<p>I was wondering what constitutes a leadership position? The clubs at school don't really interest me, so im involved in online things like clans, gaming communities, video making (like machinima), creative writing online community, digital art maker, etc. So would positions like clan leader, founder, adminstrator ( would runescape administrator count? not applicable but just curious) be legitimate leadership positions?</p>
<p>To be blunt, they don’t count. If the clubs at school don’t interest you, start your own club. That’s leadership.</p>
<p>does it matter, if i started them and they have actual responsibilites?</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with those communities - can you expand on how they involve leadership?</p>
<p>Edit:
These communities usually involve coordination (ex: coordinating who does what on a video, or we will meet at this time, practice at this time, etc.), leading collaborations (ex: writing a 5-part short series, leading individual members in adding details and fleshing out characters). using programming to enhance art tools,etc.</p>
<p>Its not that clubs simply don’t interest me but rather, the people will join yet do nothing. Join science club, yet not come. Join math club, not practice. Join National Honor Society, pay dues, avoid meetings and necessary fundraising, etc. Its a tradition at my school, to essentially not really be involved in your club unless its application time -.-</p>
<p>I must say I completely disagree with some of the previous posts.</p>
<p>Online/gaming leadership is leadership and is recognized by colleges. However, you really do need to expand upon this in your application and educate the colleges on what you do, how it is significant, etc.</p>
<p>Let me give you some examples. My brother, who currently attends Pomona College (and was accepted to Columbia, Duke, among others, and waitlisted at Princeton and Harvard), worked his way up from a writing position on an online gaming website to a global administrator position. He outlined in his application very clearly that he was managing 300+ staff members around the world on one of the biggest gaming websites of its kind. He was eventually invited to an all-expenses paid trip to one of EA’s studios for a community summit event. He also leveraged his position to become one of EA’s first community manager interns for the studio. These activities were his primary extra-curricular involvements during high school, and it worked very well in being admitted to some of the most prestigious institutions in the world.</p>
<p>My second example is myself. I decided to play the numbers game and apply to Pomona under their binding Early Decision 2 program after being deferred from Early Action at MIT (Pomona was my first choice, but I thought I would try to get into MIT anyway), and that’s where I’ll be going next fall (it’s currently the most selective liberal arts college). I was a staff member under my brother for a time at that website, but I decided to branch off in a more entrepreneurial direction. I co-founded a professional gaming team with a few other people I had met via the internet (they lived in Belgium and Saudi Arabia). I personally didn’t play competitively, but I managed the team to become the undisputed best team in the world (I managed players, sponsors, etc). Due to this, I was invited by EA to an all-expenses-paid trip to Cologne, Germany where they hosted an exclusive community summit (I was also able to convince EA to invite several of my team members from around the globe). During my sophomore year, I resigned from my manager (these events were all from 8th-9th grade) and left with a few other team members. In the process, I had the community manager from EA write me an excellent recommendation for an internship position at another game developer, where I’m still currently working (remotely).</p>
<p>Of course, I had to explain to colleges that I wasn’t just wasting my time, and that I was developing valuable real-world skills. Currently, E-sports/competitive gaming is one of the fastest growing industries, and I was able to say I was a not insignificant part of that (on the business side).</p>
<p>But I digress. My point is that if pursuing certain positions in online communities is a passion for you (as it was for my brother and me), go for it. Just make sure that the work you are doing isn’t trivial (the outside “evaluation” from Electronic Arts validated the work my brother and I did), and explain it to colleges when you apply (I doubt merely putting “Global Administrator at a gaming website” would have meant anything to an admissions officer).</p>
<p>Also, don’t ask what you can do that will look good on an application. I highly recommend you read this blog by an MIT admissions officer ( [Applying</a> Sideways | MIT Admissions](<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways]Applying”>Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions) ). Essentially, do what you love to do and be really good at it. If you do that, applying to college will be a natural (and fruitful) process. Additionally, don’t forget that although leadership and extracurriculars are critical in distinguishing yourself in some way, your curriculum, grades, and test scores are far more important, so don’t invest yourself in your extracurriculars to the detriment of these.</p>
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<p>As a reasonably experienced Educational Counselor, I think that the above statement is simply wrong. I have interviewed applicants who show leadership in a wide variety of forms and there is no definite path or view.</p>
<p>I have interviewed applicants who have risen to moderately senior positions within military hierarchies, those who have organized community drives, one who changed the curriculum of a country’s educational system, several who were captains of various sports teams, and one who was a guild leader of a World of Warcraft guild and who described movingly the challenges of coordinating a large group of people and dealing with the inevitable personality clashes amongst its members. </p>
<p>All of these have provided more evidence of “leadership” than someone who was elected president of the chemistry club because, of the three seniors in the club, he/she was the least objectionable. </p>
<p>There is no tick box checklist that schools like MIT rely on to determine whether you can get in, as is demonstrated by many of the outraged and hurt students with high SAT scores currently posting in these forums. This is particularly true when looking at something like leadership. Heck many international applicants to MIT attend high schools where there is nothing like the American extracurricular program.</p>