<p>Member of cross country all four years of HS
Member of JV baseball 9th and 10th grade
Member of track 11th grade
Beta Club member since 10th grade
Math and Spanish club member
Member of church youth group</p>
<p>I know it's weak. I just want to know how far these will take me.</p>
<p>My SAT is 2060 and my ACT 32 if that helps.</p>
<p>Depends on where you’re applying and what major you’re applying to.</p>
<p>If you’re applying to state universities, you’re set.</p>
<p>Woohoo! What about a place like Duke. Too much of a stretch?</p>
<p>It is not enough to get you in to Duke, you also need good grades and should have leadership and community service.</p>
<p>I have the grades (first in my class as of now - GPA unweighted is 3.98). Community service: maybe 70 hours total</p>
<p>“Member of” is a problem. Implies you head over to the meeting room after classes and hang with buds. Other than sports, if you have accomplished anything, held any responsibilities that matter, you haven’t mentioned it. 70 hours doesn’t tell us anything about your leadership. Church activities can be good, but we all know you get started there because your parents decide. Give us a better picture, k?</p>
<p>You need much more community service for a top-teir school, especially when you are lacking in other aspects of your resume, you should probably have at least 200 hours.</p>
<p>Nope, I haven’t accomplished anything worth mentioning. I did the community service with my church. I’m also pretty sure that the reason most people do hundreds of community service hours is for it to look good on their application, not because they actually want to benefit the community, which is the whole idea. But that’s beside the point and has no bearing on my chances of acceptance anyway.<br>
I suck at sports and as you say, I just show up to meetings to hang out. Well, this has been eye-opening! I’ve learned a lot about myself in the past few minutes. Thanks guys for the kind replies</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter whether you or some threadsters think comm svc is just for show. What matters is what it represents to adcoms- find a project now and commit regularly. Don’t worry about kids who only add up hours- most of them are achingly transparent. Worry about adding a needed element in your own picture. The closer it brings you into direct contact with the needy, the better. You do not need 200 hours and through church is fine, as long as it’s substantive and for the needy.</p>
<p>In my mind hundreds of community service hours certainly helps, but what is important is having some sort of leadership position in a club, organization, or something else. Best case scenario, you can do what I did, find a cause that needs help in your community and help out, volunteer etc. What I did was work with a local meal prep/delivery non-profit that I found by looking for an organization to provide food to my grandfather who was sick. I formed a relationship with the manager and while I had a lot of hours, I can get a great letter of recommendation, and formed a “club” and got lots of volunteers at my HS and the local public schools. I also helped out with their funding issues by way of fundraisers. You can try to do something like that, or try to form an organization that helps a certain group in your community. I find that it is the effort that counts.</p>
<p>^ great story. If you can somehow include it in your apps, it will hit the right notes, show a lot about the sort of person you are. But, it’s also just plain old great that you did it.</p>