I’ve done investing as a hobby for quite some time. I’m wondering if I can put it as one of my activities on my high school application? Will it improve my competitiveness?
You can certainly put it down as one of your activities, but boarding schools wouldn’t really care about it.
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Yes, you can add “investing experience” to your resume,however, it is unlikely to help your chance for admission.
It’s not about improving your competitiveness, it’s about showing all these schools who you really are and what you really like to do. Admissions officers like to meet and admit interesting kids. The more genuinely interesting you are, the better your odds, somewhere. Good luck!
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@PigTiger I concur with UltimaCroix and would add “interested” to the comment. An AO may or may not find investing to be interesting (to them), but if you demonstrate intrinsic motivation that leads you to a deep dive into just about anything, well that’s something that AOs definitely look for. I guess another word for this would be “passion.”
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That’s not the “passion” schools look for. You could have a “passion” for playing video games. Do you think the schools care?
Totally disagree. If your passion for video games made you an e-games world champ, you’d won six-figures of prize money, and were a top-10 twitch streamer then they’d absolutely think that was cool.
On a more casual level, of course playing video games is a “mindless pursuit” but investing is (or should be…) something much more thoughtful.
ETA: perhaps I should have been clearer in specifying that it’s what you do with a passion and where it takes you (or you take it) rather than it simply existing. Thought that was obvious. I could also argue that just playing video games for hours/day isn’t actually a passion. It’s just an addiction 
But if playing video games leads to cool things like I mentioned above (or others, e.g. maybe you got into coding and designed your own games/apps) then it’s on the map for an AO.
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Yes, if you designed an innovative video game or came up with a sophisticated arbitrage investment strategy to showcase your intellectual potential. Otherwise, why should the schools care?
Again, it’s where it takes you. All in the eye of the beholder but I wouldn’t dismiss any of it out of hand the way you seem to have.
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I think the school cares WHY the KID cares. The right why (creative outlet, healthy competition, statistics and data analysis) can be a great addition to a campus. The wrong why they will avoid.
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Totally. Gordon Gecko’s “greed is good” immediately jumped to mind as the wrong why!
AO: So what else are you into?
Kid: I invest in the stock market.
AO: Oh? So tell me about that. What’s your motivation?
Kid: Have you seen Wall Street?
AO: uhhhhh
Kid (slicks back hair, goes full Gordon Gecko): I’m not talking some three hundred thousand a year guy. I’m talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing.
AO: What you see is a guy who never measured a man’s success by the size of his WALLET!
Grandpa gave me $20K to “play with” and it’s up 20% is ALSO the wrong why!
Is that what we’re talking about?
I think the point is that the OP hasn’t told us why, or where it’s lead, so to dismiss it out of hand is at best premature.
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Agree with @DroidsLookingFor and the others saying that yes, investing as something a kid is interested in is good to highlight on an application, if it really is something that’s a strong interest.
In addition to all the good reasons listed above, some schools have investment clubs, and participate in investing contests. Schools are looking for kids who will be involved. Personally I think investing is great. There will be orders of magnitude fewer kids who are passionate about investing applying than violin players, or model UN participants.
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All-time classic movie line.
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It’s fine if it’s a passion. Schools like to know what interests you and then how you pursue that interest. There is a difference between having some money and investing it and actually learning about investment strategies, valuations, etc.
If I tell you I sometimes cook dinner, that’s a bit different from being passionate about cooking, taking cooking classes, cooking every weekend and experimenting, having a volunteer role in the kitchen at school, camp, soup kitchen.
We all do a lot of things to pass the time. But there’s not enough time for lots of passions. So if you mention this, frame it accordingly.
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