<p>Hey guys, I know I've been posting a lot on this site lately, so sorry if I seem a bit annoying, haha.</p>
<p>Anyway, I had a question about community service: If you do things like tutor within your own family or give music lessons to a family member, and it's very time-consuming/you put a lot of time into it, can this be counted as community service? Because I'd have a TON more CS hours if I counted these...</p>
<p>Well, not really -- these are not the kind of experiences that colleges are looking for. Everyone helps out within their own family to varying degrees; it's societally expected and not really to be admired or celebrated. I've tutored my younger siblings and my parents in school subjects before. Quite frankly, you're supposed to do that.</p>
<p>Rather, community service is supposed to be branching out and serving your community OUTSIDE of your family. Tutoring your own family doesn't require much effort or stepping outside of your comfort zone on your part. Colleges don't just ask about CS because they want to see that you're helping someone, anyone; community service is also about expanding your horizons, helping those less fortunate than you, learning something from the experience. Not saying that you can't learn something from serving your family -- you can -- but it's kind of iffy.</p>
<p>I would mention it on my application, but not include it under 'community service' and I would not add those hours to my total.</p>
<p>Yes; I would put these as separate activities.</p>
<p>dchow08: so are you saying that i CAN list them as CS??</p>
<p>No; I mean put them as separate from community service.</p>