<p>True community service opportunities are always available ,especially with the elderly , and hospitals .</p>
<p>And they have great surfing in Africa.</p>
<p>There’s a difference between “buying” an experience and “making it happen”. You see the same problem with semesters abroad at the college level: Study in a foreign country without ever even having to speak the language. </p>
<p>Certainly you can turn that purchased, package trip overseas into something unique and thought provoking but it’s hard. </p>
<p>Once in college the same things come up, but at a more adventurous level. You can actually buy an experience “interning” in a nice, clean, well ordered third world clinic (yes, these programs exist - get to help the worst off, but don’t take risks). Others make their own experiences.</p>
<p>Consider this kid’s experience (20 years old at the time) from a blog:</p>
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<p>I can guarantee you that no purchased tour/internship/experience would allow our kids to see things like this (not to mention the health risk of being around active TB). </p>
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<p>I suspect college admissions committees, fellowship/scholarship review committees and grad school admissions committees can tell the difference?</p>
<p>bm ten char^</p>
<p>College admissions committees CAN CERTAINLY tell the difference. They see these programs for what they are: an exotic experience for rich kids. </p>
<p>My own daughter went on one of them – though for a FRACTION of the cost – when she was in college. But she did it for personal reasons and not for resume boosting, in fact the experience is not at all listed on her resume.</p>
<p>As Austen observed, “What do we live for if not to make sport of our neighbors”. Apologize for my probably inaccurate paraphrasing. I like that this nonsense goes on. Cannot even count the number of deranged and bombastic parents I’ve encountered at my kid’s expensive private school who will hold forth for literally hours about their AMAZING kid’s INCREDIBLE passion to help the downtrodden in some obscure and very poor country. They actually believe in their own fiction!</p>
<p>Ceaselessly entertains my DH and me. I hate to see it outed. These fools very expensively erode their darlings’ chances at elite schools by doing this. Now they’ll get wind of it and some other asinine ploy will come into vogue by which they will self-identify.</p>
<p>Shhhhh</p>
<p>I am not a parent, so I don’t know that my opinion means much in this forum. However, I am never opposed to giving it.</p>
<p>As a incoming college freshman, I have seen people take on activities just “to look good for college.” Sports, volunteer activities, leadership positions, etc. And apparently this is common. That is extremely fake to plan several years of one’s life around what strangers are going to think. Doing this is also extremely annoying to fellow students because they can see that the student doesn’t really care about tutoring kids or leading the Latin Club or whatever.</p>
<p>My advice: If you want to improve yourself, do things that you want to do. Tutor middle school kids if you want. Join the basketball team if you want. You can still be yourself and get into college, so don’t fundamentally change yourself for that purpose. It’s fake, annoying, and often boring.</p>
<p>Not all travel is a rich kid boondogle. D did a number of language homestay immersion programs to help truly learn her target language. One was in Nicaragua which included teaching youngsters English. D was struck by how happy this group of dirt poor, shoeless children were everyday unlike her wealthy peers who were often discontent about what they didn’t have. It led to alot of introspection about the philophsophy of// sources of happiness. One of her college interviews turned into a discussion of this very topic because of questions the interviewer asked.</p>
<p>If the colleges didn’t stress the nonsensical giving back to society, then there wouldn’t be this kind of abuse. I think every parent who can afford this and is confident that it will help in college aps should avail of this kind of trips. If the colleges don’t like that, they should make their criteria not dependent on nonsense like CS hours and helping the poor and learning about the world and what not. If they do, since there is no objective evaluation of these sort of criteria, they are exposing themselves to be lied to. They deserve it.</p>
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<p>Of course they fall for these kinds of nonsense. There is a private industry for a specific reason fueling the fire.</p>
<p>Immersion in the language is a great, legitimate reason for travel. Doing good while you’re there, even better. Changing your outlook on life–priceless! :)</p>
<p>Class of 2015 – I really like your idea. Living on Long Island, there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of well financed kids who take these summer trips all over the country and the world – when there are communities right on Long Island with extreme poverty, significant housing problems, and young kids in need of mentors. And…these programs could continue throughout the school year - not just be a “summer fling.”</p>
<p>Through most of HS, S tutored kids from a nearby inner city in reading and basic math. It was volunteer work during the school year but he was paid during the summer.
He recently graduated form college and will start teaching ESL in China next month for a couple of years.
His experience in tutoring those home-grown kids is what got him the job!</p>
<p>2boysima – thanks! And you made a good point – it would be great if it could be continued through the year, not just a one shot deal. When I was a kid, my brother created a volunteer task force to serve elderly and poor people in our community. I guess you could say it was his way of starting a project to make himself stand out when it came time to college, but I know he really cared about helping people. I remember cleaning old people’s apartments and going grocery shopping for them. There are so many gaps in services. There is need right in our own backyard.</p>
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<p>I am not sure that this analogy works well. The Semester at Sea is part of a college program. It should be compared to other programs abroad, and considering most what is offered does not seem “that” different. It is only more obvious that the Semester at Sea is a pampered vacation with limited academic relevance. And so are most of the college abroad programs! </p>
<p>Now, this does not compare AT ALL with the numerous programs that are meant to embellish a college application. They are totally different animals.</p>
<p>Newmassdad, thank you for making the point that college admissions committees, fellowship/scholarship review committees and grad school admissions committees can tell the difference between the real “do-gooders” and the purchasers of packaged summer trips. </p>
<p>Not only can they tell the difference through the written words in the essay or application, but also from the rest of the “package” and how people describe the applicant. It’s easy to faka a two-weeks trip; it’s hard to fake one’s multi-year history. </p>
<p>PS Reading some of the Bolivian adventure remains as poignant today as it was when I read the first time!</p>
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<p>I’m not sure the presence of a thriving industry proves that colleges fall for applications that have expensive do go trips on them. The only thing necessary for the private industry to exist is that the parents fall for them, not the schools</p>
<p>Think about all those bottom-feeder career schools you hear advertising constantly on the radio and TV. Their graduates seldom get the promised jobs. Employers seldom fall for it But the career school industry is doing just fine because the students keep falling for it.</p>
<p>I doubt very seriously that a college would give anyone admission based on any of these organized trips. </p>
<p>I would think they would look for more substance and longivity.</p>
<p>“I doubt very seriously that a college would give anyone admission based on any of these organized trips.”</p>
<p>Of course not. This thread has been a continuous attempt by mean and nasty and envious people to degrade other kids and their parents. It is their way or the highway. One wonders why.</p>
<p>^ Sorry you feel this way. These post are not intended to degrade anyone, other than the sponsors of these trips, the ones that are not particularly honest about what one get for one’s money.</p>
<p>I’ve seen all too many parents spend money they don’t have in order to give their kid an “enriching” experience, only to find that the only one enriched was the sponsor. How? Just sign up for a trip where you spend most of your time with fellow yanks, with a few visits to carefully chosen local, indigenous activities. What a kid got is an experience within, but not in, a foreign country. </p>
<p>That can be enough for many, but it is not the same as actually living locally.</p>