The topic of high school students starting non-profits hoping for a boost to admissions has come up once again in the International Science Olympiads thread. There are great responses there from @aunt_bea and @worriedmomucb.
But here are the straight-up facts from a current high school student. (This is one of my favorite quotes on CC.)
Bottom line, do not create a nonprofit simply for college applications just to abandon it once accepted. In most cases, if you are really interested in volunteering, seek out established organizations and show an ongoing commitment. Not only will you make a bigger difference in the world, that commitment will make a bigger difference on your college apps.
Are there exceptions? Of course. But it seems that non-profits continue to be seen as a must-have item to check for college admissions. I’m not an AO, but I can imagine eyes rolling at yet another nonprofit created by a high schooler to “fulfill a need” that a long-established non-profit already has covered.
Thoughts? What advice would you give current high school freshmen, sophomores (and juniors, I suppose, though that is probably too late to show real commitment)?
My honest opinion, and this applies to both high school students and adults who start nonprofits, is that it is often more about ego than satisfying a true community need. The nonprofit world is saturated. There are few causes that do not have a nonprofit working on it. Yes, there are exceptions. Yes, sometimes an idea is so original that it warrants the creation of a whole new organization to address it. But this is actually pretty rare. Whatever you care about and want to work to serve, there’s likely a nonprofit already on it. Support them and their work, rather than compete with them for the limited funds available. Better yet, RAISE MONEY for them. That is probably the single best thing a concerned (but inexperienced) person can do to support the cause of their choice.
So here’s what I would advise a high school student: if there’s a cause you care about, find a great organization working on that cause, and either volunteer or raise money for them. Both are actually helpful. Maybe start a school club focused on volunteering and/or raising money for the organization (that will let you check the leadership box). But please do not start any more nonprofits. We have too many. You are not really helping.
You are absolutely correct. But, as long as admissions officers continue to reward phony or exaggerated nonprofits, research, internships, etc. by high school students, the behavior will continue.
But are they? Do they continue to reward kids for nonprofits since they have become so common place? I don’t know, but more and more I see posts on CC reiterating that it does not carry the weight kids think it does so I’m genuinely curious.
There are so many very worthwhile non-profits who would benefit from some dedicated volunteers, I just think that is a better thing to do than creat one of your own. And especially if you are doing so to impress college adcoms.
In my opinion, creating a non-profit now has take the place of going on a mission trip. Something also not particularly valued in college admissions.
Not sure we will ever really know the data. Anecdotally, it does seem that AOs still fetishize teens doing adult activities like founding nonprofits, conducting peer-reviewed research, and pursuing internships.
I think that each student needs to do what is right, what is effective, and what is right for them. It is very hard for me to believe that this will involve creating a new nonprofit organization in any more than a tiny, tiny handful of cases.
I also wonder when a high school student creates a nonprofit organization what will happen to that organization when the student goes off to university.
Admissions staff at top universities are IMHO smart enough to see through this. Or at least I think that the student will be better off to assume that admissions staff are smart enough. If you do what is right, and what is right for you, then something good will come from it.
One of my cut and paste responses desks with this situation:
Without getting into semantics on the definition of non-profit and 501(c)(3), starting a non-profit for the purpose of assisting people long after you’ve left HS is great. The challenge is that many students want to do so to pad their resumes thinking that college admissions simply requires completing a checklist. Start a non-profit. Check. Publish a book. Check. Get 100K views on my YouTube channel. Check. Unfortunately, admissions does not work that way, and AOs will see right through the obvious ploys.
MIT actually says it really well:
Some students feel so much pressure to get into the “right” college that they want to make sure they do everything “right”—even do the “right” extracurricular activities. Fortunately, the only right answer is to do what’s right for you—not what you think is right for us.
Choose your activities because they delight, intrigue and challenge you, not because you think they’ll look impressive on your application.
The person who starts a non-profit will intrigue the AO not simply because s/he checked a box, but because of other factors related to it, some of which are intangible. The same, though, can be said for other ECs.
AOs want to see accomplishments. “I founded a non-profit to do such-and-such” is not, in and of itself, and accomplishment, especially compared to a person who actually did something in an existing non-profit. “I established a non-profit to teach low income kids” versus, “as part of non-profit XYZ, I tutored 150 kids who had no other access to after-school programs”.
There are situations that one has to establish a non-profit. If, for example, a kid cares about their local forest preserve, and establishes a non-profit “Friends of Local Forest” group, because no such group exists, that is clearly a case in which establishing a non-profit was needed.
On the other hand, founding yet another non-profit “to tutor poor kids in math” is probably not going to impress anybody, especially since the accomplishments of somebody who goes through one of the many existing organizations that do this, or somebody who sets up an after-school program at a local elementary school are probably more impressive.
In fact, my first question about most of these non-profits would be “why do you need a non-profit to do this?” So many of them can do the same thing by setting up free programs at schools, libraries, or community centers.
I do not believe that AOs would prefer a kid who “set up a non-profit to tutor kids” over “organized tutoring sessions at local library”, especially since the latter likely accomplished a lot more.
All one needs to do is to peruse through the kids who post their profiles here to see how many have wasted time, effort, and money on establishing non-profits to “tutor low-income kids”, when they could have accomplished the same thing by spending an hour speaking to the right people at a local school or public library.
Yes. And I’ve observed that many successful elite school applicants that have started non profits also have several other notable achievements. So while it may look like the non-profit was key to their success, it’s quite possible it was really one or more of their other accomplishments, but it’s impossible for us outside observers to know.
I think the more selective the school, the less impressive the nonprofit will generally be most of the time. BUT, if it is backed up with evidence (genuine enthusiasm from the guidance counselor, an established website providing verifiable proof of impact, financial or otherwise, a foundation that shows clear means for the nonprofit to continue after the kid has left high school, etc…) then THAT it is impressive.
I’m guessing in reality not many nonprofits founded by high schoolers are able to do that and I think AO’s know it, especially at highly rejective colleges.
Not sure founding a club is really noteworthy either, without a specific purpose. It’s probably better than nothing. My son sought permission to create a weight lifting club at school. Met with the principal and GC, got the go ahead, but couldn’t find a teacher who was able to mentor it. (I don’t think the teachers at our school were particularly into fitness.)
My son did get a group of friends to go regularly and his GC let him add it to his app, because he had been approved. It didn’t tip anything for my son at all, but he really loves weightlifting to this day and it was fun for him to get friends involved, so that was the benefit. He did it for himself because he had genuine interest.
Wow, so cool to see myself quoted! I agree with everything you said, and I just wanted to let people know that my current internships with real nonprofits have been going great.
I’ve been working at one organization for a little over six months and just got a really cool opportunity: making a PSA with kids at my school that will be featured on an independent liberal Middle Eastern news site reaching over 33% of TV viewers in Iran.
This is honestly one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done and I’m only able to do it because my boss is friends with the woman in charge of youth engagement at the station. Working with people already established in the field I hope to work in is so helpful, and has not only helped me find mentors but has also given me opportunities that I could never create myself. Plus, I don’t need to try and decipher 501c(3) registration before I learn how to file taxes.