<p>I had an internship with my local newspaper this past summer. I worked 40 hours a week. I got a stipend for the work I did, but when I calculate it, it comes out to about $2 an hour. </p>
<p>Can I count this as community service since I made less than minimum wage?</p>
<p>No- internships are work, regardless of whether or not you got paid at all.</p>
<p>And especially no since you did get paid (regardless of the whole minimum wage bit).</p>
<p>Define “community service”.</p>
<p>Since you’re being recompensated for your time, it’s definitely not volunteering.</p>
<p>But internships in general could be constituted as community service–just don’t label what you did as an “intership” on your application.</p>
<p>No, i don’t think so. Just think about it - community service. If you can honestly say “I am serving and bettering my community by holding this position”, go ahead. </p>
<p>But in my opinion, it’s not community service. There’s nothing wrong with putting down “internship” on a college app. They look just as good. But if you’re trying to get into NHS or something, this won’t cut it.</p>
<p>Community service = volunteering, which means you are not getting compensated. Not even stipends. You are doing it out of your own motivation to make good in the world.</p>
<p>No it can’t. Even if you weren’t paid, an internship gives you something of worth (experience for future employment) and it’s clear that you did it for your own gain (not for the selfless reason of wanting to serve the community).</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the fact that you did an internship vs. community service especially if your internship @ the paper correlates with somthing you would like to do in the future (journalism perhap?). It is not an ether or situation when it comes down to community service, internship or paid work as all 3 of them demonstrate how you use your time when not in school and offer teachable moments.</p>
<p>all the best.</p>
<p>Sybbie’s got it right–an adcom will be more interested in the educational experience you got and the initiative it took to line up an internship than whether or not you were paid. You probably need to list it under work experience on the app. in order to be scrupulous, but admissions officers will know exactly what the meaning and significance of the experience was. If you’re in doubt, work some significannt details from the internship into one of your essays.</p>
<p>Agree with Sybbie. My S did Summerbridge last year and was compensated for most of the time but there was a period of about 2 weeks(approx 100 hrs) in which he wasn’t compensated and it was counted as community service. The thing I like about Summerbridge for my S is that it can count as employment, an internship, educational enrichment and community service.</p>
<p>Sybbie is right, but even so, some colleges do like students to have participated in volunteer projects, and of course, there are so many possibilities for this kind of project. Students can even create their own community service project.</p>