Why? Because admissions readers at the very competitive schools, who comb through application details more carefully than you might think, can tell in a second when a resume has been padded with a half-hearted nod to what a student thinks is an obligatory turn at service.
College counseling director Sean Logan (Phillips Andover), who worked in admissions at several prestigious colleges, told Boston’s WBUR about three siblings he remembers (not at Andover) who were each president of the same non-profit.
“But it wasn’t a passion of theirs. It was more an opportunity,” Logan said. “They thought it would look good, but none of them could really write about it with any kind of sophistication or passion, and it really came through on the application.”
If that’s the case—if you’re not really drawn to a particular area of service, or don’t find it meaningful—should you just skip it and concentrate on activities you love? It depends.
Colleges do like to see students who are engaged with their communities—school, where they live, the world in general—and show consistency in their efforts over time.
Some high schools require community service and even offer spring break trips and other organized activities to structure the requirement for their students. Often these are ongoing year-to-year and even give students the opportunity to originate their own volunteer plan. Most if not all high schools have a variety of service opportunities students can engage in. If you tried the school club that tutored young disadvantaged children after school during your freshman year, how about thinking of other ways to expand and continue that interest once that freshmen-only program ends?
Other places to look include faith-based organizations. Students who’ve been involved in an on-going project from a younger age, such as those who have done service work in preparation for their bar/bat mitzvahs, might consider incorporating that initiative into a longer-term commitment through high school.
Many students have no idea what kind of service may interest them. The key is to try things. Think volunteering at a nursing home, working at a soup kitchen, or teaching illiterate adults sounds too challenging or “depressing”? You really won’t know until you’ve gone out of your comfort zone to try something whether you’ll like it or not. And you might be very surprised at how not only rewarding you find the activity, but at the relationships you may make.
A study done by non-profit DoSomething.org with 50 top colleges found that 70 percent of admissions officers wanted to see students involved consistently with a cause.
One area that is more murky: The overseas service learning trip to an exotic location. If you haven’t done anything else through your high school years, one summer trip before senior year isn’t going to be taken seriously. On the other hand, if it fits into a track record the student has already established, go for it.
In a 2011 Daily Beast article, the author wrote, “[Stanford director of admissions Richard] Shaw also drew a cautious distinction between embarking on a ‘three-to-five day experience to see what poverty looks like’ as a sort of mea culpa for never having been involved in social or community issues, and students for whom summer programs are part of a ‘pattern of involvement.’ Admissions officers say these trips can fit into a narrative of service or work abroad. ‘Sustained or meaningful involvement comes through,’ Shaw said.”
As Tufts University’s admissions dean Lee Coffin told the New York Times in a 2011 article: “Just because you have the means to do something exotic doesn’t mean we can’t read through that if the experience isn’t reflected elsewhere in the student’s interests and experiences.”