Pros
It is at times exciting to be surrounded by so many truly good people who want to make a difference. I think it is nearly impossible to leave City Year without being a better person than when you first entered.
Cons
The service is mostly bogus. The company measures corps member efforts (hours served! students reached!) but they do not measure results. This is largely because City Year is almost entirely ineffective in making a difference in the schools they serve. They have too many goals and are too unclear with their objectives to be effective. Their organizational goal is to make national service a matter of public consciousness. Which means... they promote service for the sake of service? It felt that way a lot of times. We were placed in inner-city schools with little training and little strategy. It's great that we brought hundreds of thousands of kids to a college fair. But is it really worth the effort when few will get into college and even fewer will finish? I left the program disillusioned with non-profits in general.