{"id":5529,"date":"2011-05-03T08:38:51","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T14:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=5529"},"modified":"2011-05-03T09:50:15","modified_gmt":"2011-05-03T15:50:15","slug":"mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Admission: College Extracurriculars No Substitute for Contemporary Community Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>MBA admissions committees try to identify applicants who are constantly active, challenging themselves in all spheres of their lives. So, not only are extracurricular and community activities powerful in showing an MBA candidate\u2019s benevolence, but they also help create the impression that the candidate is always pursuing goals and is therefore predisposed to success.<\/p>\n<p>Each week, we meet at least one candidate who says, \u201cI have  been so busy professionally that I haven\u2019t had time to volunteer. However, I was really active during college.\u201d In almost all cases, however, as candidates get further from their college years, their college experience becomes less and less relevant. Although having a  record of consistent achievement throughout college and into a candidate\u2019s professional life is best, MBA applicants are often  evaluated on a \u201cWhat have you done for me lately?\u201d basis, meaning that contemporary community service is generally more important.<\/p>\n<p>Although MBA admissions officers know how finding the time to commit to external activities can be challenging for some professionals to do, they will still encounter many applicants from the most competitive fields who indeed find time to offer to others. So, if you had a rich and fulfilling college experience filled with leadership, in short, keep that trend going. You have a powerful complement to your contemporary involvements, but not a substitute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. MBA admissions committees try to identify applicants who are constantly active, challenging themselves in all spheres of their lives. So, not only are extracurricular and community activities powerful in showing an MBA candidate\u2019s benevolence, but they also help create &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/\">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":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mission-admission"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mission Admission: College Extracurriculars No Substitute for Contemporary Community Service | 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\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mission Admission: College Extracurriculars No Substitute for Contemporary Community Service | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. MBA admissions committees try to identify applicants who are constantly active, challenging themselves in all spheres of their lives. So, not only are extracurricular and community activities powerful in showing an MBA candidate\u2019s benevolence, but they also help create &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-03T14:38:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-03T15:50:15+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":"Mission Admission: College Extracurriculars No Substitute for Contemporary Community Service | 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\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mission Admission: College Extracurriculars No Substitute for Contemporary Community Service | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. MBA admissions committees try to identify applicants who are constantly active, challenging themselves in all spheres of their lives. So, not only are extracurricular and community activities powerful in showing an MBA candidate\u2019s benevolence, but they also help create &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2011-05-03T14:38:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-03T15:50:15+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\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"Mission Admission: College Extracurriculars No Substitute for Contemporary Community Service","datePublished":"2011-05-03T14:38:51+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-03T15:50:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/"},"wordCount":248,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Mission Admission"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mission-admission-college-extracurricular-activity-is-not-a-substitute-for-contemporary-community-service\/","name":"Mission Admission: College Extracurriculars No Substitute for Contemporary Community Service | mbaMission - 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