<p>Would this program boost my chances to get into college?</p>
<p>It is a month in Ghana helping building schools and i will be the president of this club during the schoolyear. <a href="http://www.globalroutes.org/high_school/info_ghana.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.globalroutes.org/high_school/info_ghana.html</a></p>
<p>Is getting into college your main reason to go there?</p>
<p>not reallly i already have a very solid app</p>
<p>not only i cink it would be good but i love other people and i am going to go with my friends to experience a new culture. therefore it will help me with my essay too to write about my experience</p>
<p>Going oversea regardlesss of your intentions looks fishy. Are there no problems in America?</p>
<p>but what if i really want to experience a developint country</p>
<p>first
[quote]
Would this program boost my chances to get into college
[/quote]
then
[quote]
it would be good but i love other people and i am going to go with my friends to experience a new culture. therefore it will help me with my essay too to write about my experience
[/quote]
</p>
<p>are u going there for the experience, or are u doing it for college?</p>
<p>besides, it costs like around 4000 bucks to pay for the program.</p>
<p>better would be, say, raising enough money over the summer to finance the construction of a school IN ghana.</p>
<p>I thought about this idea around a year ago as well. I was boasting to my friends that I'm gonna help people in Kenya the next summer. Later, thought about it, and found the disposition to be quite naive. </p>
<p>I mean, I could fullfill the exact same purpose of working and helping others just by cleaning up and recycling litter in my own little neighborhood, or lending a helping hand at the weekly after school daycare centre at the local elementary. It's not really about being different. It's about making a difference.</p>
<p>Truth be told I always wanted to do one of those volunteer programs in Costa Rica or whatever all summer long...just the idea of working closely with friends in an amazing new environment, learning Spanish...very appealing. </p>
<p>But then I thought about all the people who needed my help here, and how the money those kind of programs cost could better be used as a donation. Sure, it would be fun and a great experience. But if you are really concerned about helping people, I think you could really find a better use for 4,000 dollars...</p>
<p>it would look good. even if you did it with the worst intentions it would still look good.</p>
<p>I've heard MANY college admissions officers say that these kinds of summers abroad turn them off--they are more impressed by a student who does service in his or her own community, humble as that community may be. Going overseas just shows you have $ and that you aren't really interested in helping your own community.
But I'm not trying to be mean here. It sounds like a great experience and I hope you enjoy it.</p>
<p>Although it definitely looks good - you have to remember that you have to PAY to do it. The best summer programs have no or very small fees.</p>
<p>I completely agree MallomarCookie- I have a friend who does this thing at stanford for 4 weeks and it costs him $4000+. Honestly.</p>
<p>oh wow, i wish i could go to africa...
i've been to el salvador twice to do the same type of thing. i don't care if it sounds cliche (and i'm not writing my essay about it anyway...)--it is seriously the most rewarding thing you could ever do at our age.</p>
<p>and, meow360, many people would agree with your point, but i think that it's a bit too isolationist. yes, we have problems in america, but that doesn't make the rest of the world any less important. we're all people, no matter where we live, and we're all in need in some way.</p>
<p>While I don't really condone going overseas to "help" soley to appeal to colleges, I fail to see how that hurts you. I mean, if you have money and wants to go overseas to help people who are starving, how does that mean you're not willing to help your own community? Hell, if you have money to do it, perhaps the biggest problem your community faces is a broken DVD player in somebody's Mercedes, or the neighbor's Mexican gardener got sick and needs somebody to trim the specially imported, multicolored roses.</p>
<p>Seriously, to claim that picking up some garbage in a place where there's are corporations and servicement doing the same thing is just as important as building schools in places with 80% illiteracy and 90% poverty rate is, well, quite illogical.</p>
<p>amen to that.</p>
<p>I don't see how colleges can hold the fact that you want to experience a new culture against you, even if you do have to pay. Sure, there are problems in the US, but to actually be turned OFF that you spent time in another country? That just doesn't make sense to me.</p>