<p>Recently I have been seeing more and more prospective Ivy league applicants and individuals applying to top schools do/talk about community service as just another thing to make their resume more appealing. This to me is deeply upsetting. Community service should be about helping the people around you, not to look good for colleges. It is something you should want to do because it is the right thing, not because it will benefit you. It is quite sad</p>
<p>I agree =/</p>
<p>what makes me even more mad is that
people LIE on the resumes -_____________-
I know one that did, (even on her essay) and she’s going to Princeton with full scholarships.
Top schools like Princeton should take time to track those down ! ugh</p>
<p>wow. people just amaze me in how horrible they can be haha. it just makes me sad that there are a bunch of fakes that go to these schools and just ruin it for everyone else. oh well thats life i guess.</p>
<p>I agree – there are far too many people I’ve seen who are involved in community service for the sake of their own resumes rather than the well-being of others. However, I feel that this thread is more suited to the High School Life forum 
And to the OP, my best advice is for you to keep doing what you like, without worrying about what others are doing. Just focus on yourself.</p>
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<p>So true 
I know a couple of people who made up CS hours. Really. One kid showed up to our Habitat for Humanity project for ONE day, then went and put 30 CS hours. It’s pretty sad.
Also, I’m on a Youth Council for my city, 12 teens in total. Almost all of them say they’re there just for the CS hours. I know it’s an added benefit, but that shouldn’t be the sole reason for doing it. It’s kinda upsetting, I get where you’re coming from.</p>
<p>You could argue that college admissions provides a strong incentive, one that may not be entirely morally appeasing, for students who would otherwise avoid community service to contribute to their local community. Those with Machiavellian ideals would say that elite college admissions is a positive influence on community service as a whole.</p>
<p>The ironic thing is that community service by itself is NOTHING to top school admissions. My community service? I worked as a dishwasher at a restaurant. I was accepted at all schools applied, eventually matriculating at a HYP college.</p>
<p>These kids’ attitude is roundly mocked in these two fictional articles:
[Closing</a> Of Homeless Shelter Leaves College-Application-Padding Students With Nowhere To Turn | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source](<a href=“http://www.theonion.com/articles/closing-of-homeless-shelter-leaves-collegeapplicat,2461/]Closing”>Closing Of Homeless Shelter Leaves College-Application-Padding Students With Nowhere To Turn)</p>
<p>[Soup-Kitchen</a> Volunteers Hate College-Application-Padding Brat | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source](<a href=“http://www.theonion.com/articles/soupkitchen-volunteers-hate-collegeapplicationpadd,1422/]Soup-Kitchen”>Soup-Kitchen Volunteers Hate College-Application-Padding Brat)</p>
<p>I see what you are saying Jersey13. But I just can’t help but feel that it is so wrong to approach community service as just another thing for college. I know realistically every person in the back of their mind knows it will help them for college, but the real motivation should be to help people. </p>
<p>T26E4, that is very true. but meaningful community service can be very helpful. and the fact that some people do it just for their application or just flat out make it up is really despicable. </p>
<p>overall i just feel that high school students in general should not be so desperate to go to a good college that we act in such pathetic ways as to fake/or do community service just for college.</p>
<p>Hahaha. I know it, my peers also get all kind of diplomas and certificates of a lot of unimportant things, that they dont care about - organising x event and going to x orpahange for christmas. Some even go to ngo’s and beg for certificates. </p>
<p>Something really funny related to this happened a month ago or so. I am a volunteers coordinator for some thing that I ADORE doing (I am pretty sad when I can’t go there at least 2 hrs/week due to school long programme, or some important tests). The volunteers that I coordinate … they couldn’t care less about what they do. They came about six times the whole year and the certificate says that they spent 2hrs/week (sth of the kind) but they still feel that they did a great favour to this ngo.
Nevermind, as I’ll be studying in us for my junior year (I amm from europe) some really nice lady in there asked one of the so called volunteers : So, know that Cupcakee will be gone, do any of you want to become a coordinator ?
