If you're in high school, your parents and guidance counselors are likely pushing you to do some sort of community service work. They've probably told you the following a million times: "It will look great on your resume!" "You will be helping people in need!" "It will make you look well-rounded!"  However, community service doesn't just look good on a college application. Nowadays, volunteering for free can literally pay off in the form of scholarships and even full rides, reports USA Today.

Sure, star athletes and geniuses are still first in line for the annual $29 billion in institutional grants given out by colleges, but there is a growing trend in what are called service scholarships. Schools such as The College of New Jersey, Tufts University, and Drew University have implemented major service scholarship programs to help those who give back.  

The USA Today article discusses a young woman from Rochester, New York, who was always very active in community service. She thought that would make colleges more likely to accept her, but she was shocked when she opened up an envelope and found that Drew University was offering her a service scholarship that would cover her entire tuition (which is about $36,000 a year).

While these service scholarships award students for helping the community while in high school, once they get a service scholarship to a college, the hard work doesn't end there. In order to attend, most of the schools require you to fulfill a certain number of community service hours (sometimes up to 300 hours per year). However, the community service activities are frequently related to classroom learning.   

Schools and organizations that are beginning to add more service scholarship programs hope this will help take away a little emphasis on grades and put more on giving back to the community.