<p>Just because you spend a lot of time doing something doesn't mean you should include it. I spend a lot of time arguing with my parents, does that I mean I should put it on my med school apps? </p>
<p>Tutoring is NOT all the same. Tutoring your sibling=chore. Even if you don't have to do it, it's unimpressive that you helped out a family member. Tutoring an economically disadvantaged kid that you don't even know=act of kindness. Similarly, washing dishes after dinner is a chore. Washing dishes at the soup kitchen is community service. The basic act (washing dishes) is the same but the context you do it in matters.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter how many hours you spend tutoring a family member - if you list it as an EC, I think you are just asking for your application to be laughed at. That EC won't help you a bit. I agree, however, that if you want to write about it in an essay or list it as "other responsibilities", etc... that's fine. </p>
<p>This is the same situation as the guy who wanted to count working in his parent's doctor's office as "volunteering". Come on people - community service and volunteering is to benefit the community at large, not your family.</p>
<p>"At least a half hour a day during the week while he does his homework, sometimes a lot more."</p>
<p>This is called being a loving family member. It is not an EC. Unless what you're doing is something that has made a big difference in your life or your sib's life, it's not even something to write an essay about.</p>
<p>I agree with the people who think that college admissions officers would look askance at your mentioning it as an EC. Doing so would make you seem like you do everything with an eye to padding your college app.It also would make you seem as if you are doing so little outside of school that you are grasping at straws for things to include on your application.</p>
<p>I know students who were completely responsible for their sibs from the time that their sibs got out of school until their parents got home late at night after getting off work. Such students had to be told to put those responsibilities on their college application (because such responsibilities are way above the norm and also demonstrate why the students couldn't do ECs). Those extraordinary kind of responsibilities are something to put on one's app in the EC or "other" section, not the kind of thing you're describing.</p>
<p>What you're describing is a normal household responsibility like when kids are responsible for cleaning up the kitchen after dinner or cooking one meal a week or cleaning up the house on Saturday. Those are family responsibilities, not ECs.</p>
<p>I thought that you should probably mention every thing that you do, that is productive, besides sanitary and eating stuff on your application. Not as EC's or clubs or anything, but just as a way to tell them more about you. I wouldhave thought that tutoring a sibling or family member would be something that you do that is productive, something that you spend your time on, so maybe somewhere, in the right place you should mention it. Or playing chess, or drawing, maybe even reading/writing, etc. Am I wrong?</p>
<p>So I tutor my brother with a LD EVERY DAY and that doesn't count at all for anything in the college admissions process? Of course I don't do it for college, but I don't consider it "padding my application" by wanting to let them know I don't just sit around watching TV or playing video games for hours every week.</p>
<p>This is pushing it. I babysit my sister and sometimes help her with homework X hours a week... so what? I just mentioned it to my counselor who may or may not have put the information in my SSR. Not that I care too much, because trying to get credit for helping your own family is cheap.</p>
<p>I'd say the only exception would be if you got a job to help your parents pay the bills, which is something that you should write down.</p>
<p>But why should we look like that everything we put on the application has to be something we are trying to get credit for? Why not look at it as something that you want to get as much about you on it for them to be able to visualize you, and decide whether you are good for their university.</p>
<p>I visited William and Mary, and during their info session they basically said that maybe you didn't join lots of clubs, but instead you had to come home and take care of your little brother but that looking after siblings, as long as it was a large part of your life, is something worth submitting.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to get "credit" for it. I just wish it could be known that instead of laying around doing nothing, I do something productive with those X hours/week.</p>
<p>is this a responsibility that prevents you from taking on other EC's?</p>
<p>do you enjoy it? are you good at it? does it help you understand the subject matter better yourself? does it improve your relationship with your sister? could anyone else do this job as well as you do?</p>
<p>if it's an important part of your high school life, list it.</p>
<p>i like the analogy to that kid who works, unpaid, in a family business. i did this myself, every weekend and all summers, plus during school most afternoons and evenings, from elementary school thru high school. working for your parents, or tutoring a sib, especially one with LD, is not the cup of tea it may seem, especially if it means you don't have free time to do anything else. think about what skills you've learned -- think about what kind of skills a hired employee or tutor would need to excel at the same job that you've just "naturally" grown into.</p>
<p>i don't think it matter whether you address this "job" in the section for EC's or in the personal essay, or under work experience. but do address it, if it's important to you.</p>