<p>I’m a parent – I must echo Cali – You DO NOT understand the work involved in a non-profit. I doubt you can successfully pull it off & would not recommend even trying</p>
<p>BUT</p>
<p>That does not mean I do not think you should pursue your ideas. You can certainly stage dances or organize performances at a senior center without creating a non-profit.</p>
<p>The jail thing poses too many safety issues.</p>
<p>I encourage you to pick one activity that a friend or faculty mentor has an interest in - this way there is someone who you can depend upon to help you.</p>
<p>ctgirl628:
I just skimmed the many threads you’ve started over the past few weeks. It’s clear you are overly obsessed with trying to live your life to fit a prescribed recipe to impress college adcoms. </p>
<p>For your sake, please reconsider your approach. Going through your remaining two years of high school with such a myopic focus will definitely lead to disappointment and unhappiness.</p>
<p>Breathe. Take a break. Get off College Confidential. Go play a game of softball or watch House or make some cupcakes or paint your nails or do one of the infinite things one can do that are more productive and fulfilling than stressing out about college applications. </p>
<p>To address points made here and on your other threads: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>It is selfish to create a nonprofit purely for the purposes of college admissions, especially, as a previous poster commented, such an endeavor wouldn’t really be sustainable after you graduated. </p></li>
<li><p>You need to realize that not everything you do and you like is a passion. You might like writing, playing the guitar, theater, etc. But as you’ve said previously, you’ve only been playing the guitar a couple of months, you aren’t really involved with theater at your school, and so on. Are these things hobbies, or are they really, truly passions? There’s no shame in having a “hobby” versus a “passion.” Not everyone has a passion; no one needs to have a passion, even for top colleges. </p></li>
<li><p>Stop trying to plan ahead. You predict you will get 4.0s junior and senior year. What happens when/if you don’t? You might have a great junior year where everything falls into place and goes beautifully. Or, you might walk into math class the first day of school and realize you’re in way over your head. What happens then? Things change. Don’t over-extend yourself to fit into a system (especially when the college system is so flawed, anyway). </p></li>
<li><p>There is more to life than an Ivy League school. There are many other great colleges that you could attend: tier-one schools with equally prestigious names, tiny liberal arts colleges, big state schools, lesser-known schools that love you for you and want to pay you to attend and learn there. And once you start realizing that high school isn’t just a means to an Ivy League end, but an end within itself to be enjoyed and appreciated and savored, I guarantee that you will feel more content.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I am going to play some devil’s advocate here. Everyone here is objecting to her creating this nonprofit on a moral premise that it is wrong to start the nonprofit only for college admissions, I would have to say that is ridiculous. Only weighing the costs and benefits, it seems obvious that IF FEASIBLE, she should start the nonprofit. She benefits in that she gets her “perfect app” and the community benefits from her project, AS LONG as she is passionate about it. So who is losing in this situation, no one, maybe her values are a little skewed but who’s aren’t, I am a firm believer in the notion that one should only do something as long as they get some pleasure from it, “pleasure” in this case being a more impressive application. If she stops the nonprofit after college, well that could be disappointing, but 2 years of an environmental organization in a city is better than none. Going back to costs and benefits, the only person at risk is ctgirl, if she doesn’t get accepted to her dream school, then that is tough luck for her since her own goal of the organization is not fulfilled.</p>
<p>Basically my little rant there is saying, do the nonprofit you best feel is doable and that would provide real benefits to the community, who cares if your motive is selfish, as long as you are passionate and don’t half ass it, no one will mind. Just be sure to not be arrogant about why you are doing what your doing, our society for some odd reason shuns any form of selfishness, even though most people are selfish when it comes down to it. From an objective not moral standpoint, it is a fine idea, a mutualistic relationship (AP Bio is monday). Let the responses begin.</p>
<p>There is a HUGE difference between initiating a worthy project that has value to the community (such as the creative projects suggested by the OP, completely doable by a committed high school student before entering college) vs. forming a tax-exempt, board-governed, mission-driven nonprofit organization that requires long-term vision, funding and leadership. </p>
<p>I applaud any student who has a well-conceived project idea and chooses to partner with an existing organization to implement a project aligned with the organization mission. However, let’s be real about what it takes to SUSTAIN a nonprofit organization. While the OP is clearly “passionate,” the primary passion does not seem to be rooted in a clearly-defined organizational “mission” – rather to pick one of three ideas that may impress admissions officers. This is simply not the stuff that successful nonprofits are made of. </p>
<p>I’m not suggesting that your project ideas could not be successful – they could be highly successful and beneficial to those you wish to serve. But, to form a tax-exempt nonprofit organization based on what you’ve posted, is short-sighted and not sustainable.</p>
<p>Well, you’ve previously asked about getting into at least one high Ivy, and at a school like that, a 3.4 is pretty terrible from most schools. Its actually not so bad, though, because your grades are on an upward trend. Actually, I’ve heard Princeton doesn’t look at your Freshman year GPA at all, which could help you out if you choose to apply there.</p>
<p>My objection to starting the nonprofit wasn’t the selfishness of the motives - it was the fact that it’s unlikely to impress adcoms any more than if you had just done the project.</p>
<p>In fact, filing for nonprofit status may backfire. Since what you are doing is obviously on the level of a “project” and not an “organization”, having the tax status of an organization will just signal to adcoms that you are desperate to impress. Notice the negative reaction you got from the people on this board. Filing for nonprofit status when you don’t need it is pretty blatantly self-serving - and “blatant” is the key word if you’re interested in your admissions chances. </p>
<p>There’s a very obvious difference between a full-on organization and a year-long project. Adcoms are not going to be fooled into thinking you started the former. Just do the project, and don’t bother making it into a bogus nonprofit. BS nonprofits are pretty easy to spot.</p>