<p>o..........well, in my province, its necessary, for you cannot graduate without doing at least 80 hours of volunteer work........</p>
<p>i'm aiming for 100+ hours</p>
<p>Wouldn't that make it mandatory volunteerism? [sorry had to bring that up, had a question about it for our HSPA's - standardized test in NJ]</p>
<p>^^^Exactly. I really don't like when an organization or school forces people to volunteer. It makes the entire thing completely irrelevant. Our National Honor Society required 15 hours of service to graduate. Most people reluctantly and unhappily tutored kids a couple of times or sold tickets at school functions. Many people just faked a few hours on their forms. No one was better off for it.</p>
<p>I think it's fine when students and others are forced to volunteer. From what I've seen, very few teens and kids are attracted to volunteering. However, many people -- when matched with a volunteer activity that matches their interests and talents -- find volunteering to be extremely fulfilling. Many never would have learned that if they hadn't been forced to volunteer.</p>
<p>Many of the teens and kids who appear to naturally like volunteering were initially gotten into volunteering by parents who either lined up volunteer activities for them or took the kids along when the parents were volunteering. In many cases, the kids initially would have preferred to stay home or to sleep in. However, by volunteering, they learned how wonderful it is to make a difference in the world, and they became committed volunteers.</p>
<p>Think about it: If they weren't forced, most kids wouldn't voluntarily choose to go to school every day or to brush their teeth or eat healthful foods. However, being initially forced to do such things eventually results in those activities becoming a voluntary part of their lives. The same is true of volunteering.</p>
<p>What works best with volunteering is involving a teen to a volunteer activity that matches their own skills and interests. A student who plans to be a teacher may enjoy volunteering as a tutor. A student who is considering a field like engineering may enjoy a project like making ramps for disabled people. A student who likes being on the Internet may enjoy designing web pages for nonprofits. A student who is very social may enjoy putting together something like a dance marathon for a charity.</p>
<p>Just doing random volunteer hours may not be that inspiring unless a student's greatest pleasure is doing a variety of things.</p>
<p>
[quote]
What works best with volunteering is involving a teen to a volunteer activity that matches their own skills and interests. A student who plans to be a teacher may enjoy volunteering as a tutor. A student who is considering a field like engineering may enjoy a project like making ramps for disabled people. A student who likes being on the Internet may enjoy designing web pages for nonprofits. A student who is very social may enjoy putting together something like a dance marathon for a charity.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Exactly! My d chafed at the idea of community service until I pointed out that her dance club's fundraising for various charities is "community service." Her response - "Oh. I thought community service only counted if it's something you don't like to do."</p>
<p>Change the definition of "community service" in your mind, and I'm sure you can find something you would like to do without getting paid for it.</p>
<p>MY big question about community service is this: when you indicate community service on your application or during an interview or whatever, do you put all community service activities, or only important ones. And do they expect you to volunteer for a long period of time with one company. For example, I annualy help with our local Habitat for Humanity on a big project that only takes about a day. Should this be indicated? Or do I need to find a community service activity where I had volunteered for like say a year?</p>
<p>I think community service looks more impressive when you put it all together. When I see long activity lists showing an hour here of CS and then another couple of hours there of CS, I think the CS is being used as resume padding.</p>
<p>When it comes to the top colleges, what matters the most is the impact, not the length of the list: "Organized a campaign that successfully raised $5,000 to build a playground" is a more impressive EC than a long list showing various places where one devoted an hour or 2 of CS.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For example, I annualy help with our local Habitat for Humanity on a big project that only takes about a day.
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This is called a "Done in a Day" project. Service orgs like the Kiwanis, Lions and Rotary do a lot of these with pancake breakfast/crab feed fundraisers, providing materials and labor to furnish an apartment for a refugee family, etc.</p>
<p>What you include on your app is up to you. The annual one-day Habitat commitment may be significant to your personal community service experience, especially if, at the end of that day, you find value in helping build a house for a homeless family or something.</p>
<p>I haven't applied to any college yet so I wouldn't know. I've been volunteering as a lacrosse coach. Can you just claim the amount of hours that you've done on your application without any official documentation from your employer? If thats the case, then anyone can lie and say that they've worked any number of hours. ???</p>
<p>I did ZERO hours of Community Service and got into Berkeley, so NO Community Service IS NOT necessary. </p>
<p>I like sitting on my ass and watching TV and playing Guild Wars instead of helping poor people.</p>
<p>If you don't like volunteering there really is no point to do so just for College Apps. It would be better to do something that fits you better than just being miserable helping others if you aren't happy.</p>
<p>No, community service isn't required to get into selective schools. My daughter was admitted to Brown, Chicago, and UNC - CH (OOS) with none. Her free time was taken up with a year-round sport and music. She mentioned writing letters to the editor or to Congress when she had a chance, but that's it.</p>
<p>It might help to get in, but in the same sense that any number of things might help. For the really selective places, I would think an applicant would need something out of the ordinary in the community service arena (starting or leading a program, etc.) for it to have much of an impact, due to all the people dutifully putting in a certain minimum number of CS hours because they figure they need to for college or their schools require it.</p>
<p>If you add up all the things people say you have to do for selective schools, you probably couldn't sleep. I've always wondered if schools discount these long lists of activities and volunteering as exaggerations. Certainly people periodically ask on CC if they stand a chance of being caught if they lie on their applications about these things.</p>
<p>I agree with DianeR. It is a great activity to be passionate about, but certainly no more a necessity than sports or music, in other words, not a necessity. My S mentioned a small amt lumped into church related activities, but overall, it was a very, very minor part of his application, and he was admitted to Michigan and Columbia.</p>
<p>I haven't seen an app that asked for specific community service activities (as opposed to ECs in general). It would be a shame if they were requiring it but not saying so, but in our experieince that was not the case.</p>
<p>The only traditional community service I've done was to fulfill my Confirmation (Catholic Church) 10 hour requirement. I don't think I'm putting that on my college apps, though, because, except for being a server at one event with really friendly old people, I didn't enjoy it. I think I also worked at with my grandparents at their church's 4th of July booth, but I don't even remember what we were doing, haha. Most of the "support your community" type of things I've done out of enjoyment are attend charity events, especially concerts, to support the local music scenes. I'm not putting that down, either, but I mean... I do what I love. If I get rejected from a college I love for not working at a soup kitchen or something... that'll just be a shame.</p>