I’m currently a freshman in high school (school just started on the 12 of August) and don’t have any volunteer ties. Volunteering isn’t really a one of my top priorities, and I don’t like doing it all that much. I know I’ll have to volunteer eventually for either BETA or NHS, but that’s just something I’m forced to do. The forced volunteering back in middle school kind of ruined the whole thing for me. Would it look bad to colleges if I don’t volunteer outside of the requirements for those clubs? I live in a pretty small town so there’s not too many places to volunteer. Any feedback would be helpful! Thanks!
Well, I think it really helps you out to volunteer in places that interest you, especially if you are just starting school. It’s a good idea to start now to build up a lot of hours and find out what activities interest you.
That being said, go out there and find places where you would enjoy volunteering. If it was forced on you, you probably associate volunteering with a bad experience, but just try new things and eventually you will find something that interests you, at least a little.
EDIT: Even if you go out and find a unique place to volunteer, it will look good considering the fact that you live in a small town with few volunteering opportunities.
To answer your question, most kids these days find a random place to volunteer, but since college apps these days are composed of so many parts, and ADCOMS (ADmissions COMmitees) have a lot of your app to look over, it’s hard to say what really helps or hurts your application [with the exception of grades, for example. Everyone knows bad grades will hurt your chances, etc, but somethings like a small EC is questionable]
Volunteering is just one kind of extracurricular activity. You don’t need volunteering specifically unless maybe you’re trying to get scholarships that require community service. The Common App will ask you to list each of your ECs (up to ten) and an estimate of how much time you spend on each one. There’s no question about volunteer hours.
As far as ECs in general, the quality of your involvement matters more than the type of activity. Colleges want to see focus, dedication, accomplishment, and leadership (if possible) in whatever activities you’ve done. This is a quote from a Yale admissions office ([source](http://questions.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/qa-college-admissions/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=5)):
“The thing we are looking for outside the classroom is not a series of check boxes on a resume; we’re looking instead for a high level of engagement or leadership in whatever it is that the student cares about most. For some students, community service is at the forefront of their extracurriculars, in which case we pay a lot of attention to what they have accomplished in that area. For other students, some other passion or interest holds primary sway, and we evaluate the engagement in that area. We know that very few students can fully engage more than one or two primary activities at a high level. Though it is fine for a student to have varied interests, a significant number of students make the common mistake of spreading themselves too thinly in a resume-building exercise.”
Volunteering isn’t required at most universities. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have this on your application. Although in my state (NJ), some high schools require 30 hours of volunteering to graduate. If this was the case at your high school, you’d probably have heard.
You could join clubs in your school instead of volunteering. Having a leadership role in a club always looks great on applications.
Volunteering should be something you enjoy doing! You won’t be getting paid, so you should at least have a good experience!
I would argue that it would look even worse if you forced yourself into volunteering for the sake of university applications. Admissions committees will be able to tell that your heart wasn’t really in it and so many students volunteer now that it doesn’t stand out unless you do something unique. Your time would be much better spent doing something you love.
For NHS/BETA, maybe try volunteering somewhere completely different from the places you’ve volunteered at in middle school; if you enjoy it, then continue. If not, then don’t!
Volunteering is just another extracurricular. Colleges typically don’t require volunteer hours, although they do like to see community involvement/service in some way. Your NHS chapter will require that you volunteer a certain number of hours (for my high school it’s 40 hours), so I suggest signing up to volunteer for various events. You can’t avoid volunteering, but signing up to volunteer early in the year would be better than putting off volunteering until right before the deadline to turn your hours in (if your chapter requires that you do this). I doubt that you’ll need to volunteer to graduate- you would have known already. Think of your interests and try to volunteer at one of your favorite places. There are so many ways and places to volunteer, so I would spend time looking for new places you haven’t volunteered before. You’re going to be volunteering with NHS/BETA, so you don’t need more hours than that, unless you want to volunteer more. Sign up for clubs at your high school that you find interesting. As someone else said, taking a leadership position in a club that you enjoy will look better than volunteering because you were forced to.