<p>I organized a service project my junior year that I was/am really passionate about. I'm inclined to put it as my number one activity but am slightly reluctant that this will raise a red flag. I planned, advertised and hosted it by myself (it was one event but it took a lot of work to get everything together). It didn't have anything to do with raising money or a charity, but it did help the community. Here are my worries:
1) I spent less hours on it than any of my other extra curriculars that I listed. This was 30 hours vs. the 200 hours I spent on other activities. It was also only 1 year as opposed to the 2-4 years that my other activities are.<br>
2) It's not related to my intended major (though it is related to my overall passion)
3) It's a semi-common activity. If I said what it is (I won't, but just use your imagination), you would probably be like "oh, that doesn't sound too hard to organize." I'm afraid admissions will have this view despite the fact that I organized it by myself, as a high school kid, and it's not even close to a common activity from where I am, therefore it was really hard to publicize.<br>
4) Service projects are common. Most kids do them as parts of clubs and stuff, so putting it first might raise a red flag. Like what if some kid put NHS as his first activity and the following ones are stuff like "national dance team 4 years" and "shadowed doctor for 400 hours." Some people will think that this kid was just really passionate about NHS but most people will think that this kid thinks NHS is really prestigious and will make him look good, that's why he's putting it first. Do you think this will come off in my application?
5) It doesn't have to do with my major (it does have to do with my passion though that's evident through my other ECs).
6) It can look like I'm trying too hard to impress admissions by emphasizing my service to the community (my second activity will most definitely be a volunteering thing. I really just like volunteering though).</p>
<p>I preached to a girl literally a few a days about how she should put whatever interests her first, because in the end it doesn't matter whether x y z activities are 1 2 3 vs. 4 5 6. I'm having a hard time following my advice though because I feel like it's more applicable for people determining whether they should put a) hobby/passion all 4 years of high school or b) something related to major. This isn't related to my major and it isn't something I did extensively throughout high school. However, I feel like I put a significant amount of effort into it (effort=/=time) and I'm really proud of how it turned out and improved the community. I also feel that no other high school kid has done this before so I want to emphasize that in my application vs. risk it getting buried within all the other high school activities I have that most other kids have (president of x club, multiple honor societies). Lastly, I want to express the message that I'm really passionate about helping the community I'm currently in and not like other kids who go on mission trips to other countries or raise money for education for kids in whatever country (although these are wonderful activities to pursue and I applaud anyone who does service outside this country or for those outside this country), but I think it shows how I will be actively working towards a better community at whatever college I go to. </p>
<p>I know exactly how I want my service project to be portrayed but I don't know if it will come off this way. Does anyone have any advice. I know this is quite a lengthy post for something so trivial.</p>
<p>If you read this far I can imagine a lot of people saying, "we can't give you any advice unless you tell us what the project is." I'll give you an example that's pretty darn close. Imagine me hosting an art show for the community. That's it. Sounds easy, right? But imagine doing it without anybody's help, looking for people to actually BE in the art show, looking for people who will come, finding a place to set everything up. Doing an art show at school is one thing because you can just ask your art department to help out, but doing it for the community is another because schools are reluctant to help in non-school activities. I mean the whole point of it was to reach out to people from other schools to bring everyone together. There have also never been any art shows in your area before. It was harder than it seems, but when you saw "art show," you probably thought, "well that's not very significant at all."</p>
<p>Any comments are welcome.</p>