<p>For many people, playing video games is a casual hobby. For some however, it becomes more than just a regular pastime; it becomes as competitive as playing a sport (that it could be considered a sport, per se). As a matter of fact, there are highly competitive series such as Pokemon or Madden that sport official tournaments and online rankings...</p>
<p>Would it be helpful on a college application to list any worthy accomplishments or distinctions such as national (or better yet, international) championship titles related to video games?</p>
<p>A UPenn admissions officer spoke at my schools earlier this year. He said that this year during ed they admitted a kid whose extracurriculars were gaming. He wanted to go into video game design, so the situation is a little different from gaming for entertainment and pleasure. </p>
<p>Not surprising about the responses, given the disdain about gaming as a “typical useless time waster” by many people. However, it may count for something if you are elite enough to actually win top level competitions.</p>
<p>If there’s an application essay prompt that could lead to it, it might be a great idea to write about this issue. You can attempt to reposition gaming and interactive arts and media into its ascending position in our culture while also adding your “brag” (in a good way!). </p>
<p>My S16 just wrote a research paper about whether eSports should be considered sports. I didn’t read the paper but I know he found some interesting material on the legal, health-related, economic, and societal aspects of gaming. The professional scene is rapidly growing. </p>
<p>My S14 is going to major in game design and development and he only mentioned an interest in gaming in one of 10 applications – the one that asked “why are you choosing your major.” My S16 is president of the high school gaming club that my S14 and others started. He intends to put that on his apps but I am telling him not to expect it to impress the ad coms. </p>
<p>I would follow dyiu’s advice. And competitive gaming could work if you win some big competitions! Just make sure that’s not <em>all</em> you put down!</p>
<p>It’s a risky proposition, just as risky as a leadership position in a gaming guild (I remember that one chancee for UNC-CH who held a leadership position in a virtual airline, which is not much different from a leadership position in a gaming guild, and I told him that it was risky at best to invoke it)</p>
<p>@Catria Really? That’s considered risky? I would think if someone really spent that much time organizing such a large amount of people that would be a good thing, no? If they took the time to set up a website, curate a large sum of members, and plan events and what not, wouldn’t that be a good EC to put?</p>
<p>Thank you, @ucbalumnus and @Catria, for your wonderful insights into this somewhat divisive topic. But could each of you elaborate a tad bit more?</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus, what would you specifically regard as “top-level competitions”? Furthermore, how elite does one have to be?</p>
<p>@Catria, how would you characterize the benefits of gaming with respect to its risks?</p>
<p>Thanks again! I would appreciate it very much. </p>
<p>I think its risky. If you are taking up so much time as to be that good it goes to say you aren’t doing much else and that is one of the major issues I see. I just see it as a self gratification thing bordering on a compulsive thing. There are very interesting people doing stuff with gaming, academically and out in the world, like Jane Mcgonigal, but hs people playing video games aren’t really doing deep work. I think the value of accomplishment in the area is dubious. There is no way it is going to be regarded equally to a sport. And I suspect essays on the subject are likely overdone already, a surprising amount of people mention it. Despite that I do believe there could be a good one. But mentioning it in an auxiliary way isn’t a problem. Even one of my personal no no rules --mentioning Harry Potter --was broken by a student I gave feedback to, and, what can I say, it just worked beautifully, couldn’t suggest she remove it.</p>
<p>I was going to say if it was my own kid I’d say leave it off. But if it was mine we wouldn’t have any video games. We didn’t have a TV. So you never know how tuned in or old fart your reader is, see.</p>
<p>If you’re winning million-dollar prizes at MLG or have ~250,000+ subs on youtube, etc (famous enough to be known by fans of the game) I would say it’s definitely better than saying you threw balls into hoops for 3 months.</p>
<p>But wouldn’t that show depth and passion in an extracurricular leading to high level performance (e.g. winning a national or international championship)? Conceptually, is it different from spending a lot of time on sports or music to reach a high level of performance in those activities?</p>
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