<p>Please don’t fall prey to the feeling that your son should go out and do things just for the sake of the application. I know it’s easy to start feeling that way, when you look at the application forms and you start reading the posts on this forum, where it seems like every kid applying to boarding school has soloed at Carnegie Hall, been named a chess master champion, and feeds the poor in their spare time. Lots of kids applying to boarding school are just regular kids. The provide all that space on the application form because there are people who legitimately need it (and don’t forget, it’s the same form for 8th graders applying to 9th grade, and seniors applying for a PG year – it runs a big gamut). My son will be going to a HADES school next year, and he’s never done an hour of community service, other than projects he does as a part of his current school (and we certainly didn’t list that on the application). His lack of community service didn’t hamper the application process, nor did the fact that he didn’t have many other extracurriculars to list either. He plays sports, and is passionate about one of them (but wasn’t good enough to be recruited for it), and that’s pretty much it for his ECs. So don’t worry about the “empty admissions folder.”</p>