<p>Will colleges accept service hours from years back? For example let's say you volunteered at a soup kitchen in like 5th grade but did it for 3 years. Would colleges accept that or would you need something more recent?</p>
<p>Where do you see them asking for service hours in the first place? Are you applying for something specific that requires volunteer hours?</p>
<p>I think the general rule that I’ve heard is that any extracurricular activities (including community service) doesn’t count if completed before high school. The exception is, of course, if you stuck with the activity in the high school years, If you also did the soup kitchen in the 9th grade and then quit then you could say “soup kitchen volunteer, 5 years”. If you are talking about the common app (for most private schools), they ask you which years you completed the activity and they don’t have an option for anything before 9th grade.</p>
<p>No college cares about the # of vol hours you had. 2 or 2000 is mostly irrelevant. </p>
<p>The general rule is if you did it in high school, then you are validated in saying that you did it before high school. In the CommonApp, there is a section to give a brief description of the activity in which you can say that you did soup kitchen volunteering since 5th grade. But if you did it and then gave up before high school, the it doesn’t count. The real question is are you absolutely serious about community service, because it can be a major theme of your college application. </p>
<p>Community Service is a great way to show colleges that you aren’t self-centered and are willing to give back to the community: a common feature of a lot of colleges. This is one of the reasons why so many students do it, and because of that I am here to say that only a little time spent doing community service doesn’t mean a lot anymore to college admissions. </p>
<p>Unless you have done it religiously, like gave back during middle or elementary school (it appears you have, which is good), community service is basically a requirement. I would do it for a year, put it on your college app and be done. If community service REALLY matters to you, then write about it in your essay. Colleges are increasingly looking for what you are interested in and a sense of your personality in the essay, and unless something is extravagant in your activities list, they will assume that the ECs that you didn’t write about in your essays aren’t as influential or as important as the one your did write about.</p>
<p>With that being said, my advice would be to keep volunteering for community service and then write about it in your essay come application time. Good luck!</p>
<p>Generally stuff before HS doesn’t count. You could say you started in 5th Grade if you still did it in HS, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>And please, don’t write about community service in your essay.</p>