I Messed Up, Should I Include this Activity?

[SarahC42]

Back in freshman-sophomore year, I was volunteering at a soup kitchen weekly. Over the two years, I volunteered about 300 hours and developed a lot of meaningful interactions with our guests.

However, towards the end of soph year, I developed some mental health issues (GAD/depression) and started showing up late and sometimes skipping all together.
I'm not making excuses for myself - what I did was horrible and I own up to it. I was eventually "let go" in the middle of junior year and the SK president said to not ask for a reference/LoR because he will cite professionalism issues.

Originally, I thought when adcoms email/call our activity contacts, they only ask for hours and length of time worked. However, I'm seeing some threads where some people say adcoms also ask for a character reference. Is this true?

I'm torn on whether I should include this activity or not. It was significantly meaningful to me and I put it both in my PS and MME. I'm worried that if adcoms do ask for a character reference, the professionalism issues will come up and I'll be blacklisted. There are no other "red flags" on my application.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[jt280]

You sound stressed out. I don't think you should be. Life happens, you are a human. Contacts are HARDLY contacted, and if they are it is to verify hours. They will not ask about character reference. If they do call anyways, it will be after you get accepted, but they will not revoke your acceptance due to something that someone else commented about. I suggest keeping this activity in your app, you will always have a chance to describe further during secondaries/ interviews.

 

[DarklingThrush]

Back in freshman-sophomore year, I was volunteering at a soup kitchen weekly. Over the two years, I volunteered about 300 hours and developed a lot of meaningful interactions with our guests.

However, towards the end of soph year, I developed some mental health issues (GAD/depression) and started showing up late and sometimes skipping all together.
I'm not making excuses for myself - what I did was horrible and I own up to it. I was eventually "let go" in the middle of junior year and the SK president said to not ask for a reference/LoR because he will cite professionalism issues.

Originally, I thought when adcoms email/call our activity contacts, they only ask for hours and length of time worked. However, I'm seeing some threads where some people say adcoms also ask for a character reference. Is this true?

I'm torn on whether I should include this activity or not. It was significantly meaningful to me and I put it both in my PS and MME. I'm worried that if adcoms do ask for a character reference, the professionalism issues will come up and I'll be blacklisted. There are no other "red flags" on my application.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

If you’re that worried, was there a volunteer there who you volunteered with regularly? You could do their contact info instead. Alternatively, can you list someone other than the president who can verify your hours? You do sound stressed, which is understandable. Try not to worry too much. Definitely list the activity.

 

[SarahC42]

If you’re that worried, was there a volunteer there who you volunteered with regularly? You could do their contact info instead. Alternatively, can you list someone other than the president who can verify your hours? You do sound stressed, which is understandable. Try not to worry too much. Definitely list the activity.

I could list my volunteer friend, but I feel like that looks kind of shady. The entire executive board knows what happened. I guess I just have to take my chances

 

[DarklingThrush]

I could list my volunteer friend, but I feel like that looks kind of shady. The entire executive board knows what happened. I guess I just have to take my chances

I’ll let someone else chime in, but I think if you list your friend who can verify your hours and call them “volunteer peer” or something like that for their title, it would be fine. Regardless, schools aren’t going to call. You’re fine.

 

[SarahC42]

I’ll let someone else chime in, but I think if you list your friend who can verify your hours and call them “volunteer peer” or something like that for their title, it would be fine. Regardless, schools aren’t going to call. You’re fine.

Thank you, I'm been too stressed about this the past few days. Hopefully they won't call.

 

[Damson]

They may or may not call after acceptance
But even if they cite the "professionalism issue", it won't cause your acceptance to be revoked