For most people, getting a college education is a compelling goal. And rightly so. Few things deliver more lifelong benefits than a college degree.

But getting into college, especially a top college, is increasingly competitive. Not even great grades and strong assessment scores are guarantees of acceptance. Fortunately, a new survey of college admissions officers and staff shows that targeted community service may be a shortcut to scoring college admission or serve as a powerful tie-breaker among competitive applicants.

According to a professionally executed survey of 264 admissions leaders at U.S. colleges done by IESD for x2VOL, the tracking and reporting platform for student service hours used by private and public schools and districts nationwide, 58% of college admissions personnel said they agreed that, “A student’s community service experience has a positive impact on his or her acceptance to our higher education institution.” Only 16% disagreed.

That may not be too surprising. But most admissions leaders (53%) also said community service was essentially a tie-breaker between equally qualified students when asked, “Assuming all factors are equal (such as GPA, SAT/ACT scores, and rigor of curriculum), then community service details are an important decision-making factor.” It’s also noteworthy that admissions leaders at private four-year colleges rated the tie-breaking nature of community service as even more significant – a healthy 61% of admissions officers at private schools agreed with the “assuming all factors are equal” statement.

“We’ve known for some time that colleges strongly consider community service in admissions decisions,” Michele Pitman, the Founder & CEO, intelliVOL, maker of x2VOL, said. “We’ve just never really known how much of an influence it is – and so this is great news for students who now have the ability to demonstrate who they are outside of the classroom,” she said.

The survey also asked admissions officers why they placed a premium on community service. And while parents, students, school counselors and others probably assumed that service mattered because it demonstrated community awareness and personal passion, neither of those was among the top three reasons given by admissions officials.

Instead, the survey found that the top reason colleges valued community service was that it was an, “[i]ndicator that the student is likely to be active in student social life outside the classroom.” The second and third highest scoring reasons that community service mattered, according to those who make college admission decisions, were that service was an, “[i]ndicator that the student is likely to contribute to the school’s mission” and an “[i]ndicator that the student shares the school’s values.” All three responses were supported by more than two-thirds of the surveyed officers.

The relation to mission and values were the top two answers among admissions leaders at private schools, with “shares the school’s values” being the best scoring overall choice. So, if an applicant’s top school choices are private, investing in community service that reflects a school’s values and mission may be well worth the effort.

The survey also found that admissions officers don’t correlate community service to graduation. When asked whether they thought an applicant’s community service indicated a likelihood to graduate, the officers essentially said no – only 18% said they valued service on an application because of a graduation connection, by far the lowest scoring response.

“We also found that a solid majority of admissions officers liked the idea of an applicant sharing what their service meant to them personally and what they learned by doing it,” Pitman said. “So, applicants would be wise to think about and be able to articulate their learning experiences related to community service.”

To help students do that, x2VOL, the service tracking platform developed by Pitman, allows students to write about and share the learning impacts of their service as well as have the record of that service reviewed and verified by both the student’s school and the service organization. x2VOL is also making the service experience easier for students to share with prospective colleges. Last year, they launched a partnership with Parchment, the leading provider of digital student records, to deliver “Official Service Transcripts” with verified service details that can be directly sent to college admissions officers.

Giving in your community is both enriching and rewarding and can spark lifelong benefits. Savvy college seekers have long assumed that community service had application benefits too. Turns out, that’s correct – having community service on your college application makes a difference. And as competitive as colleges are, if service is the tie-breaker between being accepted or not, that may make a major, lifelong difference too.