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Its the time of college apps and I have been struggling to find a topic for my UC college apps. I was planning on writing about a volunteer experience I had over the summer and writing about my passion for Starcraft.
The prompt is:
Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?
I'm not sure if I should write about StarCraft, it seems like a pretty big risk. Either the colleges will like it or hate it. This is a general idea of what i was planning to write about for my essay:
1. always planning for future
2. learning to attack and adapt to problems
3. planning ahead of time
4. managing time and resources
5. it made me want to major in economics
So what do you guys think? Play safe or try to do something unique? Would this make a good essay?
Poll: yay or nay
(Vote): yay
(Vote): nay
Thanks!
Edit: Gliche made a good point. Perhaps I should write an SC related essay for private colleges like USC? Then play safe with the UC's and write about a more conservative topic?
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go for it, colleges like risk takers
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you're gonna have to waste a lot of time explaining starcraft to the readers, since you cant expect them to know this game as well as you do.
i think its better to write about a contribution to the community (which could include your school or local neighborhood) than to write about sc.
that being said, if you really want to do it, you should provide us with a rough draft for people to edit/tear apart
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Osaka27174 Posts
If you were going to use StarCraft as a topic, I wouldn't focus on the game itself, but rather the community around it. I think there is more fertile ground for an essay there.
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Honestly, most college admissions people will probably be very biased against your essay as soon as they realize it's about a game.
If you're going to do it, you're going to have to do it VERY well. If you can do that, you will probably be successful. You're going to have to overturn their opinion and force them to take it seriously.
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starcraft made you want to major in economics? :/
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Hmm yea, i'm not that confident in my writing abilities. i'll probably stick to the more conservative side. Any more advice anyone?
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This is going to be one of those hit or miss things with no middle ground. If you are really confident that you can write an amazing essay, then go for it. Anything less than an amazing essay will look bad. Also, these "creative" type essays will work better for higher quality universities. The lower quality ones don't have the money or time to listen to you babble about stuff they don't care for.
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I have never yet written a college application essay (next year  ), but I did read a very well-done and successful essay using a godzilla toy as a vehicle to prove the author's point, which was explained by my writing instructor as successful only because the author used the toy to temper the "arrogance" in the writing, for example something along the lines of
[Insert grades brag], but godzilla gave me his mind powers, etc.
Seems accurate to say that amazing = really amazing, and normal = real failure, like everyone else pointed out ^^
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Don't write about SC. Usually, uncommon or non-standard hobbies are good because they make you stand out, but in this case, "standing out" just means that they will remember that you play video games and my guess is that they associate games MUCH more with hurting your grades rather than helping and every college wants to admit people who are gonna have excellent grades, score big on national exams and make the university look good. (wow that was a long sentence)
You have to live in the reality of today and that reality is that professors blame games for a lot of their students' failures (probably rightly so).
Don't be too risky with your future. Write about a novel hobby like collecting rare stains of dung beetles or something like that. They love that stuff.
EDIT: The ONLY time I would recommend writing about it is if you had been a pro-gamer.
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If you write this paper be prepared to take 12+ hours of rewriting. Hand that paper to your grandma and see if she can understand it before you hand it in. You really cant use in game examples either....
basically writing about something unrelatable is hard to do, but if you throw in a few personal accomplishment(tournaments, prizes won, unique "builds" even) then maybe you can impress them.
Basically, I wouldn't.
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On October 20 2009 13:51 Manifesto7 wrote:
If you were going to use StarCraft as a topic, I wouldn't focus on the game itself, but rather the community around it. I think there is more fertile ground for an essay there.
i agree with this and i think you should head towards something alone the lines of 'the values/market/concept of esports in gamers of generation Y/digital generation/digital natvies whatever you want to call them' using pro SC as your main pool from which to draw case studies/examples, would be a very interesting essay. i bet you could even publish it on TL if you went that far! i would definately read an article like that.
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So admissions people, who might be a mixture of students and staff will read your essay. They do not know you.
Suppose you were to write about the world of warcraft community. They would instantly think of their friends/people they know who play world of warcraft, perhaps the people who play it at the cost of everything else. Unless your essay is so well-crafted it shines an revolutionary new perspective upon them, they will use the essay to box you in as a person who plays video games and spends a lot of time online.
Moreover, in the small chance that they try to use the essay to learn something about you rather than labeling you, what do they learn? You've told them nothing about yourself; you've told them about starcraft. The biggest influences in this guys life is a video game. Compare that to somebody who's motivated by one of their parents dying or growing up in the ghetto, who do you think is a more well-rounded, worldly, and interesting person?
Millions of people apply to colleges every year, from an admissions point of view most of them are indistinguishable. They have some grades, they went to school, they had friends who they learned a lot from, they joined some club or sport like everyone else, and a whole bunch presumably played starcraft and other video games.
They ask about a personal accomplishment or experience because it's what shapes you and defines you. In the worst case in which nothing extraordinary has happened in your life, it's your ability to reflect deeply upon something ordinary is what makes it interesting.
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If you must - talk about the game and the community. I find that the SC community is much more interesting than most other gaming communities.
I can say that going to the DC LANs have certainly changed my outlook on life - it's just amazing how many different and unique people, from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures and jobs, and with their own dreams and aspirations and goals, can all be interconnected by this particular silly community. It's interesting, because a lot of other gaming communities you find the same people there - a majority of them being high school or college-aged boys, with similar interests and thoughts. With the SC community, you've got some of those kids, yeah - but you've also got older guys trying to find their way in life, or some that already have their own businesses, or some that are even settling down and getting married. You can take a look at SC players and see not just nerds in basements with something to prove, but actual PEOPLE... and that's something that's amazing about the community.
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You should definitely talk about Osu.
But no really I tried talking about Starcraft even remotely once and failed extremely. I don't think it's a good idea D; Lack of background info going into the essay for the reader -> hard to make connections D: unless maybe some korean former progamer happens to be the one who reads your essay
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thanks for all the imput guys i've decided to write about my volunteer experience in my UC app.
Kawaii arent you like two years younger than me 0.o you'll be in the same position as me soon lol. Yeah.. i dont think i should write about SC, me being only a D+ player and you being a B player who couldn't even do it either.
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EPT
