<p>There's an article in the sunday styles section of the NYT about summer studies for college-bound juniors. Link, anyone?</p>
<p>I think this is it:</p>
<p>anyone else think this is hyperbole?
Volunteerism is also on the rise. Thirty-four percent of high school seniors performed community service at least once a month in 2001, a jump from 24 percent in 1980, according to the Education Department. Ten percent volunteered on a weekly basis. For the students, the urgency to fit ever more into their lives, right through summer, may leave some feeling they have skipped, or at least postponed, the lighter, playful side of adolescence.</p>
<p>O. M. G.
34 % of students volunteered once a MONTH!</p>
<p>"The carefree feeling of being young, I guess I'm sort of hoping that will come out in college," said Kristen Liu, a busy 17-year-old at the Bard High School Early College in Manhattan. Her summer plans include a trip to Washington to work on reproductive-rights issues, followed by six weeks in Beijing as a volunteer in a hospital.</p>
<p>Or she could stay in Manhattan instead of traveling and spend her volunteer hours running errands for her elderly neighbor.</p>
<p>When I was in junior high I worked picking strawberries to earn money for school clothes.
WHen I was in high school I baby sat for the same.
Students may feel "pressured" to do something that is impressive on an app, but there are choices.</p>
<p>My oldest- volunteered at a residential camp as a riding instructor in training for a month every summer.
Horses, wooded island in Puget Sound, no parents, sounds like a pretty tough life to me.
Her sister is going to have to take one month of summer school math- but that is because in previous years it wasn't offered or I didn't make her take it, she is finally going to have to get caught up.
However it is only half the day- she will have the other half to moan.
She is also planning on volunteering as a riding instructor in training for the same residential camp- so her sister must not have been explicit enough with her horror stories!</p>
<p>I think to have an opportunity to travel and get a peek into another world sounds great- but I don't get this "poor me- my parents are spending $7,000 to send me to Cambodia to think about * poor people* "</p>
<p>Personally if you want my opinion as how this relates to college admissions
If you want to do this type of thing- and are motivated because you are interested- not because of adding to application- then do it.
But it isn't necessarily going to give anymore weight than a student who worked at Macdonalds to save for college.</p>
<p>I don't think it is hypberole, but I suspect it applies to a small sample of the applicant pool: basically, applicants to top-tier schools with wide name recognition who come from privileged, densely populated areas. The ground rules do seem to have changed even in the last five years or so and this kind of manufactured summer productivity, combined with pre-semester AP work, seems to be the norm. It's iffy to be a camp counselor in New England even if you love it--too familiar, too tame, even if you do work twelve hour days and have real responsibility..It's perceived as better in some circles to have gone to Honduras to build houses, even if you paid thousands of dollars for the chance to do this community service. </p>
<p>I don't think it applies so much outside the affluent suburbs and cities, wehre applicants may have other things to set them apart--and there just aren't so many to start with. but the NY Times is writing for a very specific and very affluent audience, and this is not an exaggeration in NY TImes world. It is in keeping with the lead qarticle in today's real estate section where they announce with amazement that you can in fact get a nice one bedroom apartment in the city for about $1,100 a month--just not in Manhattan, where a sweater supposedly costs that much. I have been reading the NY Times my entire adult life and have lived in vrious comfortable parts of the metro area all that time, and I sometimes think I live on another socioeconomic planet from the people the Times thinks it is writing for lately.</p>
<p>Harvard adcom's echo the NYT article. In "Time Out or Burn Out for the Next Generation" by William Fitzsimmons, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Harvard College; Marlyn McGrath Lewis, Director of Admissions, Harvard College; Charles Ducey, Director of the Bureau of Study Counsel, Harvard University, they give their own advice, plus advice from current students:</p>
<p>"For the years during high school, here is some of the advice students have offered: .....Bring summer back. Summer need not be totally consumed by highly structured programs, such as summer schools, travel programs, or athletic camps. While such activities can be wonderful in many ways, they can also add to stress by assembling "super peers" who set nearly impossible standards. Activities in which one can develop at ones own pace can be much more pleasant and helpful. An old-fashioned summer job that provides a contrast to the school year or allows students to meet others of differing backgrounds, ages, and life experiences is often invaluable in providing psychological downtime and a window on future possibilities. Students need ample free time to reflect, to recreate (i.e., to "re-create" themselves without the driving pressure to achieve as an influence), and to gather strength for the school year ahead. "</p>
