Hey everyone. I thought about including a game I play called Kerbal Space Program on my activities list on the common app. However, I’m hesitant to do so because I feel like it may be frowned upon or looked down upon.
This game isn’t silly or a waste of time however; it’s actually an amazing way to simulate aeronautical and astronautical concepts. It’s even been used professionally before. Should I include it if I’ve invested a good amount of time into it?
If you put ‘playing’ It may look bad but you could something related like testing a school project before making it reality, I cannot really tell…
If you’ve created a project that has been widely adopted by others, it might be worth mentioning. Otherwise it’s like mentioning “I took an SAT study course” or “I played with Legos.”
I wouldn’t put it.
However, I have heard an admissions officer say that an essay about video games got a kid accepted, so… (actually heard this in an info session at a selective LAC)
No. Nothing about “played Kerbal Space Program” is unique or demonstrates positive qualities. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s not relevant, and if you put it on your application an admissions officer will probably just wonder why you thought it should go there.
Essays can talk about video games, but only if the essay demonstrates the character traits you want to show off. That’s a tough essay to pull off for most people.
I would not put video game playing on a college application.
Having played Kerbal I see where you are coming from. Kerbal is a physics based space simulator that can be an intellectually stimulating experience. That being said, it doesn’t count as an EC by itself. However, if you have achieved something special within the game than you can write about that in an essay. Lets say you stream while you play and have become successful at that by play Kerbal, then you could write about that experience. Or if you found a way to accomplish something special in the game like the people who create working computers in Minecraft than this is something to write about. Just saying played Kerbal is similar to saying kicked soccer ball. It shows that you went through the mechanics, but doesn’t show on it’s own anything special.
Schools look at EC’s to see what you will bring to the student body other than your academic ability. If your EC’s make it sound like you will sit in your dorm room playing video games then it won’t help.