MD Describe a hobby or activity...gaming?

[O 2 B A Gooner]

So I am writing my secondaries and they are asking about a hobby or activity outside medicine in one of my secondaries....does gaming count. I played league matches during my high school, without compromising my grades and continued to do so as a hobby during my college. Would I be looked down upon if I say so? I don't want it to compromise my application but at the same time it truly taught me numerous things from playing team games.

Please enlighten me~!

Cheers~!

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[Lawpy]

Gaming is awesome and i'm glad you enjoyed it. However, medicine remains a conservative profession so they look down on gaming, because it would seem you're lazy and a slacker (i don't agree with it but that's what it is). So i wouldn't mention it in your apps.

There are few exceptions where you could include gaming in your app, but you would have to be a nationally/internationally ranked player. Playing and winning a local tourney really isn't worth much.

 

[NotASerialKiller]

I feel like you could be the undisputed #1 ranked player in every competitive game and still have a 65 year old adcom throw your application in the trash because you spent that much time on video games. There's definitely a generational gap in thinking that there's anything remotely legitimate about gaming as more than a time sink. Maybe some would be fine with it, but I wouldn't risk it.

 

[Lawpy]

I feel like you could be the undisputed #1 ranked player in every competitive game and still have a 65 year old adcom throw your application in the trash because you spent that much time on video games. There's definitely a generational gap in thinking that there's anything remotely legitimate about gaming as more than a time sink. Maybe some would be fine with it, but I wouldn't risk it.

A 65 y/o adcom was in his 30s when the video games and arcade were going on a frenzy in the 1980s. He probably joined in the fun but don't want to admit it

But yeah it's too risky to include it even though recent studies showed the benefits of gaming in surgical specialties (cue @mimelim and his da Vinci jailbreak)

 

[flyingeagle]

Going off @Lawper, I was going to share this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17309970

 

[O 2 B A Gooner]

Gaming is awesome and i'm glad you enjoyed it. However, medicine remains a conservative profession so they look down on gaming, because it would seem you're lazy and a slacker (i don't agree with it but that's what it is). So i wouldn't mention it in your apps.

There are few exceptions where you could include gaming in your app, but you would have to be a nationally/internationally ranked player. Playing and winning a local tourney really isn't worth much.

In that case wouldn't i have to be really good at some other hobby too? I guess i just picked the wrong hobby for the profession lol. Tbh it's kinda depressing and hard to think of some other hobby i can write and talk a LOT about! How about working on my skydiving certification? Or learning to play a tin whistle on my own ... Do i have to show them that i achieved something? Can't i have a hobby just for the sake of enjoying where I just learnt some stuff? I am also working on learning programming and writing small programs atm through Khan academy... Which would be the wise choice?? I can write equally for all three of these... Any suggestions that one might look better than the other for the 60 year olds haha

Please enlighten~! Thanks a lot gor your quick responses everyone!

 

[NewHorizons]

So I am writing my secondaries and they are asking about a hobby or activity outside medicine in one of my secondaries....does gaming count. I played league matches during my high school, without compromising my grades and continued to do so as a hobby during my college. Would I be looked down upon if I say so? I don't want it to compromise my application but at the same time it truly taught me numerous things from playing team games.

Please enlighten me~!

Cheers~!

I used to play on the CSL team in my school and played against other universities in SC2 and LoL and played in local tournaments for money.

...and I still didn't write it.

 

[Goro]

I'm more open-minded about gaming now that universities are actually offering scholarships in them!

So go ahead, write it down.

So I am writing my secondaries and they are asking about a hobby or activity outside medicine in one of my secondaries....does gaming count. I played league matches during my high school, without compromising my grades and continued to do so as a hobby during my college. Would I be looked down upon if I say so? I don't want it to compromise my application but at the same time it truly taught me numerous things from playing team games.

Please enlighten me~!

Cheers~!