<p>"But it isn't necessarily going to give anymore weight than a student who worked at Macdonalds to save for college."</p>
<p>I think you're wrong. Heck, just to get into the National Honor Society in our HS requires a lot more community service than it used to. Consequently, my son who actually does have to work both days on weekends, will not be eligible this school year. He was carrying a load of 6 AP's this year and last (all honors and an AP the other years which is the maximum possible at our HS), has been a three sport athlete (including captain) all four years, and was involved in other school activities every year including this year, such as Student Senate. But those involvments don't count toward the NHS service requirement. Of course, in addition to working on college applications in the fall, in the spring he applied for a gizillion scholarships because we need the money. Almost every single one required an essay, and many required research on topics such as population growth, anti-terrorism efforts, and foreign policy. When was he supposed to volunteer?</p>
<p>None of the top students in his HS have worked during school except for him. It's pretty darn tough to work, still carry well an advanced course load, and demonstrate the necessary passion in your EC's (unless volunteering is your main EC). Adding in volunteering for an athlete like my son would require a reduction in an already limited sleep schedule--like from 4 hours down to 2. If I cared about National Honor Society, I'd make a stink about how it discriminates against the lower and lower middle class and against athletes, but I don't care that much.</p>
<p>Still, we noticed that the girl who got into several schools my son didn't, despite not having better scores or GPA or being a URM like he is, (and in case you think it was the interview, I would doubt it since she's geeky and lacks social skills), did do more community service. I think it does matter to colleges. They say it does in their information sessions.</p>
<p>in our experience- honor society although a nice thing- didn't make a difference in college acceptance</p>
<p>My daughter did do more community servce than typical- she had 2000 hours at high school graduation.
BUt her hours were completed a few blocks from our home. If your purpose is to "give back" to the community, you don't need to spend thousands of dollars and travel overseas to do so.</p>
<p>S2 was not in NHS. He was not eligible as a sophomore, and did not apply as a junior since he was already applying to colleges. Made zippo difference.</p>
<p>I don't think there is any one right way to have a productive summer. For some students, working at a well paying job is a necessity. For others their resources will allow them to pursue demonstrated interests or perhaps explore new ones. Summer volunteer work programs, can be fine, as long as the student has shown that there is a commitment to volunteering(to whatever degree possible )during the school year as well. For some students, it's true that there just aren't enough hours in the day to do it all , however, there should be evidence that this is not an isolated attempt to make an app look good! </p>
<p>Anedotally, there were two exceptionally bright kids at our HS who never got the mandatory number of volunteer hours to make NHS due to fulltime outside weekend employment plus all consuming sports/club type of activities during the week. It's an understatement to say that the lack of NHS as well as the summer/weekend employment had no negative impact for these two at college admissions time. Each got into very selective schools and were offered generous merit and financial aid as well. On the other hand, there are plenty of kids in this area who also go on the (expensive) supervised academic or volunteer programs for part of the summer and quite honestly, as long as these were kids who were showing their passion and dedication to service in other ways, during the year as well, it didn't seem to hurt them at admissions time either. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that you certainly don't have to spend money to have a productive summer. You can volunteer right in your hometown or around the world. You can work, or take classes, but the main idea seems to be to make use of the time. I really think the schools just want to see students who make the most of the resources that they do have, follow their interests and can put together an application in which no activity is done in a vacuum or for the purposes of an application.</p>
<p>"The bottom line is that you certainly don't have to spend money to have a productive summer." You can haunt your local free public library and read a ton of good books.</p>
<p>NHS is the least significant of high schools honors, and I'd agree that its absence makes no difference for college admission. My point in mentioning NHS was that community service has become very important in our value system, since it is now necessary to demonstrate it in order to achieve the most generic of honors (like NHS).</p>
<p>Furthermore, most national and local scholarships require volunteerism too. Why? Community service is a wonderful thing, but should it have become so closely tied to academics? It doesn't make one scholarly. Actually, community service doesn't mean as much as it used to, now that almost every good student is doing it. Kids who have little interest in volunteering feel they must anyway or they won't get into a good college. In other words, in the past seeing it on an application may have indicated that the student had a genuine interest in and compassion for others. Now, who knows?</p>
