<p>My daughter is interested in a trip with Global Leadership Adventures this summer to India as a way to differentiate herself on her college applications. Aside from her desperately wanting to go abroad, do these types of programs offer any kind of advantage on college admittance? I'm a natural-born skeptic. I've read that the kids have the best experience of their lives, but I'm interested in whether it helped them with college admittance. Anyone with experience in this area?</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be my first choice and it’s pretty transparently a way to boost a resume. However, I’m sure many kids have gotten something out of it and certainly an enjoyable way to spend a few weeks. The best way to help with college apps is for the student to find something meaningful for them. Frankly, a job or volunteering would have about the same impact.</p>
<p>My kids both took a gap year, but it wasnt for a resume boost but to take time off from the classroom.
( although as it turned out, they both spent time in a classroom anyway, although they were the ones in the front!). 
I agree that domestic work, either paid or volunteer will fill the purpose of a resume boost, but it should be done because they are interested in it. It wont do a thing if it is padding.</p>
<p>Colleges are savvy about these kinds of programs. Go ahead and send your daughter if she wants to go, and if you think she’ll gain something from it.Just don’t count on this program to boost her college chances much. Well-to-do kids have been going on building-houses-for-people-in-3rd-world-countries trips for decades. A friend who used to be in admissions at an elite East Coast LAC told me she’d roll her eyes a bit when she saw something like this on an application. “Habitat for Humanity” in the hood would have been more impressive!" she’d laugh. </p>
<p>Poor countries have enough inexpensive labor around that the labor from rich country high school students provides little value in terms of doing charitable works there. The money spent on airfare for the rich country high school students would be better spent on just hiring local labor for whatever needs to be done.</p>
<p>Of course you’re right, UCB. Which is why these programs are considered somewhat suspect. I know a private school in the Bay Area that sent lots of its kids to build houses for people in Costa Rica. Totally a resume building thing. Not an inexpensive one at that. Of course, none of these kids would have been caught dead helping to build houses for poor people next door in Oakland. Not nearly glamorous enough. And the beaches aren’t as nice either </p>
<p>In general, it seems that traveling to a poor country to donate labor makes little sense unless you have useful skills which are rare or unavailable in the recipient country. Of course, we know that high school students are typically at the bottom end of the skill levels among people capable of work.</p>
<p>I would actually disagree with the above. Friendships were formed and wisdom was transmitted.
Traveling centers some people and it opens their heart.
The months my daughter spent in India were very difficult for me & H, ( as she was just 18, & communication was very spotty), but for D, they brought her amazing experiences and lessons and she is further on her path at 23 than I was along mine at 43.</p>
<p>I would actually disagree with the above. Friendships were formed and wisdom was transmitted.
Traveling centers some people and it opens their heart.
The months my daughter spent in India were very difficult for me & H, ( as she was just 18, & communication was very spotty), but for D, they brought her amazing experiences and lessons and she is further on her path at 23 than I was along mine at 43.</p>
<p>Travel is often quite valuable for the traveler.</p>
<p>But whether travel for the purpose of donating labor for charitable purposes is effective in a charitable sense is a different matter.</p>
<p>We’re talking about young people who still have very few skills to share with those they’re volunteering among. If we’d be talking about nurses or accountants or engineers, it’d be a different discussion. It would also be a different discussion if the trip wasn’t being pitched as a college-admissions booster. </p>
<p>Some kids do have an impact on these intl trips- but they are usually kids with established drives- that pre-med who works for a clinic in a 3rd world country, actually sweats long hours in the pits alongside other med professionals. Or the kids building solar installations or doing research. Not the kid who works a few hours, but spends a big part of the trip as a tourist. Sometimes the cost of a program and the comfy arrangements are a giveaway. </p>
<p>Many elite private schools push this to boost the applications of their students. Wealthy parents can afford these trips. When I see these types of items in the applications for a flagship university honors college I make an attempt to determine how “organic” the trip is. One trip to Costa rica or Hawaii (not kidding about that last one) with no other evidence of empathy for or service to the poor/disadvantaged usually does get the applicant many “points”. We’re pretty well seasoned to look for this. However, there are benefits resulting from travel. The biggest might be an essay topic</p>
<p>Greece. Can you believe it. Wasn’t earthquake recovery. </p>
<p>correction
no other evidence of empathy for or service to the poor/disadvantaged usually does NOT get the applicant many “points”</p>
<p>typing on a phone increases my errors 10-fold lol</p>
<p>My D did a couple of trips with Rustic Pathways. They were not pitched as college admissions boosters, nor did she take them for that reason. The experience of travel abroad had several benefits for her, as she met kids from many other countries and saw parts of the world she may never have seen otherwise. They were also not service to people, but endangered species. And yes, they were expensive, but she has doting grandparents with deep pockets.</p>
<p>Lovely grandparents, lucky daughter. My own kids also traveled and did some volunteer-type work while overseas. But in truth, their contribution wasn’t earth shaking. The trips, however, were life-changing, and that was the idea in the first place. </p>
<p>My d went to Costa Rica and Ecuador/Galapagos with GLA. It wasn’t for any kind of college boost, and I don’t even know she put it on any of her apps, probably just under volunteering, but it was the last on the list as we knew it wasn’t viewed as anything substantial. However, it was absolutely life changing for her and she loved those trips. She’s still in touch with the group from the Galapagos, and I believe any traveling someone can do outside the mainstream is valuable. It helped her gain more of a world view and helped mature her outside her teenage centric life.</p>
<p>ALong with the “how sports are like real life” essays as a sure way to bore an admissions officer, so goes the “summer abroad” essay, esp. based on a managed program. I.e., it won’t help with admissions. </p>
<p>However, a few points. First, she could benefit from it personally, so looking at it as an investment might not be the right way. Besides, she will have fun. Second, if she arranges something abroad that is original (in contrast to a canned program) that might well impress admissions professionals. Of course, that requires real effort and ingenuity and networking.</p>
<p>I mentioned that both my kids took gap years, they also were admitted to all their college choices.
Who knows what impact the gap year had on admissions, but it did have an impact on their ability to make the most of their opportunity.</p>