By Matt Denis, ArtsBridge Essay & Writing Coach
August 26, 2026

The most overrated concept in the world of admissions essay writing is “the hook.” I’ve spent nearly a decade in admissions consulting, and in that time I’ve worked one-on-one with hundreds of students on their Common App and supplementary essays. Like any other artistic medium, these essays are given to certain linguistic fads that come and go: for a while, the sentence structure “not only x, but also y” was nearly ubiquitous. More recently, the em dash was en vogue until the advent of AI made students wary of guilt by association. Only one such tic has stood the test of time: the pervasive, nearly pathological obsession with the idea that the success or failure of the admissions essay rests on its very first sentence. 

To be clear, I’m not anti-hook, in the same way that I’m not opposed to The Beatles, the most overrated band of all-time (while I’m doing hot takes, I might as well get them all on the record.) Astute readers might even notice that I used one in this very blog. But I do think that an outsized amount of attention gets paid to what is ultimately only one of a dozen qualities that make up an outstanding essay, and that the concept of a hook can be more broadly defined than I see it being when talking to students and parents.  

The advice I give my students as they embark on their Common App essay is to remember the essay’s purpose: to introduce themselves to the reader, and to show the qualities that will predict their success in college and beyond. The hook is a central part of this; you don’t get a second chance at a first impression, and there’s obviously great value in giving the reader something compelling to sink their teeth into right away. But there is a misconception about how much heavy lifting one sentence can do in a 650-word essay. In a list of the most important elements of an engaging essay, I doubt the opening sentence would crack the top five. When I’m reading drafts, I ask myself questions such as: Is the main idea of the essay appropriate to its purpose? Is that main idea defined in the opening paragraph, and does the essay stay focused on it throughout? Does the structure of the essay flow naturally from point to point? Is the narrative voice compelling and authentic to the writer? Do I finish the essay feeling like I know what the student values and what they think their strongest attributes are? If an essay is doing all of these things well, the absence of a traditionally punchy hook will not sink it, the same way a weak essay can’t be saved by a glorious opening. 

My other frustration with hook obsession is our expectation that the hook adheres to an increasingly narrow definition. The hook is one sentence. The hook is punchy. The hook grabs you by the brain and demands that you pay attention to it. In reality, the hook in any piece of writing is how the opening sentences set the stage for the rest of the essay. By that definition, it’s not hard to envision endless interpretations of the concept: introducing the theme of the essay in its opening paragraph is a hook; so is asking the reader a question; so are a short anecdote, a quote, or, yes, the in-your-face cliffhanger that we all think of when we think of a hook. 

One of the most common supplementary essay prompts students are asked to write is, “Why do you want to attend (name of school)?” Before we begin the writing and revising processes, I caution against interpreting that question as, “Tell us that this school is good.” Surely the student wouldn’t be applying if they thought the school was bad. Instead, it is far more to the point to answer the question, “Why is this school such a good fit for me, specifically?” The same can be said for hooks–the question is not, “Does my hook sound like the one from the essay I read when I googled ‘great admissions essay example?’” It’s, “Does my hook fit my essay?” The world’s greatest example of our current narrow definition of a hook, appended to an essay about mindfulness and reflection, would seem out of place: a clickbait headline for a nuanced piece of longform journalism.

My proposals are the following: let’s understand the hook as just one ingredient in the admissions essay jambalaya, and let’s broaden our definition to include anything that sets the stage for the more important things to come. 

Happy writing!