D1 and D2 ended up with community service hours because they were corrolated with activities they enjoyed. D1 ended up with lots of Temple hours and serviced on a regional youth group board. It was an enormous number of hours. D2 works as and aid in Hebrew school and has for years because she enjoys it. She also has a ton of medical related community activities because she loves medicine. She had the chance to help in a soup kitchen and enjoyed that tremendously so she has a good amount of hours there as well. None of it was done in order to get into college. However, that was only because we didn’t know anything about the college application process. We just got lucky.
With D3 (Much younger) I will make sure she reaches out and engages with the community because I now know about the process. If she hates doing it, I won’t force the issue. But I will make sure she has exposure and not count on it happening by chance.
There is not a separate section for community service on the Common App. You just list “activities.” So, there is no minimum. Service just to “do service” is pointless. The college wants to see what you care about and what defines you.
For some people, some sort of “community service” or “volunteering” is an important part of what they do and who they are as an applicant. Another person might spend all their time in paid employment, supporting their family. Another person might spend their time on a sport, or a musical instrument, or debate team. List the activities that matter to you.
My D19 is in an IB diploma program, so she has some modest community service through that. Frankly, we haven’t made it much of a family priority, in part because of various international moves. But she wants to work in an art gallery or auction house eventually, and her application does show commitment to artistic expression. She was an editor of the art and literary journal at her previous school and is starting one at her current school. She also has other interests, including continuing to study Mandarin on weekends even though her current school doesn’t offer it. And her grades and scores are excellent, as are her essays. In general, I don’t think students should tack on community service to check a box, though it’s certainly laudable when it’s something they really care about.
Even for high school students there are only 168 hours in a week. Allowing 8 hours per day for sleep there are 112 remaining. Personal care? Church? Subtract some more hours from the total available. The kid who has multiple interests beyond schoolwork (classes, homework, etc.) – and who obtains some achievements in them, perhaps to such time-demanding activities as athletics, music, or debate – has done ENOUGH.
We aren’t talking about massive hours of service, it doesn’t even need to be on a weekly basis. Commitment means some consistency. And there’s a difference between volunteering/unpaid versus working on behalf of the needs in your community.
Thing is, some of this depends a lot of how high your kid aims for college. If you’re looking at top colleges, I can’t see declaring it’s not important, taking that risk. Same for redefining what it is.
@socaldad2002 I advocate ECs in 3 areas: what you do for your own interests (hobby sorts of things) or future professional goals (stem kids in robotics, med hopefuls vol’g at the hosp or the poli sci kid who works a local campaign or advocacy.) Then, what you do with peers or groups (clubs, the school play or for your culture or religious group, sports, eg.) And what you do in your own comunity, because you can see the needs around you and want to help. That’s community service. With the needy is good. It’s really not a few hours at the walkathon or the tutoring you do in school. Not giving school tours or the coat drive or a party to raise money.
YMMV. I just feel that service is good for our kids, grows them and their perspective.
Fortunately, there are actually some kids who want to give back to the community, and every volunteer coordinator would much rather have more of those kids than the ones who are doing it because their school/parents/church/court require it or are trying to pad their “résumé.” And 70 hours a year is 1:20 a week, so it’s not like we’re talking a huge chunk of time.
For Catholic colleges, and in particular Jesuit schools, where the credo is men and women for others, community service may be important. It may also be important at schools where giving back to the local community/volunteering is encouraged through clubs and other activities
1:20/week or 4 freaking hours, once/month, rolling up their sleeves. Nope, not some major inconvenience.
Know what? You never know why a kid did service, but the point is, they did it. Not whether or not they were driven by some personal passion. But it does say something about a kid who (just picking random examples) serves at the meal site vs sends valentines to the senior center. The willingness to be directly involved. Not sitting at the bake sale for 2 hours of credit.
It’s not padding, if you did it. You can hate it. But you did it. Just like maybe you hate some course a college expects, but you take it and do your best. The real padding is kids who claim they’re curing cancer and authored a paper and then it turns out they were low level support and the paper went nowhere.
My D was invited to work at a soup kitchen by a friend. She thought it would be once and done. She found that she really enjoyed it. She got a sense of fulfillment and found she was good at it. She has an inante sense of organization and found herself helping to run the kitchen. She came home all excited about how good it all felt. You never know what is going to click with a kid. I wouldn’t have thought to suggest this on top of everything else she does. But I will suggest it with kid number 3. I don’t think there is anything wrong with introducing your kids to things they may find truly fulfilling that might also help with a resume.
My daughter only did the required hours through NHS, and I don’t think most of their activities were very community oriented. She was able to get into a top college with her own merit, I don’t think the service hours made her look any better.
I think maybe we can come at this from a different angle. When my two older kids were younger, I made sure to introduce them to things that they might enjoy and might someday develop a passion for - Sports, music, theater, science, etc. Some of those things clicked and some went by the wayside. I didn’t think to push community service. With kid 3, I will add it to the list of things that I will expose her to because it may awaken something in her. That would be good for her, good for the community and good for college applications.
When ever we think of community service as a means to an end… and that end is getting into college you are missing the point. Community service is just as described serving others out of a desire to help.
My son started a charity that expanded to 10 High schools, organized sleep outs for the homeless and travelled abroad on medical and home building missions. I can honestly say none of it was done to check a box. Most of it I don’t think even made into his applications.
I suspect it “rounded out” his applications but more importantly it made him happy to help others and gave him perspective on how lucky he is. Returning from an extremely impoverished country after 2 weeks where he supported surgical teams I asked if the trip changed his life. He very bluntly said that wasn’t the point of the trip that he was confident however he had helped change the lives of the kids they had performed surgeries on, and for that he was grateful.
Please consider the message conveyed by the question “how important are community service hours”. Those hours should only be measured by their positive impact on those being served.