<p>My son's Robotics team continues to do very well and will be going to the World Championships later this spring. My question is do adcoms really value this competition? Robotics takes up alot of time, and so, I am just curious as to how much value would admissions put on making it to this international competition.</p>
<p>He wants to be an engineer and has great test scores & other activities including leadership and community service and playing a varsity sport.</p>
<p>I would presume he also has stellar grades and test scores, ie he didn’t use his study time for the robotics instead of doing well academically. Definitely a plus.</p>
<p>It’s the team that makes it to the world championship, not just an individual student. Perhaps better than a line item in a resume, your son may want to focus his college essay on his robotics experience.</p>
<p>And the World Championship is pretty intense. Winning there is far from a given. There are lots of great teams full of outstanding students.</p>
<p>As with any EC it helps to make it into a story about what the student is passionate about. Have they held a position on the group, such as president or team lead ? Lead any worskshops ? Wrote grant apps ? How about community service related to the team ?</p>
<p>Its kind of like saying my son’s athletic team made it to state. That’s great, but alone it doesn’t tell me much about how passionate your son is. </p>
<p>But it’s not the golden ticket to admission at any school. It is another check in the column for reasons to admit a student.</p>
<p>If your student’s grades and scores make him a strong candidate at a school, so that they get to the point where they actively scrutinize an applicant’s essays and ECs, then being on a team going to a world championship competition will certainly give color to the application. But it is up to the student to demonstrate their involvement in the team–what they did, how they have used it to benefit themselves/others, what it has opened up for them–</p>
<p>A school might give extra points if the robotics team is from an inner city underfunded high school, or yawn a bit if the team is from a school like Thomas Jefferson in Virginia.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, this is all very helpful. My son is the lead for the team… and it is a rookie team. So, hopefully that would help. Yes, his grades and standardized test scores are high as well, but I was concerned if the all the hype on this World Championship was really up to it. </p>