So, I just submitted by applications to my schools and just found out that I had way too many hours on the activity section. A lot of my activities mainly happen on the break, and the hours I spend during the school year gets smaller.
These are my activities:
Class Officer 3hrs per week /36 weeks per year
Singing 9hrs /46 weeks
Math Group 4hrs / 36 weeks
Robotics 20hrs / 46 weeks
Community Service 8hrs / 52 weeks
Technology stuff 7hrs / 52weeks
Tutoring 2 hrs/ 36weeks
church volunteer 4hrs / 52weeks
Other activity 3hrs / 20 weeks
Average comes out to be like 60 hours per week… is it TOO MUCH? They are not lies, because for Robotics, I spend like 3 hours everyday during school year and like 6 hours per day during summer and winter break. Also, Community service, I do it like 2 hours every week and 12 hours per day for a month to like far countries. As I did the average, it came out to be like not, but I just didn’t know the hours would add up to that much.
I’m applying to some Ivys, will this tick off the Admission Officers?
Thank you
If they are not lies, don’t be concerned about them. If you really do put that much time into that amount of clubs, I’m fairly certain adcoms will be impressed that you managed such a tight schedule, not tick them off.
This would absolutely raise a red flag for me. How is it possible that you really do all this and go to school? What is “technology stuff” and “other activities”? I assume you describe those differently on the Common App?
@suzy100 yes but they are pretty impressive stuff. The problem is that I did most of them a lot on Freshmen, Sophomore year. But then, I decided to change my activities to other things and spend more time on them and spend less time on the stuff that I did in Freshman and Sophomore year. In fact, I have great GPA and test scores, taking 8 AP exams last year and 4 of them were self -study. BUT AT THE END, I pulled it off and they are all true. I don’t know I really hope the adcoms do trust me.
You did, I hope, label those activities as freshman & soph year only, right?
@ARandomGeek no I did not. I still participate in Junior and Senior year too, but just less time spent on it.
I think this “hours spent” section on the Common App is goofy for exactly the reasons you are describing. Your commitment might vary hugely depending on the time of year and from year to year. I get that Robotics is HUGE from about now until mid-Feb, for instance, but eats up smaller amounts of time year round if you are active. If you are a captain this year, you might spend a lot more time than you spent freshman year, when you were super active in your math group or some other activity.
I actually wouldn’t worry about it. I think colleges know that it is hard to accurately represent this because your time ebbs and flow over the year.
An obvious solution is to just normalize them over the school year. Some responsibilities like Class Rep might have some periods where quite a bit of time is required several times each term, but over 36 weeks it might only be 1 hour per week.
@JustOneDad @intparent do you think I should email the schools and tell them newly calculated hours? Or should I let it be? I just read some articles and thread about how having too many hours can hurt your chance.
Did you use the pull-down menus as much as you could and include more specific information than you gave us above? Things like noting the years (9,10), (10 only), (summer), etc? Did you add other descriptive details about your specific participation?
No there wasn’t enough space @JustOneDad
Did you note the number of weeks like you did above (e.g. 46 weeks), indicating beyond the regular school year?