Before I begin, I know a post like this about academics might be boring and you would rather read girl blogs, etc, but I would really appreciate each and everyone's input on this. Thank you.
Alright, I'm a senior in high school and its time for me to seriously give it my all for college applications. As a California resident, I'm going to apply to all the UC's except Berkeley and Merced, as well as the two best CSU's Cal Poly Pomona and SLO as my backup. I'm posting this here because I trust teamliquid because you guys know and are passionate about E-Sports and I think I can get solid advice from you guys.
Firstly, the prompt I want to talk about E-Sports is Prompt #1 of the UC application: "Describe the world you come from - for example, your family, community or school - and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations" Alright, so I am pretty much obsessed with college apps and I've been searching around. I know that I NEED a unique essay that will make the reader know more about me and sets me off the other applicants. This is why I want to write about E-Sports, not only because I am extremely passionate about it, but also because it is going to be a unique topic that few, if any, applicants will actually talk about.
Basically, In the essay, I want to say how I want to expand its popularity and people's outlook on E-Sports. I also want to cover how very few people know about E-Sports, but I truly believe in the future it will be able to rival the popularity of other physical sports. For answering how it shaped my dreams and aspirations, I want to add that this influenced my dream to major in computer science and to work within the E-sports industry to help it grow.
I have the question of whether or not this topic has potential. I'm going to bet that the admissions staff will have no clue whatsoever on what E-Sports is. This means I'll have to explain what E-Sports is and I'm not sure how I go about doing so, without it sounding like I'm an immature idiot that just loves the idea of playing video games for a living. So 1) is there any other way to introduce E-sports to portray it in a more professional manner? 2) Is this topic too foreign? Should I go for a topic that the admissions staff knows about?
Also... I'm not sure if this is asking for too much, but I was wondering if anyone would like to volunteer to read my essays and help me personally to fix them from now to the last week of November, where I'll be submitting my applications. It won't be much, an essay around 500 words, that could be read in a minute or two.
500 words, wow... that's really not anything. I don't know if that's really enough to articulate what an eSport even is. It would be difficult to convey in a very short amount of time your premise that eSports are immature and "just video games". You would almost essentially need to write an argument paper unless you have a really strong thesis. Additionally, although video games have existed for decades, the previous generation doesn't "get it" (and ironically, a lot of them waste a lot of time watching TV, which the even more prior generation thought was bad) so you would almost have to go in expecting people not accepting eSports as a legitimate thing.
My recommendation is to write the paper you want without any pressure to present eSports in a positive or negative light, but rather, focus on what it is and where it came from. If you do that, instead of trying to get other people to take eSports 'serious', you should focus on the most basic, fundamental, absolute most easily-digestible elements of eSports. Whenever introducing a niche interest to a mainstream audience, it almost always has to be "dumbed down" so that the content will be comprehended by nearly everyone. However, comprehension and acceptance are two different things; adding a lot of emotional content to the paper can backfire, because you might go "eSports are so exciting to watch, I simply love playing and watching, etc", and someone will still think "Ha, what a nerd." To truly incite empathy from the audience, they have to experience eSports, or you have to give them a taste of it by taking them inside of it, which would require a much larger presentation than I believe can be delivered in 500 words effectively, unless you're a genius wordsmith that is ruthlessly efficient with your dictation.
But that's just some thoughts of mine, but I would encourage you to go for an eSports paper for sure.
On October 12 2013 17:12 ninazerg wrote: 500 words, wow... that's really not anything. I don't know if that's really enough to articulate what an eSport even is. It would be difficult to convey in a very short amount of time your premise that eSports are immature and "just video games". You would almost essentially need to write an argument paper unless you have a really strong thesis. Additionally, although video games have existed for decades, the previous generation doesn't "get it" (and ironically, a lot of them waste a lot of time watching TV, which the even more prior generation thought was bad) so you would almost have to go in expecting people not accepting eSports as a legitimate thing.
My recommendation is to write the paper you want without any pressure to present eSports in a positive or negative light, but rather, focus on what it is and where it came from. If you do that, instead of trying to get other people to take eSports 'serious', you should focus on the most basic, fundamental, absolute most easily-digestible elements of eSports. Whenever introducing a niche interest to a mainstream audience, it almost always has to be "dumbed down" so that the content will be comprehended by nearly everyone. However, comprehension and acceptance are two different things; adding a lot of emotional content to the paper can backfire, because you might go "eSports are so exciting to watch, I simply love playing and watching, etc", and someone will still think "Ha, what a nerd." To truly incite empathy from the audience, they have to experience eSports, or you have to give them a taste of it by taking them inside of it, which would require a much larger presentation than I believe can be delivered in 500 words effectively, unless you're a genius wordsmith that is ruthlessly efficient with your dictation.
But that's just some thoughts of mine, but I would encourage you to go for an eSports paper for sure.
I watched the video and it ties with the same idea with ninazerg... the presentation was mostly about introduction of e-sports and it took him forever to just introduce what it was. And yes, 500 words is very little but that's what I have to work with... so I'm not too sure if I can even use this topic... sigh.
