Still doesn’t need to be monumental.
Posters can suggest it doesn’t matter, but what’s less risky? Shining it on/minimums, when they want more or going the full mile?
@mrwildcat The response you get will be much more helpful, if you do not state your expected/hoped for senior year as though it already happened. I can understand why you would do that, but don’t.
Back to your question - if you are looking for community service which will help you get into Stanford, you can stop right now, since, at very best, unless you have solved world hunger, nothing you do will increase your “chances” more than by a fraction. You have a long list of ECs, which are pretty solid.
On the other hand, if you are interested in community service for service’s sake, look how you can use the skills you are utilizing in your ECs, especially music. Playing at homes for the elderly, helping in organizations that teach music to under-served communities, etc.
Follow the link that @Damond30 listed of accepted Stanford students. Randomly picking two people…who were both accepted (which tells me, do what is best for you…don’t worry about what will play best):
Applicant 1:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
- Editor-in-Chief of an international youth literary journal (submissions from 30+ states & 24+ countries; manage 35+ staff members from California to Singapore)
- Prose editor at international literary magazine
- Creative writing (featured in multiple publications)
- Docent at the Guggenheim’s education department
- Blogging for two other literary journals
- Classroom assistant at literary nonprofit
- Intern for poetry organization
- Political activism (state senate intern & political writer)
- President of National English Honor Society
- Debate team captain & policy summer lab camp counselor
- US ambassador for an international education project
- Volunteer for initiative to help progressive female candidates campaign for governmental elections
Applicant 2:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Job/Work Experience: Peer Tutor
Volunteer/Community service: None
Summer Activities: Stanford Pre-Collegiate Institutes, Columbia Summer Program
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 9, I truly believe my essays were what got me in
The reason I asked to see how stanford students serviced their community is to understand the magnitude and initiatives they took to achieve it. I’m looking to see how they used their talents/passion to help other on a large scale. I’m not interested in doing the same things unless they relate to me, although it might seem like the opposite.
^ What have you discovered? Please post back to your thread the results of your research.
Perpetual argument, but it doesn’t need to relate to your own interests. It does need to serve the needs of others.
Kids who volunteer at a meal site, a clinic, teach literacy, get involved in local health initiatives, and much more, are not pursuing career goals or limiting themselves to some test of "how much does this match my interests? They do it because they give a hoot about others, can see the needs around them, and take action.
You don’t need to found something, start a non profit, or join some campaign for a foreign land. You do need to pick up, in your own community. In fact, how a kid climbs out of his own narrow comort zone is very telling about his perspectives and energies.
Any two examples from an " accepted" thread won’t show you what they did, the responsibilities, and some impact. You don’t know how their bullets were viewed as part of the whole holistic view.
Btw, that Harvard link is an additional perspective, not a tip that you should write poetry and you get a magic tip. In part, it’s a plea for rounding ad openness to the new, not the unilateral so many kids assume is a special spike.
So many high school students are misinformed about community service and the college applications process.
I’ve posted this before, but here it is again. My kids were forced to do community service in order to graduate from middle school – and both walked away from the process with a strong distaste for community service/volunteer work (which is indeed sad and unfortunate).
As a result, neither of them had any community service on their resume when the applied to college. And between them they were accepted to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Williams, Pomona, Weslyan, Georgetown, Middlebury, Northwestern, Vanderbilt and a bunch of other schools.
Community service is NOT a required element of the applications process. Instead of thinking “What did you guys do for community service projects” instead think “What did you guys do to BETTER the community around you?” That actually is the MORE important question and what colleges look for. And, it can take many forms – from improving the life of students at your high school, to improving the life of people in your community.
FWIW: This article was written for students just like you. Everything in this article pertains to ALL the schools you are interested in attending. Read it. If you follow the sage advice written by an MIT Admissions Officer, you will become a better person and as a result put yourself in the best possible light for the college applications process: https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways/
Please notice the Admissions Officer’s advice: “Contribute to your community.” They did say “Do community service or volunteer.”