Volunteering question

[Anonymous]

Schools want to see who the student is beyond the academic portion, but it's not going to be the school's main decision point. So yes GPA, test scores, classes taken will be the focus for admissions, but some schools want to "know" your student better. EC, volunteering etc is a way to show how your student spends their time outside of the classroom. How committed they are to something specific, how much time and effort they put into what they do.

In some cases, the EC's are a direct connection to a possible degree program and in others the EC won't matter much in the admissions process but help guide your student toward their passion. As my student was filling in his Common App it became pretty obvious what his interests were - from the EC's to his volunteering it screamed "Environmental Science". For us our student took a higher view of what they were interested in and actively found ways to explore that. It sounds like your student is still working through what interests them - totally ok. I would have her fill her time with something, it could be a job, it could be clubs but don't feel that you have to keep up with something that seems to have no value added for your student.

[Anonymous]

If this is going to be an important item for her applications, she needs to step up her participation. If not, there's no reason for you to continue. She probably won't even list it on an application if it is an occassional, few hours here and there thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools want to see who the student is beyond the academic portion, but it's not going to be the school's main decision point. So yes GPA, test scores, classes taken will be the focus for admissions, but some schools want to "know" your student better. EC, volunteering etc is a way to show how your student spends their time outside of the classroom. How committed they are to something specific, how much time and effort they put into what they do.

In some cases, the EC's are a direct connection to a possible degree program and in others the EC won't matter much in the admissions process but help guide your student toward their passion. As my student was filling in his Common App it became pretty obvious what his interests were - from the EC's to his volunteering it screamed "Environmental Science". For us our student took a higher view of what they were interested in and actively found ways to explore that. It sounds like your student is still working through what interests them - totally ok. I would have her fill her time with something, it could be a job, it could be clubs but don't feel that you have to keep up with something that seems to have no value added for your student.

Where is your kid going?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools want to see who the student is beyond the academic portion, but it's not going to be the school's main decision point. So yes GPA, test scores, classes taken will be the focus for admissions, but some schools want to "know" your student better. EC, volunteering etc is a way to show how your student spends their time outside of the classroom. How committed they are to something specific, how much time and effort they put into what they do.

In some cases, the EC's are a direct connection to a possible degree program and in others the EC won't matter much in the admissions process but help guide your student toward their passion. As my student was filling in his Common App it became pretty obvious what his interests were - from the EC's to his volunteering it screamed "Environmental Science". For us our student took a higher view of what they were interested in and actively found ways to explore that. It sounds like your student is still working through what interests them - totally ok. I would have her fill her time with something, it could be a job, it could be clubs but don't feel that you have to keep up with something that seems to have no value added for your student.

Where is your kid going?

Drexel