How important is volunteering?

Northstarmom
Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:14:24 +0000

I’ve never heard of any college that required community service for students to be admitted. In addition – all except the very top colleges --use mainly applicants’ stats (and for public schools – applicants’ state of residence) as the main admissions factors. The very top colleges get such an overabundance of high stat applicants that those colleges can use other factors to make admissions decisions.

What you mainly are missing by not doing community service is the opportunity to develop social and work skills and contacts that help you figure out what to major in, what to pursue as a career, etc. Of course for community service to be helpful in that way, you’d have to bother to do something that relates to your interests, not just do random service like picking up trash. S did community service that interested him, and he ended up learning how to write press releases, write grants, facilitate groups, organize programs, supervise people, and do a variety of other things that helped him get jobs and figure out what he wants to major in and do as a career. He also got some excellent professional contacts, mentors, friends, and experience that helped him get paid employment and merit scholarships.