<p>I'm a junior and I'm trying to look for extracurricular activities. I'm trying to find a good internship, but I can't really find any. I've been debating whether I should do community service or work as a volunteer instead.
Can anyone give me suggestions? Do colleges prefer internships or community service? How can I find any?! </p>
<p>My "achievements" thus far:
-worked in a hospital for over 100 hours
-trained in Taekwondo and got red-black belt
-won an award in a taekwondo essay contest by the Korean Embassy
-worked at a dentist's office for over 100 hours
-highest average in my grade right now</p>
<p>Internships are highly valued in admissions. They’re difficult to find and most applicants never get the chance to participate. Try contacting random local businesses and such in a field you are interested in (sounds like dentistry and medical fields) and ask if there are any internships available for a high school student. </p>
<p>How did you get hours at a hospital and dentists office? That kind of stuff is really valued by colleges. They essentially were internships (unless you were just like working a front desk and it had nothing to do with the actual profession).</p>
<p>Community service is far less valuable.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, you need to do what you would find personally rewarding. If you don’t want to do community service, don’t do it. There’s no reason to torture yourself to “look good”- as long as you do SOMETHING rather than NOTHING, you’ll be making yourself look a lot better.</p>
<p>Both are better than none.</p>
<p>Seriously though, having a great GPA will get you into a lot of good schools, but strong EC’s should get you into some great ones. Even if you are in public school that is not known for good guidance counseling, stop by there, they may surprise you. My D asked without expecting much, but was surprised by some interesting opportunities. Especially since you’re a great student, they’ll think of you if they hear something. A little schmoozing at counselors’ office usually doesn’t hurt either.</p>
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<p>I disagree with the latter. The top schools love it when you show dedication to helping those around you. Internships, of course, can be helpful, but all too often they just show that your family or your school is connected. If you can show that you made a meaningful contribution during an internship, that might impress adcoms, but going for coffee, filing papers and listening in on boring meetings wouldn’t count for a heck of a lot.</p>
<p>^That’s totally untrue. I don’t know what else to say. EVERYONE does community service. Community service is hardly even beneficial to your profile anymore (at elite schools) unless you do something really significant and show a huge number of hours to ONE organization.</p>
<p>Internships show professional experience. Incredibly valuable, both to your application, and to your resume. I mean it’s great if you play chess with the elderly an hour a week… but if you shadow a pediatrician for a summer or help a local professor do some psychology research, well. </p>
<p>I don’t even follow your “family is connected” logic. I have met numerous people with internships and a grand total of zero were thanks to family connections. While I’m sure that does happen, I don’t see why colleges would assume that, or why the connection would reduce the value of the experience.</p>