<p>In the commonapp activity list I want to write about teaching my younger brother. He is 5 years younger than me and has trouble with academics and focusing. I have been teaching him for about 6 years (since i was grade 6!) everyday for at least an hour, mainly with english and science (we live in China). Teaching him for 7 hours a week is stressful and extremely time-consuming. It's one of my largest responsibilities. I would like to write this as one of my activities but my friend thinks that it wouldn't be appropriate. He says that admissions might not fully understand it (due to the 100char limit) and it might actually decrease the competitiveness of my application. </p>
<p>What does everyone else think?</p>
<p>I don’t see how an admissions person would “not fully understand it”, or how it could decrease your competitiveness. It’s very good of you to help! It seems like a good topic to me, I would go for it.</p>
<p>thanks, pinklemonade. I think what he meant was that they might not view it as significant enough to consider as a valid activity? I’m not sure, haha</p>
<p>Does anyone think that I shouldn’t put it?</p>
<p>To be honest, your friend may be right. Tutoring a younger sibling does take less discipline and effort than lets say tutoring other kids in a foster home. But since you have 10 activities to write on, i say you just put it in unless you have other activities to write on.
For me, I even put being a novice Buddhist monk in India for two weeks although i know admission team may not understand or care for Buddhism. It wouldn’t hurt your chances anyway.</p>
<p>Now that I think about it, I think that he meant that this activity isn’t “official” as in its not apart of a legitimate society or club.</p>
<p>hahaha, we posted at the same time! Thanks so much for your input!</p>
<p>No problem. Since you are from China, you are effectively my neighbor. My country is just beside yours.</p>
<p>I think that it would be great to put in. From what I have heard, colleges highly respect kids who have to work hard to help their family, either working at a part-time job to earn money for the family, or in your case, working to help the family by helping your little brother to learn. I think that the colleges will see responsibility, love of family, and being scholarly–I’d put it in!</p>