Would participating in game jams help or hurt my college admissions? It’s something I’m interested in doing, but I have heard (from my parents) that it would harm my chances.
I had to look up what that is. Adcoms might now know either. From the basic explanation I saw, I don’t see a problem. It’s collaborating to create something that has broad public interest. But I certainly wouldn’t do it at the expense of homework, test prep, or other activities that you are already involved with.
Can you articulate how they make you a better person and better the world around you?
Do you plan to major in CS or business? Can you take your success and translate it into developing something that would have a specific benefit or meet a need in the community? Can you use these skills for a start up venture? Those are the type of things that ad coms would want to see. It is very specific and must not be your sole EC and not let it interfere with other activities as noted in a previous post.
Learn what your targets want. It’s more than one thing you have interest in. Done right, having activities with depth as well as breadth, beats a single focus.
Not all hackathon- type ctivities have a noble purpose. Lots of kids do them and it doesn’t block college opps (why would it? There are lots of much sillier things kids do.) But it’s up to youu to come up with the right balance in your ECs, including some true stretch and some things simply to help your community in focused ways.
I don’t know enough about what goes on at game jams to opine – but if it is something you want to do keep in mind that you can always participate and just not include it on your college application.