The College Hook

by: Pam Proctor

Published by: Center Street

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

Pam Proctor is the president of College Application Consultants, Inc. and a former senior editor/writer for Parade Magazine. She also has a consulting background for the International Baccalaureate program at Sebastian River High School, in Sebastian, Florida.

Pam Proctor’s thesis for this book is that every student has a special something that can be used as a “hook” to attract the attention of Admissions and make the student stand out as a likely prospect for a specific college. Her book is filled with examples of “hooks” used by a wide variety of students to apply to an equally wide variety of schools. She has helpful hints, sample essays, and questionnaires geared to aiding in the process.

What she doesn’t have are examples from middle- to small-sized schools in middle- to small-sized towns where students frequently do not have the opportunity to take college courses, Advanced Placement courses, International Baccalaureate programs, or specialized summer internships. Her book works best for students in major metropolitan areas (particularly on either coast) who attend specialized college prep schools or private academies. Her focus is also on getting into top-tier Ivy League or what she calls “little Ivy” schools. She says little about state university or college systems—as if they would never be a top student’s first or even last choice.

I found examples such as the student who just happened to intern with a nationally known photographer prior to his senior high school year to be a bit presumptuous about the opportunities afforded most 16- to 17-year-old students in the U.S.

This book has interesting aspects and it would have a place in a high school library or counselor’s office for student’s to peruse as they begin thinking of college, but it would be a waste of money to buy the book to read at home. It would also be a discouraging book to plan to use if the student is already midway into the senior year and beginning to fill our applications, since by then it could be too late to develop the “hooks” the book promotes.

Note: Reviewer’s two daughters got into their schools of course, so she knows from what she writes.

Armchair Interviews says: Book has its place, but maybe graduating seniors isn’t it.