<p>Does anyone have any thoughts on how much weight colleges give to community service in comparison to, say, GPA, test scores, and other EC's?</p>
<p>Thanks! :)</p>
<p>The most important things in terms of getting into college are, in order:
1. Having taken the required curriculum.
2. GPA
3. Test Scores
4. Rigor of one's curriculum
Class rank also can be important. </p>
<p>(For public universities, state of residence also is very important).</p>
<p>Most universities decide admission virtually 100% based on the above factors. ECs, jobs, recommendations, essays, awards, interviews, job, are particularly important for merit aid consideration. They also can be of great importance at places like HPYS that have such an overabundance of applicants with sky high stats that the colleges can pick and choose from that large pool to select the students who'll most create a campus that's diverse in all meanings of the word.</p>
<p>For such colleges, community service (demonstrating leadership, creativity, having impact) is as important as is any other ECs, job, etc. that demonstrates that one has skills, interests that will add to the creation of a vibrant, diverse campus.</p>
<p>The impact of one's community service is far more important than is the amount of hours. A student who has, for instance, 60 hours of community service that included being completely responsible for organizing a three-day leadership program for middle school students would more than likely be far more impressive to colleges than would be a student with 500 hours of random community service like picking up trash or doing other kind of volunteer work that doesn't require creativity, skills or leadership.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick response, Northstarmom - I've noticed you are always very helpful on these forums. :)</p>
<p>Your 1-4 list is reassuring to me, as I only have ~25 community service hours (animal shelter volunteering), and I'm not very fond of it. I've been hoping that colleges would understand - I'm very dedicated to my EC's and academics, and while I've always admired the patience and compassion of those who do community service, it just isn't my thing.</p>
<p>A small number of community service hours won't be a dealbreaker at a college like BC or Georgetown, then?</p>
<p>If you don't like volunteering at an animal shelter, but want to volunteer, do community service for a cause that you care about. For instance, if you're interested in politics, door knock for a politician whom you support who's running for office</p>
<p>No, a small am't of community service hours won't be a deal breaker, but coming across in your essays or interviews as too selfish to care about helping anyone would be a deal breaker at such schools that are very interested in attracting students who care about service, not just getting a prestigious degree and making lots of money.</p>
<p>I've been trying to get started volunteering for the Obama campaign, but so far I haven't been asked to do anything (not really sure who to contact or what to do to express interest?).</p>
<p>It's not that I don't care about helping other people, but... I'm not really sure how to explain it. Hopefully my eloquence improves by the time I write college essays... :-/</p>
<p>Northstarmom.. i disagree that you put rigor of one's curriculum so low. personally, i think that is what is more important. In Canada atleast, a 90 student at an OK school will get an 80 in our IB school. I would say:</p>
<p>1)Rigor of your courses
2)GPA
3)Scores
4)ECs/Volunteering</p>
<p>Again, this is just from what i know and the schools i have contacted. One of them is JHU. Because i am an international, instead of looking at my GPA (my school does not calc.) they will look at how hard my course load is compared to my grade. People underestimate how much IB can help in admissions processes. In my opinion, it helps a lot because it shows you are prepared to do well in college.</p>
<p>But, Shad Faraz, you would agree that community service is secondary to things like GPA and SAT scores? That would be good news for me and my ~40 hours by graduation.</p>
<p>Northstarmom and Shad are both correct. Nearly all schools give, by far, the greatest weight to GPA, rigor of the curriculum, and standardized test scores. (And for some schools, test scores are much less important than the other two factors.) Before they offer you a place in their freshman class, they want to make sure you are capable of doing the work. </p>
<p>Once they have determined that you are in the ballpark with those academic factors, then they start to look at things like ECs and community service to determine how you compare to other applicants and what you will bring to their school. </p>
<p>That being said, you have named two particular schools -- BC and Georgetown -- that actually place much more emphasis on community service than most other schools. Jesuits are very big on "service to others." But a relatively small number of volunteer hours certainly won't be a deal breaker for you if the other parts of your application (academics, ECs, essay, recommendations) are very strong.</p>
<p>I just named those two schools off the top of my head, lol. They represent the middle ground on my college list, so I figured I'd throw 'em out there. Forgot about the Jesuit common bond. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the reassurance from everyone, though. I'll try to keep up the occasional volunteering, but it's good to know that it won't make or break me in the long run.</p>
<p>ECs/Volunteering .. whatever you want to call it.. often is secondary to CourseLoad, GPA, SATs just because of the fact that almost anyone can do a lot of hours. That is not what qualifies them to do well in College. A more accurate indicator would be a student's GPA in terms of course load(IB , AP..) and also the SAT/ACT. So if your volunteering is not your greatest pride, you do not have much to worry as good GPAs, SATs will often cover for that. That being said, worried_mom is correct in saying that certain colleges place more importance than others on Community service. However, it is generally accepted that GPA, SAT, course load is more important. </p>
<p>If i may suggest one last thing, you still have time and could get some last -minute volunteering done. Maybe get over 100. Because three figures just seems better. If not, don't worry about it.</p>
<p>I'm a rising junior, so I have time to get more hours - but I've only managed to get 25 so far, so thinks aren't looking too good. On the other hand, I have plenty of good EC's - just not much in the way of service. I'm trying to work on that, but when I see people on here with like 500+ hours, that's pretty demanding. :P</p>
<p>"I've been trying to get started volunteering for the Obama campaign, but so far I haven't been asked to do anything (not really sure who to contact or what to do to express interest?)."</p>
<p>If you're serious about volunteering for Obama, call or e-mail your local Democratic party and ask them for contact info for the local Obama campaign.</p>
<p>I submitted my email address and information on Obama's website and indicated my willingness to volunteer for his campaign, but I haven't gotten any response. I'll try to contact my local Democratic party, though - thanks.</p>