I’m kind of nervous. I think I have pretty good EC’s inside and outside of school. A clear passion for art and music can be seen through these EC’s, but I’ve done a few other things as well. However, I have very little community service. I pretty much always chose to take art classes or play in my town’s symphony orchestra or work rather than volunteer at a soup kitchen. How will this affect my chances of getting into top schools? Everyone here seems to have thousands of hours of feeding hungry children and rescuing puppies out of trees or whatever, but I don’t! Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.
<p>I think as long as you can show a passion and write good things in your essays about the ECs that you do have, I do not think you should worry that much.</p>
<p>I agree. Play to your strengths- a good history/sample of music/art can be as impressive as community service.</p>
<p>But, in general when adcoms look at applications, is community service a category of its own or just a possible EC that could easily be replaced by other activities?</p>
<p>"rescuing puppies out of trees"</p>
<p>yeah, darn dogs, every time i turn my back they're climbing trees again... </p>
<p>:p</p>
<p>i thought cats climbed trees not dogs o.O</p>
<p>yeah lol... that's the point, i was kidding ;)</p>
<p>Yes, well, I'm sorry. Maybe it's my lack of experience rescuing cats out of trees that caused me to use the wrong animal in my example. But still, any other input on the community service thing?</p>
<p>No one factor is going to "disqualify" you. Community service is just one piece of the admissions puzzle, and a piece you can compensate for. I wouldn't sweat it out too much over this one. Apply anywhere you want and play to your strengths, and you'll have a good chance.</p>
<p>oh it's hard to sense sarcasm on a forum sorry dude</p>
<p>hehe lol... there should be some sort of rule about that, like, underline all sarcastic sentences, or write them in red, or something.</p>
<p>now if you'll excuse me, i have to go extract my dog from the clutches of a towering maple tree...</p>
<p>^(<em>sarcastic</em>)</p>
<p>:p</p>
<p>Well, actually my dog did get stuck in a bush once...But I was just making up stuff for emphasis! Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if someone on this board DID rescue dogs out of trees for community service, looking at how much stuff some people have done.</p>
<p>I think alot of community service stuff that people do is looked at a lot like membership in a club that meets once a week- you do it to put on a resume. Obviously there are exceptions, if the service reaaly means something, and colleges do like to see caring people who serve. But don't do something just to write it down.
This year I'm dropping out of a lot of stupid little things I hated that I only did to say I did them. Like honor society, key club, colunteer tutor. I get a lot more enjoyment out of those kind of things when I don't have to turn in a documented and signed hours sheet</p>
<p>Can cats swim?</p>