Should I include non-winning positions in my CV? Recently I applied for a hackathon and joined a team / idea that was very intersting for me both professional-wise and hobby-wise: an autonomous tennis ball picker robot. The whole team worked really hard for the 48 hours non-stop, we built a working prototype, we presented the prototype to mentors and they really liked it, found clubs interested in testing the device. However, we failed to get into finals....

Currently, I'm applying for a University and thinking wether or not I should include it application.
Yes if


there is content relevant to the readers of your application and
if you are able to properly communicate/present/demonstrate such relevance.


My slightly analogous context: I'm including research projects in my CV even though I got graded low.


After a year in industry (finished master's last year; applying PhD's for next year), I've come to realize my accomplishments were not graded.
Even if they were, the grade is not as relevant as much as what the experience says/could say (depends how you present!) to what you could do for your intended job/program application.
If I'm wrong, then I guess I can trim down my CV. The analogy is supposed to be that my low grades is like your not getting into the finals.


Better analogy: Having a great thesis/acting performance but not winning best thesis/acting award in your batch/for the year


I mean gee, had you been born a year earlier or later you could have been in the batch/year where your thesis/acting performance would've been better than the best thesis/acting performance of their batch/for the year.