I don't think it's going to work out. You have too little space, plus you're pretty much going to be infodumping "what is eSports?" from the beginning onto the reader. Sure, if you're lucky, they'll make it past that bit, but you should be maximizing your chances of acceptance, not counting on luck to get you through. Plus, this essay is supposed to be about you, in a very unsubtle manner. If you spend more than 25% of it harping on about "what is X?" and "how is it different from Y?" you're not looking good. Even worse if your essay starts off with eSports.
Find another topic. You'll be better off writing about Pokemon or Zelda or, heck, Final Fantasy VII (nostalgia value, more specific, less abstract, more popular) than eSports (too general, too abstract, not very well-known).
Bad idea. It will take too long to explain what it is adequately enough to talk about it in the context of its effects on you and how your identity has incorporated it. Also, the reader may be older/less open-minded and have an association of videogames with things like laziness, social awkwardness, etc. TBH college essays shouldn't be about something superficial like esports. Unless you are a professional player or something, I wouldn't do it. Think about how retarded it would be for someone to write about how watching NFL is such an important part of their life that it's the topic of one of their college essays.
i dont know much about college applications but they probably want to know about you , and not about esports.. and by that i mean all aspects of you, and not just the fact that you really like esports.
yes i think a person would find it weird to get a college application from someone who just goes on about how he likes watching computer games and what a great community it is.
a line or two is good, in the part that describes yourself and your energy and hobbys, but you need to also talk about your ambitions in life, and also your achievements to date.
i'm going to post a letter i wrote recently which got me 4 out of 9 replies and 2 direct offers of work experience (and i feel like i got lucky).
I'm 28 years old and attend the DSF Computing course under Jeremy Paxman at the Springfield College.
I am searching for an opportunity to gain work experience related to my course.
I have some understanding of beginners programming in C++, Visual Basic, C#, SQL database, PHP and JavaScript.
My interests lie in application design and development, in order to prepare a decent base skillset for a career in industry. Additional interests are in game design, being an enthusiastic follower of TotalBiscuit (game critique) and spectator of professional Starcraft (real-time strategy).
An opportunity to spend time in a true working environment would be invaluable to me. Having worked as a care assistant to the elderly for most of my life, I am truly excited to now be in the position of pursuing a career that is both intellectually and creatively stimulating. I am eager to develop my insight and begin contributing where I can.
I would very much appreciate if you would consider me for a work experience placement. This could be for as little as a few hours per week, shadowing a member of staff or with my own task to complete – whatever suits.
Please do give me a call or email as I would love to hear from you and have a chat.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Paulson
i wanted to slip in something that they might be able to relate to (either name-throwing or strategy/game critique). but i mostly said what skills/interests i have related to my future as an academic/employee , why i want to pursue it, and where i want to end up . what is relevant to college and your future to you?
Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond. To FFGenerations, I know what you are trying to say but for UC applications, they just want a single subject and to expand on it. They don't want me to list my achievements that I already listed in another part of my application, but more importantly, they want to know who I am and what my personality is like, etc.
I think I really do have to scrap the idea of E-Sports because 500 words is just way too little to cover the whole thing. Another topic I can think of is that I come from an immigrant chinese family, and that I am seperated by my parents from a language barrier (I know barely any chinese, they know barely any english) which would encompass the "what world did i come from" and how it made me more independent because I didn't get influenced by my parent's opinions and thoughts and I had to do everything by myself. thoughts?
I'm also a senior, so take whatever I say with a grain of salt.
Don't give up on an idea for an essay because you don't think you can fit all of it into 500 words. Writing about the whole deal is not your goal. A story or experience is the best way to convey how you feel about something, not a research essay. Give up on an idea only if 1) it's not you or 2) it's a bad idea in the first place.
Whenever I see someone wanting to write about esports, I'm never sure about number 1. Are you sure you're not just, in your own words, "an immature idiot that just loves the idea of playing video games for a living"? Your most difficult task would be to convince the reader (who is usually relatively young, so not necessarily out of touch) that this is you and at the end of the day it's more than just a game. It's definitely possible (Suppy wrote about organizing an sc event and ended up at Berkeley) but unless you truly believe it's more than just a game, you WILL sound fake. (Also, on a related note, be very very very careful about throwing around the word passion with esports.)
That said, you sound relatively sincere. I think 2 is the bigger problem. I feel like, firstly, colleges don't want kids who will end up skipping class to play league. Secondly, unless you have something specific to talk about, you will end up desperately trying to tie in esports to stuff you think they'll see as legitimate, things they (hopefully) have seen in your classes or extracurrics (like your compsci interest).
E-Sports as a topic for your easy can work wonders to show that you care about working as part of a community and your passion. 500 words is absolutely nothing and it will be hard to convey the essential bits of what eSports actually is and what it means to you and the world as a whole without sounding like a gaming addict. It isn't entirely impossible, but you'll have to present the idea so concisely and powerfully to have any chance to make an impact on an ignorant reader. Best of luck to you!
EPT
