How important is Community Service in the MBA Admissions Process?

Community Service plays a significant role in evaluating MBA applicants’ profile for the following reasons:

1. Values: Seeing how you spend your time outside of work is a good indication of what are the important things in your life (compared with your claims in other parts of the application)

2. Contributions to the program: MBA’s are student-driven programs; clubs are run by current MBA students and strong leaders make the MBA experience better by organizing events, adding new clubs/events/treks, and strengthening the relationship with alumni and recruiters.  If you’ve been involved in the past, it’s likely that you will contribute to such activities during your MBA. 

3. Leadership: If you perceive yourself as a leader but don’t manage people in your job, then community service will help you. Community work shows the schools your leadership potential and skills.

4. Consistency: MBA programs like people who are focused and have a long term view, so a 3 years involvement of 2 hours per month in your community is more significant than a 2-weeks volunteer project in Africa or another remote location.

5. Time management: All MBA applicants are ambitious, hard working, motivated and smart individuals.  If you can succeed professionally and volunteer, it’s a good sign of your potential to successfully juggle academic, recruiting and extra-curricular at school.

About Yael Redelman-Sidi

Yael Redelman-Sidi , the founder of Admit 1 MBA is an experienced Admissions consultant who worked at NYU's MBA Admissions as well as a graduate of the NYU MBA full-time program. She specializes in customized and personal admissions consulting for top MBA programs and has worked with candidates from US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East to gain admission into MBA programs such as Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, Chicago, NYU and others.

Limited time offer

To receive a 10% discount on both hourly and premium service for in person consultations in the New York City office or via phone/skype:

Include F1GMAT10 in your inquiry to yael@admit1mba.com or 1-917-300-1066.