College Admissions and Community Service
intelliVOL sponsored a study compiled by IESD surveying 10,000 college admissions officers about their opinions on student community service as a factor in undergraduate admissions. 264 responses were compiled and the results are significant.
The bottom line?
Community service has a positive impact on college acceptance.
Survey Findings
In addition to answering demographic questions, respondents were asked to rank importance to statements about student community service in the undergraduate admissions process:
- Whether a student’s community service has a positive impact on acceptance to a higher education institution
- Whether community service details are an important decision maker factor in undergraduate admissions when academic factors are equal
- Whether higher education institutions prefer an authenticated record of student community service to a student self-report of community service
- Whether higher education institutions value a record of student community service that includes student reflections about his or her experience
Respondents were also asked deeper questions about why student community service is important in admissions:
- Reasons why community service experience is considered as part of the undergraduate admissions process
- Pattern of community service preferred (repeated experience with the same service group or type of service v. a diversity of service experiences)
- Relative value of five categories of community service
- Additional categories of community service that are highly valued in the undergraduate admissions process (open response)
Fill out the form to download the full report to see how college admissions officers across the nation value community service from students applying to their institution.
