<p>I'm a junior in high school, and i haven't done any volunteer hours and the school year is almost over. I was planning to do volunteering over the summer... I'm kind of paranoid that I might not accepted to many colleges because I don't have any extracurricular activities, nor achievements. D: advice?</p>
<p>Almost everyone who does community service half-asses it for the purpose of filling up a college application anyway. I doubt that most colleges will hold that marginal lack of EC-grubbing against you overmuch. The lack of EC’s as a whole is somewhat troublesome though.</p>
<p>Volunteer at a camp this summer. Your local community college may run camps and need volunteers. Your local school district may have math or English skills programs over the summer to help students maintain their skills and need program aides. You could garden at a nursing home. </p>
<p>I personally am not fond of putting a great deal of emphasis on volunteering because it is so easy to cheat on the hours, but there are plenty of things you can do over the summer.</p>
<p>:/ well, i’m getting a summer job?
will that help a little for my ECs?</p>
<p>ALso, would it matter if I take APs my senior year?
Do colleges look at that?</p>
<p>A lot depends on what type of colleges you are interested in. A job is different than volunteering, but it is good to earn some money. </p>
<p>When you apply to colleges, your guidance counselor will mark whether you took the most rigorous academic program available to you. AP classes are often the most rigorous classes offered in a high school. I have one child who took five senior year and one child who will take one if the planets are aligned. It all depends on what your goals are.</p>
<p>well, I am definitely interested in UCs</p>
<p>I thought a summer job counted as an EC.
I shouldn’t worry much about EC and hours then as long as I do hours during the summer and get a job?</p>
<p>I know nothing about UCs, but if they are like most state systems, there are many different options including some that are open admission or close to it. If you spend much time on here, you will think everyone is going for the top ten schools and has the stats to do it. However, the great majority of kids are growing up and being kids. </p>
<p>You should do things that interest you.</p>
<p>Volunteer hours aren’t big at all. Lots of people don’t even list them.</p>
<p>This is what I would think if I were the ADCOM:</p>
<p>“WOW, 200 community service hours? You must think you’re Gandhi. It’s obvious you did these just so you could list them.”</p>
<p>lol saugus that’s a bit too harsh
while I agree with the volunteer hours not being a big thing for top schools, most other schools do consider them in a positive light. The mid UCs (Davis, Irvine, Santa Babara) look into community service.</p>
<p>They never hurt</p>
<p>Randomly starting community service the summer before senior year is a tad transparent.</p>
<p>Do what you want. If that’s a summer job, so be it. Summer jobs are well regarded in the admissions world.</p>
<p>Many schools require community service. Both of my kids will have completed theirs during the summer after sophomore year. Didn’t seem to hurt my daughter’s admissions success at all. And neither kid will have on-going volunteer experience.</p>
<p>you mean during your freshman and sophomore year you never did any volunteer work?</p>
<p>Certainly don’t go overboard, my parents are friends with someone on an adcom and she says that when Joe Shmo applies with 200 hours of community service they scrutinize his entire application searching for more BS he tried to put across them lol</p>
<p>You don’t have to do community service. You don’t have to be on a sports team. You don’t have to play a musical instrument. If you are applying to state schools, what you need are solid grades and test scores and decent recommendations-and the money to pay for it. If you are applying for admission to more competitive schools that do holistic evaluations, then you need need a few (2-3) ECs that you really care about: And working is certainly a legitimate EC if you are putting a lot of hours into it. Lots of kids have to work and it doesn’t reflect badly on them at all. Volunteering is a legitimate EC if you have really invested the time and effort-a few hours here and there isn’t really going to make a difference though. Even self-studying something you really care about is a legit EC if you can demonstrate a long-term commitment and drive. (Read everything there is to know about butterflies? Self-studied Yoruba? Takes cooking classes for fun? All are fine ECs as long as you can talk intelligently about it.)</p>
<p>I’m guessing lots of kids have ECs that they don’t even recognize because someone told them it that to be an EC it had to be a club, they had to have a leadership role, or they had to win a prize doing it. It’s a shame because admissions officers get so tired of reading about editors on the school paper, Science Olympiad winners, and Spanish club presidents.</p>
<p>Volunteer hours usually don’t mean too much unless you can write a decent essay about them. Honestly, most of my hours are just from helping out at local events, nothing I would write about. However, they are on my transcripts since hours are required to graduate at my school.</p>
<p>I am going to disagree with some of the above posters and say that community service hours are a valuable part of an application. Some colleges really look for this - they want to see students with a history of giving back to the community. The key is to pick a volunteer activity that really interests you and then stick with it. My older son is interested in a career in sports management. So, for 2 summers he worked 25-30 hours a week for a local college summer baseball program. By the second summer, he was listed on their website as their marketing manager. It really turned into an internship of sorts. Besides listing the hours on his applications, he also had this expereince to talk about during interviews and to write about in his essays. He also volunteered in a teen court program in our county for 3 summers - this was a smaller time commitment - about 30 hours over the summer. Again, it tied in with his academic interests as he might go to law school and it was a really interesting experience serving as a juror in a real courtroom setting. This also became one of his essays. So, I think his volunteer work served him well, while he was also helping others and I am encouraging my yonger son to find his own volunteer interests and pursue them. </p>
<p>The key is to find something that really clicks with you and ties into your interests and passions. We hear so much about students developing their passions and demonstrating that on their college applications - volunteer work is one way to accomplish this. So, don’t rule it out.</p>