What volunteer work looks good for college?

AAdmissions readers in the Stanford office we learned from saw volunteering as one of the easiest activities to find, since nearly every organization is glad to have someone work for free and nearly every cause would welcome a student who raises money for it.

That ease is the problem. Most families treat service as a separate box from academics, hours given to whatever happened to be nearby, and the activities page ends up with lines that say the student is kind and nothing more. The office drew a practical conclusion from how easy service is to find, and it changes how a student should think about where the same hours go.