Physics GRE Discussion Forums

...Is this always a healthy addition to a CV? I have an opportunity to volunteer my time at a local high school during the academic year, assisting the teacher and helping students in lab classes and on problem sets. Is this something worth participating in, or will grad schools typically overlook this sort of thing?

(If I participate for 3 semesters, I get a letter of commendation from the Dean. Not to be confused with letter of recommendation. Not sure if this helps at all, either).

Well, let's put it this way. It can't hurt you. If you enjoy helping out with the tutoring or TAing, I would go for it. Otherwise, if you can spend time on other things such as improving your PGRE score or doing research, those would probably be more appealing to graduate schools. I help with TAing and tutoring myself, although the main reason isn't to get into graduate school, it sure looks better than not tutoring/TAing!

-Riley

It certainly can't hurt. In fact, it will help you quite a bit if you want to apply for the NSF fellowship.