Community Service Arms Race

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<p>A Better Society? Or a Better Resume? </p>

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The high school students? predicament is more complicated, not least because the teenagers are trapped in a maze not of their own making. For the past 15 years, highly competitive colleges have demanded that students detail their charitable work, and not surprisingly that has fired a community service arms race.</p>

<p>?Do sports. Check! Take advanced-placement classes. Check! Feed a sandwich to the homeless. Check!? Scott White, director of guidance at Montclair High School, heaves a sigh. ?Is it better than sitting on a couch watching MTV? I guess.? </p>

<p>?But is it truly meaningful? No.?</p>

<p>Whatever. The most exclusive private schools in Manhattan, from Trinity to Dalton to Collegiate, hire community service specialists. Well-heeled families pay $5,000 to send their high school children jetting off to build cottages in the hills of Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.</p>

<p>Ivywise, an educational consulting company that provides admissions counseling to students, charging families as much as $30,000 or so to place their children in high-profile colleges, advises on construction of the proper ?brag sheet? and says: ?Extracurricular activities count! But they have to be of a certain nature.?

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<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/weekinreview/25powell.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/weekinreview/25powell.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;