<p>I am going on a mission trip with my youth group during spring break to New Orleans to help in the relief effort for Hurricane Katrina. I also went to Mexico and built a house with the same church. My question is, would colleges look at this as a very good thing and wuld it improve my odds of getting in?</p>
<p>it'll improve your chances by some, but why don't you just do community service at your area?</p>
<p>I will also</p>
<p>If that experience was significant to you and you can express that in your essays, it could definitely help your chances.</p>
<p>i don't think you should go on those missions trips if it's solely for college apps. It's what you take out of that experience that colleges are interested, not the fact that you went to New Orleans. and I also remember reading somewhere that if you do "long distance" missions trips, the admission officers will be interested in what you do locally as well. Good Luck :)</p>
<p>It wouldn't hurt but know that these opportunites are frankly, commonplace. And savvy parents/students cynically make sure they can get one into their EC list. That being said and knowing the "help serve the poor junkets" that already exist, I developed a program for my large metropolitan church where we just didn't go build a house in Mexico for one week. We sent 18 kids to India, right after the tsunami -- for three weeks. And they had to fundraise $1500 in order to go. They interacted with the people and really were part of the culture. They spent significant time in pretty raw envionments (leper clinic, tsumani relief, old age homes). It helped that we have extensive relationships with sister churches in India.</p>
<p>I joked that I already can imagine the subject of every one of their college entrance essays!</p>
<p>Whatever you do, do it with heart and give to the people. Your group might be able to go off and play volleyball on the beach -- but remember the people you're there to help. How much do they live on each day? What opportunities are afforded their children? Think about those things deeply. Don't just be an overprivileged American youth. Really consider what it'd be like if it was almost a certainty that you and your kids would live in poverty and illness for the entirety of your lives. In that way, you'll really get something out of the mission trip.</p>
<p>HTH</p>
<p>Yes, I would say that colleges look at that a lot. I have a friend who went to Aceh after the tsunami. She then applied EA/ED to 3 Ivy leagues this year and got into two of three. Yale and Dartmouth. Her SAT's weren't incredible, and her essay was good, but nothing outstanding.. As far as I'm concerned, it was probably a large part of the reason why she was accepted.</p>