<p>Hey guys! so I just have a little problem with my community service
As much as i respect people that give out to their community and help others like idk, passing out food or cleaning up and stuff, I just can't find myself fitting in that category. I don't enjoy spending my times doing things like this just for colleges. My girlfriend is a huge Key clubber (it's a famous club that does alot of community services) and she holds a position in there. She wants me to get involved more but I just can't.</p>
<p>Before you go and judge me, you need to know what I do first.</p>
<p>INSTEAD OF being a huge community give out, I enjoy being a huge science nerd. I participate in national math/science competitions, hold 3 big positions in school clubs that are all relevant to science/math - President of Physics Club, VP of Engineering Club and VP/Chairman of Mathematics of Math Club. I self-teach college physics and mathematics almost everyday after school instead of volunteering; I do group researches and wrote our own papers about it; I also participated in a lot of scientific programs from university AND i'm heading to UCI this summer to research about the Big Bang and Subatomic World (COSMOS).
I just became a senior btw</p>
<p>So...I saw alot of my friends reaching out for the community and me here being a huge science nerd that doesn't enjoy doing such thing... is that a bad thing?? I only have like 16 hours of key club and like 10 hours of tutor...
SHOULD I GET INVOLVED IN THOSE THINGS? OR SHOULD I FOCUS ON DOING WHAT I ENJOY NOW - SCIENCE? WHICH ONE WOULD MAKE ME LOOK BETTER TO COLLEGES?</p>
<p>Community Service won’t necessarily make or break you as an applicant. I can only say that, in certain holistic reviews, it might be conspicuous in its absence. Many students have to do it. My sons attended a private school with a service requirement, and I think that is increasingly prevalent among private schools. I believe that the International Baccalaureate program also has a service component. Lots of kids have to perform service for Confirmation or other religious obligations. It is not considered a special accomplishment, therefore, but a lack of community involvement might just keep your application from standing up against other outstanding students’ resumes. Are you going into your senior year? If so, don’t sweat it too much. Admissions offices are more than accustomed to seeing applications where one single service activity was obviously tacked on at the last minute, and they won’t give it a lot of credit. It shouldn’t be a big deal, and is unlikely to play a major role in determining where you end up.</p>
<p>It sounds like you already have a ton of math and science activities and distinctions under your belt, more than a lot of people who want to go into such subjects. It sounds like that’s what you want to study in college. But just from what I’ve observed, colleges will also want to see you be active in your community. That is, community service. If the typical services just don’t click for you, then you may want to consider doing even more tutoring. Find a way to use your math and science abilities to help others. Tutoring seems like the most obvious option, but there are definitely other ways as well.
The goal shouldn’t necessarily be to look “better” for colleges, but if you don’t have any service at this point, I think it’s crucial that you do put in the time to do some. Colleges will appreciate your using your time to teach yourself higher-level academics, but they also would appreciate community service. It could hurt you if you don’t have ANY when you apply, but make sure you’re doing something that you enjoy and not just doing it for the sake of college admissions. I hope that helped!</p>
<p>I’m a new senior, too! Good luck with your college process </p>
You’re absolutely correct. The lack of volunteering or community service can mean an applicant was just too involved with their other activities to have the extra time to volunteer – and that’s okay!</p>
<p>A high school baseball player, for example, who plays fall ball, works out with the team during the winter months, goes to Florida with his baseball team during Spring Break to compete, and comes home and plays a 40 game season during the spring, has no time for community service or volunteering. Likewise, a student who loves drama and appears in every play the school puts on, has no time for community service or volunteering. (FWIW: I just described my kids who (between them) were accepted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Boston College, Georgetown, Williams, Middlebury, Pomona, and Vanderbilt with absolutely no community service on their resumes – zero, zich none! Admissions officers understand that many high schools now require 50+ hours of community service to graduate from high school, so colleges tend to discount an applicant’s community service unless they see years of involvement (and hundreds of hours) for a specific cause. </p>
<p>I think colleges still want to see that smart kids like you also want to give back. Being really good at science or math is great but being “selfish” with it (not saying you are, but it may seem that way when you have 0 evidence of even trying to give back) may not be appealing.</p>
</p>