I heard that writing about political topics is not a good idea on college applications. I participated in a government club and wrote mock legislation. Should I detail the intent of my legislation or just keep it generic?
Those activities are fine to put in your activities. In terms of the details, it can depend on the school you are applying to…for example, if reducing the drinking age to 18 is your proposed legislative change, I might not share that detail with BYU.
I think it’s fine to describe the legislation you advocated for, as long as it doesn’t veer too far into controversial topics. As a very general illustration of this, mandating cross walks in shopping areas is probably a safe bet, whereas banning CRT in public education probably is not. Keep it general rather than specific, because your word count is probably tight in this type of essay anyway. Unless all the detail is needed for some reason, make sure you’re answering the prompt above all else.
And if you are just talking about the activities section, you’re limited to 150 characters, so make the focus on your purpose, rather than detailing the legislation itself.
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BYU would be fine with it. Its objection to alcohol is on religious grounds, not related to age. Moreover, it does not suggest that its religious beliefs should apply to society at large.
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would it be ok to say something like “wrote legislation aiming to reduce climate change”?
Anybody interested in legislation should be more careful about language use and - especially!- assumptions. Whereever you “heard” this, it’s inaccurate.
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There is nothing wrong or even problematic about putting down any (legal) political activities- for any school. You are who you are and you want to go to a school that values that.
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“Writing about” a topic is for essays, not for listing ECs. For all essays, the official “topic” is notional- the actual heart of every.single.essay is a showcase for you and why you are a great addition to the campus. So, if you are writing about being involved in writing legislation, it doesn’t matter what kind - it matters why you are doing what you are doing, how you got to a place where you are doing it, where you going with it next, etc. Writing an essay that is a polemic on why you believe in X or are opposed to Y is a bad idea because that’s not what a college application essay is for.
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Unless you single handedly wrote and passed the bill in question, you did not “write” legislation. You may have been involved in drafting it, but it’s unlikely your contribution went farther than that.
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@collegemom3717 makes a great point, among others. You helped with lobbying or promoting the idea perhaps, but you didn’t actually write the legislation. Be clear about your role. And yes, I see no problem at all with saying that.