Unique Extracurriculars vs. National Recognition?

Northstarmom
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:38:58 +0000

“But it’s less good than starting your own non-profit, which is what many competitive top school applicants do.”

Actually, many competitive students don’t do this. Colleges also may look askance at such nonprofits because the nonprofits may seem like something the student and their parents started to look good to colleges.

Given the range of nonprofits there are in this country, colleges know that more than likely a nonprofit already existed to do what a student wanted to do.

It’s far more impressive in my opinion for a student to start a project with a nonprofit that the student has been working with already. Filling an unmet need in an existing organization is likely to lead to more lasting effects than starting a new program – particularly when the person starting the nonprofit is likely to move away relatively soon to go off to college.