<p>"I can’t imagine anyone trying to impress a Harvard interviewer by relating their grand tour of the great cities of Europe – but the kid who has been helping feed orphans in Ghana just might have learned a lot from the experience, even if their expression of what they learned seems cliched to you. "</p>
<p>But I interviewed kids who did try to impress me by relating their grand tour of the great cities of Europe.</p>
<p>I also have interviewed students who tried to impress me by saying that they had done community service abroad, but when I asked them about this service, they were so vague or cliched that it was clear that the “service” was basically nonexistant. This was “service” that allegedly was done by students who visited their immigrant parents’ home countries.</p>
<p>When reading what I post, it’s important to realize that I begin my interviews by asking the very open ended question, “Tell me about yourself.” When I contact students to schedule interviews, I also tell them to come prepared with a resume or activity list, and to be prepared to speak up about themselves and their accomplishments. The students who give me vague descriptions about experiences that they alleged to have done have had every opportunity to be prepared to talk. When I end up turning to their resumes/activity sheets to ask questions, that’s because the student themselves hasn’t spoken much about info that lets me know about themselves and their talents and interests. If the main thing that I learn from an inteview is a travelogue, that’s because that’s what the student feels is the best that they have to offer.</p>
<p>When it comes to traveling, I love to travel and have done lots of travel abroad with my kids. This includes a community service trip that through no fault of ours was horrible: We did no community service because the place that allegedly invited us to do service didn’t want service, just $. None of us would try to pass that off in an interview as community service. Whenever I’ve talked about it – including in things like interviews for jobs – I have talked about how it taught me how NOT to do community service. </p>
<p>I also do know students who have done things like mission trips in which they really did community service, and learned a lot from the experience. These students are able to describe what they did, and what they learned, and even shy ones light up when they talk, and don’t vaguely describe the experience as something that taught them that “people are people.”</p>
<p>I have to admit, however, that an abroad experience has never been the center of any of the Harvard interviews that I would describe as “excellent.” Why? Many of those students had been abroad, and even had done volunteer work abroad. However, their abroad experiences were overshadowed by the volunteer and other things that they had done in their own home towns or country. Consequently, other things ended up being what stood out.</p>
<p>For instance, one young man who was the most outstanding student whom I have ever interviewed (and an accquaintance who interviewed the same student for another Ivy describes the student the same way) had done some community service in, I think, a hospital in his parents’ home country.</p>
<p>I can’t remember those details, however, because what was even more remarkable was the student’s year-long accomplishments as the top national officer of a major student organization, the student’s two-year long mentoring of a classmate who was going to be a first generation college student, the student’s leadership in school activities and the student’s regional and national honors in two very different fields. The student also had done a lot of ECs over his parent’s objections because they were immigrants who only wanted him to study all of the time. His managing to mollify his parents without alienating them also demonstrated his character. </p>
<p>When it comes to abroad experiences, one that I think would have been noteworthy in an interview is that of the young man who managed to work in the French resort that he found on the Internet. The things that concern parents here – his going abroad by himself to an unchaperoned place at such a young age – are exactly the things that would make him stand out in an interview or a college pool.</p>
<p>It takes quite a remarkable teen to have the maturity, independence, creativity and probably the persuasive skills to manage to do something like that. Only someone, too, with real passion for the experience would bother because there would be so many hurdles to jump over.</p>
<p>The teens who have that kind of intellectual passion aren’t forced into doing things or led into doing things by their parents. Their parents usually are trying to slow them down. I don’t know his parents well, but I imagine that they are like most of us – would need to take a lot of convincing before we’d send our 17-year-old off to France to work at a place that he found on the Internet. For a student also to be successful at finding such a place and surviving the experience is also a big testimony to their character, and admissions officers and interviewers would recognize that, too.</p>
<p>Please emember that my comments really apply to only the very top colleges. For most college admission offices, it’s a very big deal even when a student has been willing to go on a packaged tour abroad in which the students travel in packs. Most students (heck, most adults) would be too timid to do something like that with a group of strangers, so being willing to do that does indicate a level of maturity and responsibility that would bode well for the student’s being able to adjust well to and contribute to a college environment.</p>
<p>An activity that wouldn’t impress an adcom at HPYS may very well tip a student in for admissions at most other colleges in the country.</p>
<p>[While the packaged tour experiences probably won’t impress HPYS adcoms, they won’t reject students because of those tours. I’m sure that many HPYS have gone on such tours. The tours, however, aren’t what got them into top colleges unless perhaps the students are improverished, from uneducated backgrounds, but mangaged to raise the money for the trips. Otherwise, what got the students in probably was their other academic or EC accomplishments.]</p>
<p>Meanwhile, how people spend their money or summers is up to them. The only reason I’m commenting is that if people think that the packaged tour-with-a-large-group of Americans trips or community service abroad by definition will open doors at HPYS, they are wasting their money. Certainly the teens may learn things by going beyond their comfort zones, and those lessons will probably serve them well for life. However, if the purpose is to get them into HPYS, the parents are wasting their $.</p>