Question on community service

Sikorsky
Mon, 07 Nov 2011 10:48:55 +0000

Meep, I read those links.

Two of them report on the same finding by dosomething.org–an organization whose (perfectly laudable) objective is to get young people to volunteer in their communities. That’s not so much two independent opinions, as the same opinion expressed twice, and that opinion comes from a source with its own agenda.

Just about all of them say that colleges want to see applicants with significant, ongoing involvement in something. I still contend that the something could be community service, but it doesn’t have to be.

The DoSomething.org report says that community service ranks “in the top four factors,” along with GPA and class rank, standardized tests, and other extracurricular activities. (I find it odd that teacher recommendations are not on that list.) What the reports don’t say is the relative importance of those four things. Community service may be in the top four, but does it get anything remotely like the kind of emphasis that standardized test scores and grades do? I don’t think so, and these reports don’t say otherwise. Really, it wouldn’t make sense. What these colleges want first and foremost is to enroll students who will be successful students; their altruism may be an attractive quality, but by itself it’s not much of a predictor for academic success.

I agree that selective colleges and universities want to see that applicants are dedicated to something besides school work. I agree that sustained volunteer work would make a very good something. But it’s not the only possible something, and I remain convinced that it’s neither necessary nor sufficient for college admissions. In addition, I couldn’t say with any confidence that the kind of community service that the OP seemed to be talking about–recorded hours to satisfy a school-imposed community-service obligation–is going to carry any weight at all. After all, a school-imposed obligation isn’t exactly volunteerism.

Please understand, I am all for volunteering. I just remain highly skeptical that most students’ “volunteer hours” add much real value to their college applications.