{"id":1500,"date":"2010-05-19T10:22:48","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T16:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=1500"},"modified":"2010-10-07T08:07:39","modified_gmt":"2010-10-07T14:07:39","slug":"admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Community Service is Not Credible!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, we had a client who (disguised example) started to volunteer at a local hospital, when a family member unfortunately fell ill. He wanted to make <em>his<\/em> difference, so he started a unique fundraising initiative, which, to his surprise, took off. Others followed\u00a0his example\u00a0and the funds started to roll in. His experience culminated with the hospital\u2019s fundraising board asking him to become a board member and he proudly obliged.<\/p>\n<p>Why are we sharing this story? We offer it because\u00a0of its truncated timeline. The individual started his program in June and was asked to join the board in August \u2014 two months total, right in the lead-up to his MBA applications. The individual was worried that the admissions committee would think his efforts were insincere and were undertaken just to impress. However,\u00a0his efforts were so sincere and results so powerful (and even more impressive when you know the actual details!) that the achievements were indisputable and he found his way into several top schools.<\/p>\n<p>Our point is that\u00a0if you are considering taking on community service now, you should not worry that the admissions committees will see your actions as transparent and self-serving, as long as you are sincere in your efforts. \u00a0Of course, if you are indeed being transparent and self-serving, you will be viewed as such, but if you devote yourself to an activity and perform, you should impress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, we had a client who (disguised example) started to volunteer at a local hospital, when a family member unfortunately fell ill. He wanted to make his difference, so he started a unique fundraising initiative, which, to his surprise, took off. Others followed\u00a0his example\u00a0and the funds started to roll in. His experience &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions-myths-destroyed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Community Service is Not Credible! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Community Service is Not Credible! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few years ago, we had a client who (disguised example) started to volunteer at a local hospital, when a family member unfortunately fell ill. He wanted to make his difference, so he started a unique fundraising initiative, which, to his surprise, took off. Others followed\u00a0his example\u00a0and the funds started to roll in. His experience &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-19T16:22:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-10-07T14:07:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Community Service is Not Credible! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Community Service is Not Credible! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"A few years ago, we had a client who (disguised example) started to volunteer at a local hospital, when a family member unfortunately fell ill. He wanted to make his difference, so he started a unique fundraising initiative, which, to his surprise, took off. Others followed\u00a0his example\u00a0and the funds started to roll in. His experience &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2010-05-19T16:22:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2010-10-07T14:07:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jeremy Shinewald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Shinewald","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Community Service is Not Credible!","datePublished":"2010-05-19T16:22:48+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-07T14:07:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/"},"wordCount":247,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Admissions Myths Destroyed"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/","name":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Community Service is Not Credible! | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-05-19T16:22:48+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-07T14:07:39+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-my-community-service-is-not-credible\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Community Service is Not Credible!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World&#039;s Leading MBA Admissions Consulting Firm","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"mbaMission","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"mbaMission"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f","name":"Jeremy Shinewald","description":"In addition to being Founder and President of mbaMission, Jeremy Shinewald is a Darden MBA, published author, and the recipient of Poets&amp;Quants\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Award in MBA Admissions Consulting. 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