<p>To start off, I'd like to think that I'm a top-tier student academically speaking (no brag)</p>
<p>However, my EC's aren't anything eye-popping--I've got the standard 100ish hours of community service, some sport, some honor societies, all that stuff. I was always pretty average in that respect: like a lot of kids, I grew up playing a whole lot of video games, and not doing much else. In fact, the only thing I really did all of freshman year in my free time was game (it's hard to stop when you're actually good). Unlike most kids who gamed excessively though, my grades were, and remained, stellar; I'm naturally an overachiever. </p>
<p>So anyways, one "achievement" that I have is that on Playstation Network, I have a few platinum trophies that only 0.1% of the playerbase has obtained. Could this potentially be a unique activity for someone applying to top 20 schools (including HYPS)? I'd imagine that very few, if any, applicants to such schools would mention something like this if they had it. Also, as I said I'm obviously not just relying on this. I think that it could be something that could be viewed as out of the ordinary in a good way if combined with other activities.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not sure if playing video games is considered a “competitive” EC, and no I dont think it would be wise to have that “achievement” on your list. The decision is still yours though.</p>
<p>Just because it is an elite achievement does not merit it. </p>
<p>Colleges don’t want to see how good you are at playing video games, to be honest. It is a unique achievement but you want colleges to see your academic and leadership prowess, not video game ability.</p>
<p>Do colleges want a student that will inspire his/her peers and get involved around campus or one that games all day long? I guess you never know, though. I’ve heard there are some students (especially at the tech schools) who like to play League of Legends…a lot…but that’s just a small population, and it was probably an exaggeration even then :)…</p>
<p>I listed it but not because I’m good at video games - because it’s where I got my start with programming when I was 10 and spent a lot of time playing Flight Simulator X. That Tu-144 that can go 5 times the speed of light wasn’t going to make itself So now I mod games. Some of my mods have thousands of downloads. I mentioned this on my application.</p>
<p>And I mentioned that playing Civ II when I was 7 sparked my interest in history and talked about how I furthered that interest with more complex strategy games like Europa Universalis IV and Victoria II in my essays. </p>
<p>So basically, if a platinum trophy is the only thing you got out of playing video games it isn’t worth mentioning. But if you can find some way to show how gaming effected you in a positive way, then sure, go for it. Maybe it improved your work ethic (bit of a stretch honestly). Maybe the freedom in open world games perfectly captures your love of exploration and finding new things. Maybe you’re intrigued with games as art and the social messages it can convey (Bioshock got me to read Atlas Shrugged, ha). Etc. Etc.</p>
<p>If this is a lifelong passion, which might relate to your academic and professional aspirations, then I see no harm in mentioning it. If you do list it, then I think that you should incorporate your love of gaming into your essays. If you can’t put a positive spin on the activity, then you should probably avoid listing it. I don’t think colleges are eager to bring in too many students who passed on extracurricular activities in order to play video games at home unless the gaming is at an uncommonly high level. </p>
So now I mod games. Some of my mods have thousands of downloads. I mentioned this on my application.</p>