<p>OK, so my big EC outside of baseball is Habitat for Humanity. Up until now I have maybe 40 hours (plus fundraising) total, but for the past year my chapter/spanish class has been planning a trip to Costa Rica, in which we will be building a school for underprivelaged kids (these kids walk like 2-3 miles to school everyday, and as of now their school is a one room shack). This won't happen until February break however, long after I've applied. I realize it's a major EC (because we've been diong the planning, fundraising etc.), but it won't have actually happened until I've applied. How do I go about putting this on my app? Do I tell them it's happening, but hasn't happened yet? Is there even room on an app for that?</p>
<p>well first off 40 hours isn't that much volunteering. second off be careful of how you make this trip sound. I know a lot of college admissions people get sick of hearing about the "My trip to third world country where I helped out poor people " because they come off more like "my trip where mommy and daddy spent thousands and thousands of dollars so i could go pour an orphan a bowl of soup then go tanning and snorkeling at the resort we're staying at" so i'd make sure you show how much work and charity it is and how it is not a vacation at all. I think it'll look good that it's with your spanish class cause that's like a 2nd reason for going in itself.</p>
<p>Yea, the 40 hours is from like 10 different weekends (because in jersey we can't really build in the winter, plus there's limited opportunities), but we've done fundraising a lot. </p>
<p>No, this trip is going to be anything but what you made it sound like lol, this is a legitimate effort, like it's our school going down and building another school for them (a small one, but a school nonetheless). It's been in the planning for a while and I'm one of the major coordinators, but it wont be done before I apply, that's why I'm worried. It's completely legitimate though...but will it come off hokey?</p>
<p>i think if you wrote an essay about how much work you've put into it and how you're really anticipating it because of how much it means to you then it will really show a dedicated and contributing side of you and i think that would be good. so you could write an essay about why you love habitat and talk about how you've been planning about this trip and what it means to you. Essays aren't really meant so that the colleges can learn about things you do, you have to twist them a little bit so it shows what type of a person you are and what you like.</p>