<p>The GFG:</p>
<p>At a Stanford admission session, a parent asked about ECs for a child who basically had one--music. The adrep suggested that this one EC could fulfill different criteria: learning outside school, performing and community service if the student tutored or if the performances were given to the general public. </p>
<p>Adcoms generally also count working, including flipping hamburgers, as sigificant ECs (you don't have to like flipping hamburgers--but doing so is a significant commitment of time as well as an indicator of family income). Many families erroneously think that ECs have to lead to awards, that they have to be school-based, that students have to be passionate about them, and so on and so forth. In fact, one of the things adcoms look for is a quality of stik-to-it-ness that applicants with gazillions ECs on their resumes probably do not have. So if a student has to work after school, I would highlight it under ECs. No student should have to be apologetic about working.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My daughter did do more community servce than typical- she had 2000 hours at high school graduation. But her hours were completed a few blocks from our home. If your purpose is to "give back" to the community, you don't need to spend thousands of dollars and travel overseas to do so.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Let the church say Amen! Ek I totally agree with where you are coming from. I would be skeptical about looking at community service opportunities that are bought and paid for where there are so many in need of help right in your own back yard.</p>
<p>The more I read these different threads the happier I am that my child attended a school where the focus was on collaborate education, there was no ranking, no weighted gpas, no NHS, and people did community service because it was the right thing to do in giving back to the community in which one lives and works in and did not have to worry about it as a requirement for getting into college or NHS. Not having NHS had no bearing on where she and her classmates ended up for college.</p>
<p>For my D community service was something that she has done all of her life, becasue I have always stressed to her to those whom much has been given much is required. While we are by no stretch of the imagination well off , I have always reminded D that she lives better than a lot of people and she soes have a responsibility to give back, because you can never be blessed until you are a blessing to others. </p>
<p>I felt that this was an important lesson for her to carry thorugh out her lifeand it did not matter what school you went to or how much money you had if your were not really successful as a person if you lacked compassion and empathyfor those less fortunate. We never gave it a thought of how it would look on the college applications.</p>
<p>
[quote]
In fact, one of the things adcoms look for is a quality of stik-to-it-ness that applicants with gazillions ECs on their resumes probably do not have. So if a student has to work after school, I would highlight it under ECs. No student should have to be apologetic about working.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>marite,</p>
<p>Good point. In addition to EC's in and outside of school , my d worked an afterschool job during all 4 years of high school and every summer.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Furthermore, most national and local scholarships require volunteerism too. Why? Community service is a wonderful thing, but should it have become so closely tied to academics?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I have wondered about this, too. Our ds will have done a few community service things during his h.s. years (mission trips with church, Katrina relief here in Houston, etc.), but he is not doing a regular, ongoing comm. serv. that will lead to a lot of hours. </p>
<p>He is a rising junior, and I have wondered if he should pursue this, but there is really no way. He has too many EC things going on already, and we have an agricultural business that we need his help on (not that we <em>get</em> a lot of his help, but we do get some, and we do need it).</p>
<p>I think when it comes to college admissions it won't hurt so much, but scholarships are what I am concerned about. It seems that all the big scholarships these days have a focus on community service, and the competition is pretty stiff to get them.</p>
<p>marite says: "Adcoms generally also count working, including flipping hamburgers, as sigificant ECs."</p>
<p>Employment may count as an EC, but working does NOT count as community service/volunteerism. And timely's right about the scholarship focus on service. For many scholarships there are assigned points to each aspect of the application: academics, community service, and often something specific to the application like Americanism, or dedication to saving the environment, etc. Of course, there are many scholarships for which volunteerism is not necessary; these are the ones that are based on an essay.</p>
<p>I can also say that over half of the local scholarships advertised through our high school have a required community service component. Others just want a list of EC's. My S did not bother applying to the former, saying that he had no chance when there are kids with a billion hours of service.</p>