To which they reply: Umm, will there be any additional certificate ? </p>
<p>I HATE THEM</p>
<p>In my school I think its easy to tell when students are padding their resumes or really doing community service. The former are the kids who (don’t take this the wrong way) volunteer at soup kitchens or other random things to get as many hours as possible, and the latter are interested in dedicating themselves to specific types of service, like this nice girl I know who is part of AIDS awareness and helps with fundraising and other events related to that. It’s just sad that resume padders usually are the ones who gain more hours and look better to colleges.</p>
<p>Umm, they may be passionate about soup kitchens.
I personally do a lot of stuff with little children. Not some big cause or anything, I don’t fight poverty or some disease, I don’t give a **** about ecology 
(just my opinion, I do appreciate people who really believe in these and work hard to raise money, organise events etc).
I simply LOVE working with small children. And hah I have also organised some fundraising events: Christmas/Children Day/Easter coming and I wanted the kids to get some nice presents (they come from really low income families)
This may look silly to some adcom but I really really like them. It’s one of the most heartwarming activity that one could do as an EC.
(I keep all kind of notes from children; they are like “Hello Cupcakee, I am really glad that you came to us” or little hearts painted, you get the message). When I read them, I
suddenly realize that I shouldn’t be mad that some people get the same credit as I do while I really care about it.</p>
<p>Of course this zen attitude rapidly goes away :D</p>
<p>But then my point was: you can be really passionate about something that looks pretty silly. I wouldn’t like adcoms to have such prejudices.</p>
<p>Colleges are not impressed by a little community service. Students are fooling themselves by thinking listing “200 hours” will make a difference. What makes a difference is having changed/impacted in some way/accomplished something meaningful through such service. The students who’ve done that don’t talk about it in terms of hours.</p>
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<p>That’s definitely true, but kids with no community service will be hurt significantly when applying to top schools. It’s pretty sad, that just goes to show how almost all high schoolers doing it are doing it for resume-padding.</p>
<p>I, theoretically, have a TON of community service hours. In actuality, I only “have” 100-200, because my Church is the only place that requires me to keep records of service, and they automatically store them. Otherwise, I don’t feel right about “collecting” hours for my own benefit. Then there are people I know who do it and freak out if they can’t find a sheet of paper or track down the supervisor, because they are trying to get some congressional medal for community service. I think that’s against the spirit of helping others (a Catholic and a Socialist, how could I feel differently?), and while it at least makes them help others somewhat, it’s often obvious that they don’t like it, and complain endlessly about it “Ugh, I have to go do _<em>__. At least I’m </em> hours into the gold medal (<em>brags about when they got bronze/silver</em>). How about you?” And this goes around until it gets to me, and I voice my feelings on it. Half awkward silence, half people vigorously defending their college admissions choices.</p>
<p>Redroses, umm is the fact that I raised funds (like mentioned earlier), started some programs in that particular ngo (some programs that would benefit the kids - such as develop their creativity, social skills, computer skills etc.) for which I worked and also found volunteers, that I was the first volunteer coordinator etc. more meaningful ?
I mean, I know it is not like doinf something really IMPRESSIVE, but still I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about these things (let away doing them :D) and some have been really stressful.
It doesn’t seem really fair to simply become some hundreds of hours on that application.</p>
<p>My Hkiss interviewer seemed pretty impressed and asked me a little about it. ( Now I know that a prep school application isn’t the same as a college application, but I really don’t know how this works for usa colleges and I though the prep thing would act as an indicator)</p>
<p>It’s all looked at in context. Some schools require a minimum number of service hours. I would guess Hotchkiss is among those. Then there’s the fact that colleges expect much of those to whom much has been given. So if you’ve had the privelege of attending one of the top high schools in the Country, the bar is set high.</p>
<p>A school like Hotchkiss uses the same measures to choose students as top colleges do, so yes, it’s an indicator.</p>
<p>Put your heart into something and write about it, that’s the best bet.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot :)</p>
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<p>So describing the impact of your community service is better than listing the number of hours you did the service?</p>
<p>I’m in IB and I see this as one of the fundamental problems with the program, that is, you have to log at least 150+ hours to get the diploma. But service should be something you do because you want to. Still, we are making the world better, right?</p>