Volunteering and College Admission

Applying to College
1

<p>As I start to fill out applications, I am becoming a bit concerned. I find that I have no volunteer service of note to put on the common app. I have done a few hours here and there, but nothing that would warrant an entire section. Rather, I have just put down National Honor Society, and averaged 3 hours per week, which is about how much I have been volunteering for it (at least in my time in NHS).</p>

<p>I'm becoming concerned that my lack of notable community service will harm me. I have two really dedicated extracurriculars (plus NHS), and not much else. Specifically for U Chicago, will my lack of notable volunteering hurt my application?</p>

2

<p>Community service can be one of your ECs, but it doesn’t have to be. If you lack good ECs in general, that could hurt you.</p>

3

<p>If dedication/passion means a good EC, then I would say that I do have two really good ones (debate and quiz bowl). Thanks for the response!</p>

4

<p>Bump. I’m still sort of worried about this.</p>

5

<p>Here’s an article with questions people asked admissions officers:</p>

<p><a href=“Q. and A.: College Admissions - The New York Times”>Q. and A.: College Admissions - The New York Times;

<p>It’s five years old, so maybe stuff has changed, but someone asked a question similar to yours and the response from Yale was:</p>

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6

<p>Heather, thank you so much! </p>

<p>That is seriously helpful. I really was beginning to worry that a lack of volunteering was going to screw me over, but it looks like it won’t.</p>