes.
Did you make up that crappie pun just for the halibut? :rolleyes:
 
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Trying to use a clever hook with a witty line can be a real sinker. you dont want to bait the adcom reader with an intelligent opening and to switch to a silly ending. Frankly they smell fishy. I am an old man and see right thru these. so please dont do this on porpise and make a whale of a mistake. Med schools cast a wide net and throw back the little ones. and you dont want to be an applicant who sleeps with the fishes.
Did you make up that crappie pun just for the halibut? :rolleyes:
I'm pretty sure we've had a line of fish puns before but I don't remember which thread it was in... I'll be searching.
 
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FWIW ... personally, I prefer to read a statement written by an "aspiring physician."

Suggestion: save your "hooks" for some other type of creative writing endeavor (e.g., if you want to write stories on the side); and hook me by explaining in your statement why you'll be the best medical student ever. That'll get my attention much faster than a hook. Just saying.
 
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It's just that the percentage of premeds who can actually write a good one is effectively zero.

the percentage of Americans who can actually write well approaches zero.

If you can compose an intelligent, thoughtful, well written piece, you have separated yourself from the rest. NB the rest will hate you. If it moves your reader, then you have won the reader to your side. NB2: the rest will really hate you.
 
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go clam up; you're just being crabby about all this
Just when we're ready to stop, he reels us in again! The Prince of Punnery is like a shark in the water with the puns tonight! I'm beginning to wonder if he is a friend or anemone. We had better be careful, or the mods will deep six this thread.

But I agree that applicants who have to resort to hooks are fish out of water in this endeavor. In fact, it's like shooting fish in a barrel when it comes to who to reject!
 
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go clam up; you're just being crabby about all this
Okay, your post reminds me of a really dumb joke. So I'm moving from puns to jokes.

Why does the ocean roar?

You'd roar too if you had crabs on your bottom. :rolleyes:
 
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I suspected this was the case. It's puzzling then why so many articles and websites insist you have a hook.

Thank you all for your replies! You've made my life a little easier.

I think it's a holdover from high school and maybe some college writing classes. If you are a high school student, maybe being forced into thinking of a hook can get you started on squeezing out a 2 pg essay on a book you never read, but more often than not hooks are just cringe inducing.
 
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Having read a fair amount of essays, the problem is that it's very difficult to execute properly. When you say something like, "It was 1:00 AM in the ER. It was quiet, almost too quiet," it can make you sound pretentious or cheesy, even if that's far from your intent. I think it's best to go with a more straightforward thesis 99% of the time.
 
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Having read a fair amount of essays, the problem is that it's very difficult to execute properly. When you say something like, "It was 1:00 AM in the ER. It was quiet, almost too quiet," it can make you sound pretentious or cheesy, even if that's far from your intent. I think it's best to go with a more straightforward thesis 99% of the time.
This reminds me of a passage in a bool about the Vietnam War. A lieutenant said the same "it's quiet, almost too quiet" line to his sergeant. The sergeant replied "it's always quiet at 1 in morning, sir"
 
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