Paid VS Unpaid Internship: Which is better for college admissions

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello,
This summer I was an intern for National Tax Service of S.Korea (Equivalent of IRS). They were willing to pay me but I opted for the community service credit, thinking colleges will prefer that.
Is this the case? or was a fool to pick the unpaid internship over paid one?
Thanks guys,</p>

2

<p>Paid or unpaid is irrelevant. Why should they favor you who has spare money over another kid who NEEDS to earn money to help with the family.</p>

3

<p><a href=“"Those ECs are weak...."- So what's good? - Chance Me / Match Me! - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-are-weak-so-whats-good-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;
in this discussion Northstarmom was listing out ECs that colleges really care about. And she mentioned “paid internship” as a good EC. So I’m wondering if unpaid is just as good.</p>

4

<p>You overemphasize the difference between the two and overthinking this. It’s not as if there’s a shredder for “all applicants who took unpaid internships”. You’re 100% fine.</p>

<p>If they were both evidence you did something useful, then that’s fine. You could have been working at WalMart all summer. That’d be fine too, you know.</p>