Is my Volunteer Work good enough for a hook?Answered
For context: I'm a senior from a small town in Brazil.
Since 7th grade, I've been involved with volunteer work, especially as a tutor/teacher/teacher assistant. I started as a Portuguese and Math tutor at a local Christian nonprofit that works with disadvantaged kids and their families; years later, I started tutoring English and giving Biblical lessons. Since then, besides tutoring, I also help with other kinds of work, including bazaars, monthly food drives, clothes giveaways, and many others. This July I was a sports/competitions coordinator at their Winter Camp (our winter, your summer), the same will happen again in November.
At school, I've been a volunteer TA for my Portuguese, English, Spanish, and Bio classes. I'm also a part of a School Government/School Spirit/Community Service association called Youth Protagonists (YPs). As a YP I help the school faculty and community better themselves through student-driven projects, I also coordinate the Orientation Week alongside the other 15 YPs.
I'm asking this because I'm worried that, to focus on Community Service/Volunteer Work, I'd have to found a nonprofit or something like that.
Is this part of my profile not good enough because I only participate in things that already exist instead of creating something, or do my activities show enough leadership skills?
PS.: To be a TA and a YP I had to compete with other students, but to be a volunteer of that nonprofit I only had to sign up, the responsibilities came because of demonstrated capacities.
PS2.: I know that CollegeVine has their chancing calculator, but I thought this situation was quite specific.
PS3.: I'm also my Church's Sunday School Teacher, but I'm not sure if that counts as Volunteering.
I do have other ECs, I just didn't include them in the question because I really wanted to know about those specifically.
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2 answers
Good question. It's great that you're so involved in so many volunteer and community service activities! Whether or not you found your own non-profit, this part of your profile is definitely strong and will look good on your college applications. That said, to build a real "spike" in this area, you'd probably want at least one or two self-driven projects and/or an award or scholarship the recognizes your significant contributions to your school and community. Whether its starting a non-profit, creating your own tutoring agency, organizing an initiative that helps raise money or awareness for a cause, or doing some kind of self-driven advocacy work, any of these things could help bring your profile to the next level.
Also, assuming you're not being paid, being a Sunday School Teacher at Church does sound like a volunteer activity to me.
Think quality, quality, quality. Whether you are paid or not, colleges care about the richness and relevance of the experience.
Ask yourself these questions:
Are you learning new skills? Which ones? Can you call these out on a college application?
Is the experience relevant to your major? That's important. Many students are focused on hours. Colleges care more about quality of the experience than the quantity of hours.
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
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Thank you, I'm going to apply as an undecided/neuroscience major, hope it is enough. I can't accept your answer because you commented instead of answering, but you helped me all the same.