<p>My D1 and D2 made NHS in sophomore years...and they worked their tails off doing community service, church stuff like raking yards of elderly people...etc...scholarship, character, leadership, service...weekly trips to nursing homes, meals meals meals etc....and D1 did NOT get into schools her classmates w/o NHS did....Yes it matters on a personal level and respect in the community...NO on a college basis...</p>
<p>it all boils down to SAT, cum...AND connections.....PERIOD</p>
<p>GFG:</p>
<p>I stand corrected. I was focusing only on admissions. You are right that lots of scholarships focus on community service. It does shortchanged the kids who need those scholarships the most, those who are working to make ends meet and thus cannot afford time to do community service.</p>
<p>"It's iffy to be a camp counselor in New England even if you love it--too familiar, too tame, even if you do work twelve hour days and have real responsibility."</p>
<p>Hmmm... not so in our case. My kids both picked ECs and community service activities that they enjoyed - participating in them all ten months per year throughout high school. </p>
<p>However, summers were their own. They were fortunate in that we were able to send them to summer camp when they were younger, and, once old enough, they participated in leadership training programs in their camps and became counselors. And yes, those twelve hour days - actually, twenty-four hour days - caring for often homesick children were not easy. They both sure learned a lot from their experiences as counselors - and they loved every minute of it. </p>
<p>They were lucky that their AP courses did not require summer work. Unfortunately, they probably had to do more work during the school year without a "head-start" but were glad that they had a break from formal schoolwork during the summer months.</p>
<p>They did nothing academic or community service based to "get into college" during any summer of their lives ... instead, they were just kids - having fun, assuming responsiblity for and being role models to younger children - and reading good books in their spare time.</p>
<p>Yes, they were fortunate in being able to do this. And yes, they more than made up for it the other ten months per year, averaging a few hours of sleep per night (which drove me crazy) with the toughest courses and many ECs and community service activities which they were dedicated to.</p>
<p>And no, the lack of summer "achievement" didn't hurt them one iota in college admissions.</p>
<p>asI have posted before- and I apparently will do again ;)
my daughter is a BRWK- was on honor roll once in either 8th or 9th grade.No AP tests taken- No AP classes offered at her school.
Graduated with a 3.30 GPA SAT good on verbal- not so good in math. In fact she has quite a severe math and processing speed disability.
She did have her 2000 hr pin from the Woodland Park Zoo volunteer corps when she graduated high school- she started in the pony unit when she was 12. Worked for us- she got to spend summers and weekends shoveling pony poop, and she learned how to ride , handle money and customers ( for the rides) on top of it.
She was lucky to have that opportunity so free and so close- it may have stood out in the pile of college applications, because she was admitted to all her schools, despite her BWRK status and her high financial need.</p>
<p>BUt I have read about a lot of others on these boards- who have equal instances to show what they have learned without exotic volunteer opportunities.</p>
<p>Kids whose family livelihood depends on everyone working in their restaurant. That is going to stand out, not many people work with their family,and it can be a great chance to learn from each other.</p>
<p>Someone who has to work at whatever they can get- may not sound impressive to some- but a job at Starbucks for example- they are learning skills that will serve them well in college- and show that they can really benefit from their time there.</p>
<p>Many kids who are working, aren't just working for money to buy a fancy car- or pay for goodies, they may be saving for college- helping with the family expenses or even just because they want to stay busy.</p>
<p>I understand that there seems to be a subculture of very high earning- high expectations parents who raise children with equally high expectations of their opportunities. I understand that they may feel to "compete" they have to do what the neighbors are doing, whether it is right for them or not.
It shouldn't be about - what they think it will take to get into Yale- it should be about * finding the good fit*</p>
<p>Thats what we did & D was admitted to all the schools she applied- some with merit money- the school she graduated from last month- with a degree in biology, didn't have merit but it had good need based aid- even though she didn't have unbelievable grades, scores or awards.</p>
<p>I admit Reed College has probably gotten a tad more competitive since she entered as a freshman as it has gotten lots of publicity in the past few years-but I would bet that they still take other things into consideration, than lists of achievements .</p>
<p>Re scholarships
She had a small scholarship from the local Rotary club- that was it for community service based awards
If I remember right, she also won some money for an essay that was published in a guide for GLBT students.
But other than that- frankly all her money was need based from her college.</p>