This summer I am teaching/volunteering abroad in a 3rd world country that has recently been hit by an earthquake.
By writing this on my application, how will it help/hurt my chances for colleges? (I’m aiming for UCLA)
And is this considered to be a good extracurricular that admissions officers will really take into account or just something average that they will overlook?
Volunteering/ community service abroad looks really contrived and smacking of privilege, because there are PLENTY of community service opportunities in YOUR OWN community, and only kids with parents who can foot the bill can afford to travel to a foreign country.
A number of AdComms will roll their eyes and think:
another “poverty tourism” trip…
Edit: More than just plain old community service, I am teaching English to kids in poverty filled areas and also I am going by means of a non profit organization having been granted the opportunity not just some lavish or tourist type trip. Privilege is out of the question in that my parents combined income is lower than 80k
Much better.
Definitely make sure to mention that a non-profit is sending you, to make it clear that rich parents are not funding this to pad your resume, then it’ll look impressive.
It think ECs like this are good if they fit the overall profile of an applicant. I know a student with an interest in immigration and a lot of local volunteering working with immigrants. She also did volunteer in one of the relevant countries. She is accepted at a LAC and the interview she had there was mostly based on her experiences volunteering in that country.
Balance this good will with efforts in your own community, the sort where you roll up your sleeves and work directly with the needy here, too. How long is this trip? What can you really accomplish? You have some ‘expertise’ in teaching English or you’ll be one of the kids who just talks and plays?
Good service over time trumps the one shiny trip.
Average.
Honestly, I think that if it were the year 2005, this would have looked impressive. Not as many kids did these community service trips abroad. The problem is that recently, TONS of people do this, with the false idea that it will help their application.
Colleges hate this type of stuff as an essay topic. I would instead list it as your top activity in the common app because it is impressive and maybe add more info under the additional info section.
You should volunteer only if you 'd want to do so even if you were not going to list the activity. Then I’d not list it but feel good about it if you are really doing some good. Other posters are correct in noting that it is the kind of thing that is not viewed as notable or as a positive on an application . The reasons for that are obvious. Usually the student lacks specific skills that are really needed in that impoverished or decimated town. The town would usually benefit more from straight forward donations that equal the amount of money being spent to get the student to the town and to house the student. So if the goal was really to help that town as much as possible, and if the most good would have come from donating money, you’d simply have donated the money. And if that wasn’t the goal, what was the goal? That leads to a conclusion that the goal was to look charitable to colleges. So, the goal is really to benefit the student and not the people in the town. And benefiting from the hardships of others is never viewed in a positive light.
Students at our school were told not to write about this kind of service on their application. Fine to talk about it in an interview but it is not considered "impressive " nor does it say anything about you. The exception is if it ties into something that is bigger and defines you on your app. (I.e., the example above about immigration issues).