How Volunteering Strengthens Your College Application

Are you a parent wondering what is going to make your kid’s college application stronger? Well, you are in the right place, as we at Empowerly bring you insightful knowledge about the value of volunteering.  

Supporting a meaningful cause and actively helping others within your community will make your college application more powerful. Not to mention, volunteering can offer professional and personal benefits in the future. Let us explore how volunteering can help make your college application stronger and how partnering with Empowerly helps you stand out amongst the rest of the candidates. 

When you write about volunteering experiences on your college application, that information gives your assessors a chance to get to know you as a person as well as a potential student. As they say in personal essay writing, “show, don’t tell!” Therefore, it is always good to choose a volunteer project matching your career aspirations and personal interests and remember the details of what you did. 

As you volunteer, it teaches you many practical life skills such as time management, work ethic, flexibility, collaboration, creativity, generosity, and more. Many universities seek students who will actively improve their communities and volunteering is a clear example.

Show your college admissions team that you are a born leader and willing to take the initiative by selecting and volunteering for new projects. As you start giving back, you develop and demonstrate confidence, communication, problem-solving, and other leadership skills. 

As you join a volunteer project and remain dedicated, you will develop essential behavioral and character traits. Volunteering first proves that you have a sense of commitment. While simply showing up to a volunteer job doesn’t immediately make you a good person, the longer you work in positive learning environments, the more likely you are to develop work ethics, honesty, and integrity. This shows that you are willing to sacrifice just to do the right thing. 

As you volunteer, your experience with different people exposes you to new thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Colleges would definitely consider your application because of your worldview, as this will mean that you will fit in a diverse environment. The college admissions office always welcomes students with well-rounded community service. Choose volunteer opportunities to increase your civic-mindedness and community service engagement. 

Mentioning your volunteering projects on a college application also depicts your abilities to work with all kinds of people from different professional backgrounds. But beyond that, some admissions officers want to know whether you can build meaningful relationships. These relationships can further turn into college recommendation letters, mentorships, and many professional opportunities. Volunteering is a great way to earn a mentor’s respect.

You might be able to earn some academic credits at the college as you continue to participate in volunteer opportunities. However, you will have to check this with a guidance counselor. Whether or not you are required to officially document your volunteer hours, an accurate personal record is a good idea in case you want to submit your project for credit of any kind. Did you know, a good volunteering experience can even help you bag a scholarship at some colleges? 

Volunteering can be a booster for your application for college, but you have to make it work for you. To ensure that the applications teams get to see exactly how much hard work you have been putting into volunteering, here is what you need to do. 

• Always mention the volunteering projects that are relevant to your goals.
• Mention the positions that you have worked in, highlighting your interests, future career, and talent.
• Highlight long-term projects and causes that you have cared about for multiple years.
• Highlight any leadership skills or jobs. Quantify the scope of your impact and projects.
• Do forget to mention any school, sports, or other community activities. 
• Make sure to include all your volunteer experience in a timeline so the college can see your consistency and development of skills over time.
• Do mention how you discovered the volunteering project, what motivated you to join it, and what you learned from your experience. It would also be a great idea to mention how your volunteer experience will help you be a better student at the college. 

Volunteering might have helped you gain many personal and professional skills. However, if you are looking for help with your application for college, why not consult with Empowerly? 

Our team is here to measure your strong suites through an academic, written essay, and extracurricular evaluation. We will also determine the impact of each key factor that is a part of your college application and assess your competitiveness with the top colleges in the country. 

Once the evaluation is complete, we will provide you with a detailed Empowerly score highlighting your strengths along with areas for improvement and how you can set yourself apart from the rest of the applicants.