How many hours do you have?

dancegrl
Sat, 03 Aug 2013 10:00:00 +0000

^ absolutely this.

If you volunteer, make sure you can say something about it that’s meaningful and/or non-cliche. I feel like most kids will go with the “it made me grateful for everything I have blah blah we need to help people who are less well off” but it just sounds bland.

Perhaps you could highlight the unique things you did and what you gained from each activity - something you should do regardless of it being a service-type EC or another kind. For my high school community service I had JROTC and serving meals at the food pantry. JROTC was the main EC I wrote about in my Common App, so I talked about how I had developed my leadership skills and how humbling it was to assist and serve those who had served our country in the past.

If someone were to ask me what I gained or enjoyed about the pantry I would tell them that in the end, it really doesn’t matter if you’re poor or rich, black or white, young or old (as our food pantry serves everyone, half of whom are elderly and half of whom are families with young children - some were poor, some were just seeking to have a home-cooked meal with others)…it’s about taking care of other human beings.

Sounds a bit better than the typical “omg it made me realize that my life is so easy!”