“… Students’ commitment to volunteerism is not only good for their communities, but it is also a great boost to their college applications. Although SAT scores and GPA are still the two most important criteria impacting college acceptances and scholarship awards, community service is of growing importance.” …
Yes it is. But I am skeptical about its importance to students’ college application. They should do these if it’s in their hearts/minds to do so but when you do something that 98% of others are doing, how does that distinguish you? It doesn’t – and mindless HS students continue in the herd mentality that voluntarism or community service is required.
It’s simply not a requirement and many students submit distinguished applications w/o any or very little vol/comm svc hours.
Indeed, a fellow interviewer for my alma mater, a judge, bemoans the fact that kids believe their hours are such a badge. He says: “Community service? I sentence people to community service!”
I’m not trying to decrease kids’ involvement – but they need to know that it’s just not that special. At all. It wasn’t when I applied to colleges 30 years ago. Hasn’t changed since.
@T26E4 , I know that is true for some colleges, but there are many very selective colleges that consider volunteering in their selection process. And even if they don’t, I think it’s important for my kids to volunteer. Yes, I force my kids to volunteer, and I don’t care if they like it or not, and I don’t care if it does help pad their app. There are too many obvious benefits to ignore. Plus, my D was able to use her volunteer coordinator as a job reference and it helped her land her first job. Given all the advantages it offers, I am more surprised that not every college considers it. And of course, I am not talking about all kids, because there are many kids that can’t volunteer for all kinds of reasons. But the kid with no good reason should be volunteering for sure.
@Lindagaf I wholeheartedly agree with your well-thought out reasons. I practice the same for my household and was very proud of my sophomore when she asked to join a rather time-consuming service project at her school despite her extensive athletic commitments.
I see that my post may seem that I have a bent against kids’ getting involved. Actually, I don’t. What I want to diminish is the false expectation or even false pride that kids seem to develop that “my 200 hours are better than your 40 hours” mindset – that voluntarism boils down to nothing but another tool to bludgeon the college admissions officers.
I suppose even falsely motivated service is better than no service. I agree.