<p>I've been volunteering at the hospital since beginning of Freshman Year every ssaturday for 4 hours. And I have accumulated over a 1,00 hours so far. I expect close to 2,00 and possibly breaking 2,000 hours with all the other volunteering that I do when applications are due next year for colleges. How good will this look? With my 3.8 UC GPA and 2100 SAT Scores</p>
<p>the numbers look impressive, but colleges are looking for passion, thoughtfulness and the maturity you'd have gained from all your volunteering, make sure you show that in your essay. did you initiate or lead any part of that volunteer work?</p>
<p>Most colleges don't consider ECs and volunteering at all as part of their admissions decisions. Where those things can count is for merit aid.</p>
<p>The colleges like HPYS that do consider ECs and volunteering a great deal are able to do this because they have such an overabundance of highly qualified applicants that HPYS and similar colleges can selelcdt students in order to create a well rounded class.</p>
<p>When such collleges assess one's voluneer work, what counts the most is the impact that you've had on the organization, and that the volunteer work has had on you. Have you started programs as a result of volunteering? Did you get other students involved? Raise money? Make a difference where you volunteered by touching a particular person's life or by helping to implement some new program such as if you noticed that kids hospitalized could use cheering up, so you started doing something special with the kids.</p>
<p>If what you basically did was pile up hours by doing what you were told, that's not the kind of volunteering that would impress top colleges, which are looking for people who create things, instead of mindlessly doing what they are told.</p>
<p>I think he or she did it because he/she wanted to...</p>
<p>Why does EVERYONE volunteer at the hospital or the library ?</p>
<p>Because everyone does do it, and as a result, people jump on the bandwagon.</p>
<p>I will tell you from personal experience that community service is not going to help you that much at any school, especially because everyone does it. This is not to say that you should not help the community; anyone can sort books or organize canned food, but it takes actual skill to go beyond "community service", and design advertising for a volunteer group, maintain a non-profit organization's website, or even more complicated ideas that take your skills that you have learned in school or on your own and apply them to the benefit of society. That is what schools want; they want to see someone who enjoys academics and uses his or her knowledge to benefit the community, because when you step back and look at it, that's exactly what a job in the real world is.</p>
<p>yes, if you were really passionate and really talented, coming up with something different, refreshing and unique to make our community a better place shouldn't be much of a problem. but let's not be bashing this poor guy just because he dared to ask. he/she's just trying to have a good future thats all</p>
<p>The issue some posters are having to this question is NOT whether volunteering at a hospital is a good EC. It's that the OP is asking how it will look and whether the number of hours will look impressive. He/she should not be doing it to amass hours so that the sheer number of hours volunteered will impress a college, and if that's why it's being done it will be obvious to the college.</p>
<p>Big deal...</p>
<p>To answer the original question: yes, four hours on a Saturday looks good if the school is considering the volunteer work. That is a huge time commitment, and I say that as someone who does 3.5/ Saturday during the school year.</p>
<p>Well what colleges exactly are you looking into?</p>
<p>I'm looking at UCLA,USC,Point Loma, Pomona, UCSD, UCB, NYU, and UCI. </p>
<p>I didn't join volunteering to be on the Bandwagon. I joined because I want to be a doctor, I've trained various other volunteers in every department and have taken a bigger part at the Labratory. Instead of calling names or serving coffee, I sort Blood Samples, help with drawing blood, record into the computer and do some tests. Im doing a science fair based on the results from my volunteering. I love it very much but I was hoping it would also help with my application. If it doesn't Im not going to quit because I have a passion for it and I love working with people and I love to see how the human body works.</p>
<p>OP,
The fact that you want to be a doctor, and are connecting your volunteer work with science fair indicates that your volunteer work is part of a genuine passion for medicine, and that's a plus. Make sure that your application reflects that. The way that your initial post read, it sounded like you were just volunteering to amass lots of hours to try to impress colleges, which doesn't seem to be the case.</p>