Is FIRST becoming more Pedestrian on college apps?

[cadandcookies]

There are very few things that you can do in high school that "sell themselves." FIRST is not and will never be one of those things. There's simply too much variation between the 3000 teams out there for any reasonable college to look at FIRST on an application and say "I want that person just because they were in FIRST." Thus, it's up to students to tell colleges and anybody else who says "So what?" exactly why FIRST is such a huge deal for you, specifically.

That being said, for anybody familiar with the program, I'd have to guess that seeing two applicants with all other things equal, but one did FIRST and is enthusiastic about STEM while the other one did, I don't know, Bingo Club, the enthusiastic robotics kid is probably more likely to get in. But that's just as much for the passion as the robotics.