Community Service - is 100 hours enough?

lookingforward
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 16:08:05 +0000

Good, Mumbai98.
But this: “I believe that people can and have gotten into top colleges with 0 hours of community service. That is completely normal for a person who is not interested in doing community service. Why should we force him/her to do something that he/she does not want to do?”

There are many ways to show (not just purport to have) compassion, a willingness to go beyond your own self-centered interests, do for others, and the ability to choose a good, legit effort. It’s not always official “community service.” But if an applicant can’t show more than self-interest, he’s not getting far with holistic, for a tippy top. No matter how much CC talks about just being a kid or just following your own self “passions.”

I don’t think it should be viewed as “forcing.” Rather, it’s about awareness and growing. The sort of kid who can easily consider the needs around him, roll up his sleeves and commit over time, who has taken on some responsibilities and had some impact, has an outlook and other attributes these colleges like.

Yes, it can be different for an international, especially for kids at some schools. But even they can do something, somehow.

There is no “hours” baseline. It’s as much about how you choose and what that reflects.