<p>Society's expectations are too high! Why does everyone expect people to do community service? Why does society expect us to help other people? Being a "good samaritan" is way more trouble than it is worth. People need to focus on themselves before they focus on others, that way people will be happier with their own lives. Think about it, low self-esteem would vanish if people thought about themselves before anyone else. The only thing that is stopping that from happening is society's expectations of people to help each other out.</p>
<p>ITT: trying to act like a bad boy</p>
<p>Society has put up high expectations because people always want to “one-up” each other, and community service became popular for college admissions. People have a natural competitiveness to gain admission to the top colleges, make the most $$$, have best grades, be “model citizen.” That’s the best explanation that I can think of @ 3:08 a.m. 
!</p>
<p>^^ No, I’m just saying what needs to be said</p>
<p>EDIT: was directed @ theReach</p>
<p>Oh, I got what you were saying, I just felt like posting that :P!! Sorry if I seemed to be arragant, mean, or defensive/trying to rebut what you said.</p>
<p>No, I was talking to theReach, not you lol. I’m talking about how society makes it seem like a moral obligation</p>
<p>Oh, my bad lol, maybe I should have gone to bed earlier like society says, “early to bed, early to rise” or something; can’t think straight! Is this how high or drunk people feel :P? Anyways, my apologies to StevenSeagal! :)</p>
<p>Helping other people makes most people feel good. It’s not society, its internal IMO.</p>
<p>ITT: unnecessary confusion</p>
<p>
Well they probably only feel good because they were conditioned by society to feel good when helping out others. People could get so many more things done if they weren’t being held back by that conditioning</p>
<p>Altruism has been around forever and exists in non-human species. It clearly is not a product of society.</p>
<p>Altruism is different. That’s when you do something for something else in return</p>
<p>Don’t do community service. I would think that if you can really do something productive with your time, it would appear better than if you do community service I would think. Someone who as an adult spends all their time helping others doesn’t make enough money to donate to the college. Though, someone who is uncharitable (which goes along-side not doing community service) probably won’t want to donate to the college.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to do community service, don’t.</p>
<p>@QwertyKey: Theoretically, that makes perfect sense and I sometimes wish that this is true. But, unless you seriously held a job/intern/research/extra learning in all of your spare time, colleges will most likely look at you strangely with little to no community service. I find it pointless to get involved if one does not possess passion, but it would be quite intersting to see if Ivies or other top 10 schools agreed with the notion of skipping community service. </p>
<p>Community service indicates that you will add to the school by giving it a good name through physical charitable work, unless you sign your name on a fat check (which carries significant weight in this world). Colleges will seek the student who will give the college the best name/improve the brand by looking at their community service or work experience.</p>
<p>I guarantee you a lot of people who do community service do it for the simple fact that it looks good on college apps.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to do community service, then don’t do it. It’s that simple.</p>
<p>community service loses it meaning nowadays. its often reluctant service with college apps in mind. but the first person to have done community service did it with genuine passion to help the world less fortunate than ourselves. that kind of kind passion gets a person into a good college, and others imitate for the wrong reason.
community service doesn’t mean we should focus on others before ourselves; it just means that we should give back to society in addition to our own selfish accomplishments.</p>
<p>No you don’t need community service. kids from my school have gotten in to HYPS and all the other ivies without listing community service as an EC. just like you don’t need a sport or music. you just need some sort of involvement in activities outside of classes and standardized tests.</p>
<p>Haha, I escaped fulfilling the community service requirement at all of my high schools (went to three). Because I switched schools so many times, I never had to do them and the graduation requirement was waived.</p>
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[QUOTE=romanigypsyeyes]
Helping other people makes most people feel good. It’s not society, its internal IMO.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I respectfully disagree.
Helping other people causes me to die a little on the inside.</p>
<p>"I guarantee you a lot of people who do community service do it for the simple fact that it looks good on college apps. "</p>
<p>In Florida, the state has a scholarship that pays $126 a credit hour for all kids who have at least a 3.5 weighted and 75 hrs of community service, so every kid in the state is basically forced to do it just for college.</p>