I have a friend who grew up in India with his American parents doing Christian Mission work there and transferred to a US high school second semester of Junior year, and so he was involved with Missionary activities and volunteer work so on. He has a lot of other volunteer work & writing, etc as ECs besides this, so he’s wondering if he should even include the Mission work in his application.
He wonders if admissions officers at Ivy leagues will like it or not, and which way any religious bias may go at these schools.
An example for clarity:
He worked on helping rehabilitate people after the “Hudhud Cyclone” in 2014. He’s still going to tell them about the work, only perhaps not the fact that this was part of a mission project, should that seem less impressive or desirable.
Why does he have to describe what his parents do for a living? His parents aren’t applying for admission. Why does he have to mention the religious affiliation of the community service activities?
My kids grew up overseas. In their essays they simply mentioned that they lived overseas because of parent’s job.
If “mission work” is important to him, he shouldn’t hide it. Depending on what he did -hounding people to convert them vs. charitable work, or if the charity required conversion before any help was provided vs. charitable actions no strings attached - it’d be seen as a positive or a negative and that would obviously affect his list. Selective colleges are NOT against people of faith, provided that faith translates into good actions (however that is defined or judged within the creed). Mission work where, for instance, care is withheld unless a person converts, is NOT well-considered - and yes that does exist in case you’re wondering. In addition, since this matters to him, he shouldn’t stop now that he’s in the US - Americans also are in dire need of help. His experience in charitable actions should be used where he is now.