Hi, quick question
i dedicate time and effort to a lot of activities, that are vary from 1 hr to about 15 hours a week. I averaged a lot of my activites out, and put down 2-5 hrs for all of them. That leaves me at a total for 25 hours for activities on my Common App. Is this number too excessive? Although I’m telling the truth, will colleges think I’m lying??
please help, i already sent in a number of applications, and im scared whether this will screw up my chances. should i email colleges?
bump
I think you would be better off making closer predictions of your time per activity rather than putting 2 - 5 hours for each. I would not email the colleges of those apps you already submitted.
oops i think i might have been incorrect phrasing on my part @paveyourpath
each activity is not 2-5 hours, it’s that my lowest activity is 2 and my highest activity is 5. I have spend 24-25 hours a week according to the application towards activities. please know that i did combine some of my activities/clubs into one large activity
ex. Alto Saxophone: band, wind ensemble, jazz, quartet: 4 hours a week
knowing this is 24-25 a suspicious number???
^^Agree. If you do one EC 1hour/week, then say that. It’s not true to say you are doing that 2-3hours/week.
ahh, i think this is all a miscommunication on my part. @suzy100 i was talking about hours for 1 activity, for example, track is sometimes (1 hr a week–>off season to 16 hours–> during the season). Most of my activities are averaged out and fall within the 2-5 range.
also read the above post about how i combined activities.
please tell me ur thoughts on suspiciousness @suzy100
I think you are fine. Don’t worry about it. Things get weird in those numbers, especially on activities you can do during the school year and on breaks, or that have big bursts of activity. Colleges know that. Don’t sweat it.
Schools will probably not add up your hours unless you grossly overestimate to the point of blatantly and obviously lying.
If you tell them you’re in so many ECs that you would be literally catching negative hours of sleep, that’s one thing and they will most likely catch on… Otherwise, they just want to WHAT you’re active in, and HOW active you are in it. Don’t over-think things.
If you believe your estimates are an accurate approximation of the hours, and you can look yourself in the mirror with an acceptance letter in hand and say, “They accepted ME”, then you’re totally fine.
thank goodness! @mjr2013 @intparent yeah see thing is, I’m a CTO of a small e-magazine, and sometime it doesn’t take much time (approx 2 hours) if things run smoothly, but sometimes it can eat up my whole week. i’m just really scared that colleges will think that i’m lying to them.
also it is worth indicating, i have already been accepted to northeastern (27k scholarship) and umass, so i think they found my hours to be believable. i’m more worried about ivies/ivy-caliber schools
I think your hours are fine; you can certainly indicate peak hours if you want. When my son was applying, I remember him having similar questions. I think he solved it by saying something like, 10 hr/wk, 15 wk/yr. You could also change that to 5 hr/wk, 30 wk/yr. In general, adcoms know you are estimating. They also probably have an idea of (1) a manageable load, (2) in general, what certain activities tend to require, and how much more time is required by a leadership position.
most of my stuff is year round, would this be cause for concern @ChartresBlue
i.e my compnay, saxophone, piano, violin, orchestra, jazz, this online class i take, my recreational amateur photography club
If you are a busy kid, I think it is fine.
You’ll be fine. Honestly most colleges don’t look that closely at the numbers because they recognize how tricky estimating these things can be and they don’t hold that against you. Just do your best. You sound like you are on the right track.
Overall, 25 hrs per week is fine. Don’t overthink it. I think my son had about that, if not a tad more (hard to calculate because he would often use the X/wk, Y/yr), and he had Ivy acceptances. Just remember, just because you do something year round does not mean you do something every single week. Again, 25 hrs sounds normal for a competitive person.
I think if the numbers appear off they will assume you miscalculated. I think they will only look at the hours per activity as a reference point. I think you’re fine.
heaving a huge sigh of relief!!! Thank you all @Trisherella @ChartresBlue @shawnspencer