<p>When colleges see that people went on service trips over the summer to places like Tanzania or Ecuador, do they think its a really good credential? or generic?</p>
<p>It depends on what service was done and what sort of arrangements the student made for the trip or if they just paid a fee and showed up with a suitcase.</p>
<p>I’ve heard it doesn’t look that good because it requires a lot of money to do that, and they don’t want to give rich kids an advantage because they could afford to go abroad to do these things. A lot of people want to do these kinds of things but can’t, so it’s not that much of a boost.</p>
<p>^ while I don’t share the amount of cynicism that smwhtslghtlydzed expresses, it doesn’t look BAD. Do what interests you. But you’re fooling yourself if you think it sets you apart from the crowd.</p>
<p>One kid’s trip to build huts in Mexico is no different than another’s spent lifeguarding at the community pool.</p>
<p>They don’t care about service trips at all unless you’ve been working towards them for a long time and they’re associated well with your interests.</p>
<p>If you spend a year raising money for a trip, then go on it, it’s far better than just saying you went on a service trip.</p>
<p>If you just went on a trip without preparation and it doesn’t correspond to your interests, it looks like an effort to pad your resume, rather than a genuine interest.</p>
<p>^^i’m not saying that it looks bad, just that it doesn’t look particularly good since it’s something that, generally, privileged kids do. definitely do a service trip if it’s available to you, it’s a great thing to do; i’m just saying you should do it because it sounds like a good experience, not to pad your resume.</p>
<p>what if your doing an educational trip? I for one am very interested in history and am going to peru this summer to help excavate an inca archaeological site. it is a pricey program. would this help me at all? or just be an insignificant thing i did?</p>
<p>i think it would look like a good summer activity, it just wouldn’t put you above people who stayed home and had a summer job, for instance.</p>
<p>An educational trip would just indicate that you spent your summer well. It wouldn’t be any better than volunteering or working over the summer.</p>
<p>It won’t get you into college, but it may help you develop as a global citizen and a human being. It may change your perspective on everything from your home town, to the conflicting emotions that come with service, to what you’d like to do with your life. It did all of these things for my sons. One chose to pursue international development as a result of international service projects. The experience and introspection made them both more thoughtful and interesting people which is only a plus for life (and applying to college!). BTW, they both had to earn the money to go, which is another way to be invested in the experience.</p>