<p>Hey y'all. So I was wondering if starting charity organizations is as "impressive" today as it was in the past. I feel like so many petty high school students are doing this kind of thing just so it looks good on their application. Do admissions officers think it's a "hook" if a student founded someone kind of non-profit charity program?</p>
<p>I doubt it is a hook. Like any other EC, the more successful you are at it, the more it is worth. The same can be said about charities. I don’t think it is a good idea to start a charity just to get into colleges. The people reading applications can probably see through that. However, if you are passionate about a cause, why not start a charity? Even if you don’t get into your dream school, starting a charity sounds like a really nice experience.</p>
<p>When I’ve interviewed these kids, the question in my mind is: “Didn’t upperclassmen have any groups that did the same thing?” or “Aren’t there existing orgs/churches/charities in town that already do the same thing?” “What about them was inadequate in your mind as to make you feel compelled to reinvent the wheel?”</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong. Amongst your HS peers ARE some wonderfully community minded individuals who couldn’t give a flip what me or my college felt about their work. They had a job to do and they were gonna do it.</p>
<p>These are the kids that impress me – not the other bunch.</p>
<p>Not to be abrupt or anything, but is it possible to discern between these two kinds of kids?</p>
<p>The impressive kids are the ones who can explain why it was necessary for them to “start a charity” instead of working behalf of an existing one that already had articles of incorporation, 501(c)(3) status, name recognition, a board of directors, an established list of donors, an efficient means of disbursing funds it collected, etc., etc.</p>
<p>I know a kid who started a nonprofit that filled a very unique niche, and he won a national award for it. He ended up at a very selective college, but I doubt the nonprofit was a factor, as he was also a 4.0 recruited athlete.</p>
<p>If a nonprofit fills a unique niche, then the founder of that nonprofit should have an easy time explaining why he or she began this one instead of working on behalf of an existing charity, no?</p>
<p>Dang those petty high school student and their charitable ventures for beating you to your hook!</p>
<p>@Sikorsky - Precisely; otherwise it’s transparent r</p>
<p>It’s probably wrong to call it resume padding, but I do think it’s superfluous to create a nonprofit when similar avenues for service already exist.</p>
<p>The impressive things about a student who starts a charity are often the display of initiative, the demonstrated ability to lead a group, and the determination to drive forward to reach a big goal, often all without much adult guidance. The story is often made compelling by the student’s compassion or a sense of social justice. Those same qualities can be displayed by a student with active involvement and leadership within an existing charity.</p>
<p>It’s only impressive if you show a commitment or a passion for it; but it also has to be something that added to your resume. If you have this big charity but poor grades and lack in other areas, that might lead the admissions committee to question why you took on something you couldn’t handle. On the other hand, it could make for great essays and interview topics. I know a guy who started a nonprofit with his 2 siblings. He goes to Yale now. But he also had a great gpa, greater test scores, and other extra-curriculars that he was involved in to make him a very well rounded student.</p>
<p>You don’t need to “start a charity” to roll up your sleeves and commit to doing consistent good for a cause, organization or program. Most don’t run “a big charity” on their own. They throw a fundraiser, usually something fun. Many don’t ever get involved in the trenches. They raise a few bucks, send it off. Not the same.</p>
<p>To start a charity has a high value to the community and that should be the sole objective of it. If you want to start a charity in order to help your school application, you are barking at the wrong tree. The adcoms are not stupid. If someone start a charity out of nothing and has no previous passion on anything along the line, they know what is going on. The same for volunteering/community service. It is too often to see students jumping in right before senior year and do 100 or so hours of community service when they are filling up applications. That would definitely not show any passion at all.</p>
<p>Is it possible for adcom to not like a student as much because he or she started a seemingly petty and useless charity?</p>
<p>If it appears that the charitable organization was simply an attempt to impress the admissions people, and has no hope of surviving after the student graduates, I would guess that the adcom person would view the student more negatively. I would question the student’s character - s/he is using the needy rather than helping them.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it if was a one-time fundraiser or impressive enough awareness campaign, that might stand out. But it would have to be well-thought out and organized, not a flash-in-the-pan thing to draw attention to the student rather than the recipients.</p>
<p>I have a nephew that found a charity foundation in junior year just for the sake of school application and he obviously had no passion in it at all. He had tons of volunteering hours in public library and he even did a summer research in a famous research hospital right before senior year (all for the purpose of school application). He had GPA 4.0, very rigorous course load, and 2300+ SAT. He was only accepted by all 4 UCs he applied in state and rejected from all prestigious schools on the list. These are very typically cases around here at cc that students would do anything to boost their chance without knowing the true meaning behind each activity. These EC items are not for a check list for admission. You do need to bundle them very well to show your passion and be yourself. Otherwise, they will all look down on you.</p>
<p>I think that what’s possible, kiwis, is for an admissions committee to think an applicant worried way too much about what an admissions committee would think, and way too little about conducting his or her life in a way that was not only personally fulfilling but also beneficial to others.</p>
<p>When posters on College Confidential keep coming back with penny-ante questions about “what ad coms will think,” I worry that they’re missing the big picture in exactly that way.</p>
<p>To answer your question, I don’t think it’s far fetched to suppose that the admissions committee of a selective university or college might be less than impressed with, and suspicious of the motives of, an applicant who “started a non-profit” when he or she could have done more good for more people by working with an already established charity.</p>
<p>kimiwsarecool I think this is a tough crowd. But you led them on when you said it would be “just to look good on an application”. </p>
<p>I will agree with the previous posts that adcoms can smell insincerity. If they think you are being phony you will loose them (and your chance for admission) quickly.</p>
<p>But if by starting a charity you mean finding a need in your community, passionately working to solve it, and rallying others to help you that’s exactly what they are looking for. Put your heart into it and build a story around it and it will stand on its on, even if it isn’t formally incorporated.</p>
<p>I’m not asking for myself. I go to a competitive school where people are constantly looking for resume padders, and this includes starting “charitable organizations.” I will admit that I myself worked with a couple people to start a group, but it is lowkey and I will probably not even mention it on my resume.
I think it’s all phony, to be frank, and billcsho’s post shows that adcoms can tell.</p>