Community Service - is 100 hours enough?

gibby
Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:47:15 +0000

Just as one extracurricular activity is NOT better than another, one community service activity is NOT more high quality than other.

Colleges evaluate a student’s application by first looking at their academics – transcript, demonstrated course rigor (meaning many AP classes if their high school offers them), GPA and test scores.

Then they look to see what their teachers and guidance counselor say about them in their recommendation letters. Does the student always have their hand raised to contribute to the classroom discussion? Do they lead discussions? Or, do they sit at the back of the room and need to be called upon? Is the student respected by their peers and teachers? What will the teacher remember most about this student after they graduate? Is this student one of the brightest students they have had in their career? Is this student someone of “good character?”

Then, colleges look to a student’s essay to hear what they care about in their own voice.

Next, admissions looks to see what a student has done outside of the classroom – and they are looking for a long term commitment (measured in years not months) to something. The idea being that commitment is translatable – a student who might be committed to community service, could in their college years devote the same energy and drive to something else, be it community service, or a sport, theater, dance, job, or anything else. This article pretty much details it all:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-hansen-shaevitz/extra-curricular-activities-college-admission_b_3040217.html

I don’t think that she really likes to do it. But someone has to do it, right? Is it a community service?

Sure, it’s community service. But, if your daughter doesn’t like to do it – and has other more important activities that she likes – she doesn’t have to list community service as part of her application. A student doesn’t have to list everything they’ve ever done on their EC list – they just have to list the major activities that they’ve done and care about and list them in the order of importance.