<p>Through High School I have been an avid hunter. I haven't really won any awards though so how would I show this to an admissions officer.</p>
<p>Send a severed head along with your app?</p>
<p>Write about it in one of your personal statements, or maybe send a video?</p>
<p>As demonstrated by Tarhunt, "hunting" can be an emotionally-charged subject. Why not go for the "riflery" angle instead? Did you know that riflery is an NCAA sport? Can you enter any trap/skeet competitions in the near future that you might use to demonstrate your skills?</p>
<p>Another thought...hunting license fees are a significant source of revenue for preservation of wildlife habitats. Hunters are generally very knowledgeable, respectful, and appreciative of America's limited wildlife resources. As tokyo suggested, perhaps you could convey your hunting passion and its attendant benefits in your essay.</p>
<p>Bay misinterpreted my post a bit. I'm not personally against hunting. What I was thinking was that a passion for hunting is not exactly a tip factor. Generally, hunting is considered a hobby. A passion for a hobby is OK, but it's rarely going to turn any heads.</p>
<p>Now, have you taught a hunting safety course through the NRA? Are you an active member of a hunting club that promotes ecological responsibility (thank you, Bay).</p>
<p>Now, one more thing to consider. If I knew a kid who was a longshot for getting into a particular school, I might tell him/her to really go for the hunting angle. It's unusual enough that it just might sway an admissions officer to become your advocate. But if it were a school where the applicant is already well-qualified, I'd suggest not mentioning hunting. You never know when you'll get someone who's repelled by it.</p>
<p>I'm interested about this too... I hunt, and I was wondering how unethical it lookto put "12 point buck during youth hunt" on my application somewhere if someone reads it and doesn't have a understanding of/approval of hunting. Hunting really doesn't define who I am, but I still find it to be an interesting twist that I look to throw at people...</p>
<p>Oh...and I don't hunt bears, btw. Only water bears (and white-tailed deer).</p>
<p>Demonstrating a passion for hunting may help you at places like military academies.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I fear that "passion for hunting" may cause admissions officers to think "likes guns" and then to start thinking of the massacre at Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>There also are lots of people who love animals, so would be turned off by an applicant whose passion is killing them. And, I haven't heard of colleges with hunting clubs, so I don't think that colleges would view such a hobby as being something that would add to their campus environment.</p>
<p>wtrbear:</p>
<p>I hunted a little bit as a kid (don't anymore). In no way do I mean this to be offensive, but bagging a 12-point buck is as much a matter of luck as anything else. See a buck, blast the buck. In North Florida, they use dogs to run the buck into the guns. In Texas, they have deer feeders and wait for the deer to come up to the feeder before blasting him. Bagging a deer just doesn't seem that impressive to me, but perhaps others would be impressed by that. Who knows?</p>
<p>If you got me for an admissions officer, I might reject you because of your passion for hunting. Pay attention to the folks who say this is an issue that could cut both ways for you.</p>
<p>I do have a client who chose his college (a LAC in North Carolina?) because students were allowed to hunt on campus.</p>
<p>I agree that you should avoid mentioning hunting and focus on riflery. Hunting is too ideologically charged and controversial.</p>
<p>I think the OP needs to be careful with this. Although I don't hunt, I understand the need to keep the deer population in check - both my husband and son have been involved in deer-relate accidents. HOWEVER, you don't know how the initial reader of your application will feel about this.</p>
<p>I can somewhat understand hunting to keep the animal population balanced in an attempt to help food chains etc. But I cannot, under any circumstance, even begin to fathom why some moron would start killing animals as a hobby. I am sure that for every admissions officer that will favorably view hunting, 100 will despise it. The fact that you hunt demonstrates two things to the admissions officer:
1. your redneck lifestyle
2. your bloodthirsty nature</p>
<p>Way more people love animals than people who hate them, and, in an age where hunting is dying out as a "sport" and people are beginning to realize its horrific nature, talking about hunting in you college application makes yourself about as dead as an innocent deer trying to each some grass that you are about to maliciously slaugter in a sea of blood.</p>
<p>I would not want some hee-haw outdoorsman in my college, and neither would college admissions officers.</p>
<p>We dress up our elk head as Santa every Christmas! My kids all hunt (PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals), and my eldest son did play up the riflery aspects and of course, the environmental aspects. Since we're from PA and everyone we know hunts or knows someone who does, here it is a non-issue. When S went to Hillsdale, it was the same there (many of the students there have guns).</p>
<p>But, a touchy liberal adcom might take offense at shooting Bambi - so, what the others have said is right: downplay the dead buck part, while focusing on safety, conservation, preservation, history, etc. The adcom might still boot you for it though.</p>
<p>lopo: promise me please, you're a vegan?</p>
<p>Please learn proper grammar. Also, I am not a vegan.</p>