<p>How many community service hours will you guys be applying with? I hear that many students apply with like 800+ hours is this true...? I understand if the hours are devoted to a focused effort it is better!</p>
<p>I'll be applying with 325 hours. However, I don't have more than 80 hours in any given place.</p>
<p>Community service is highly overrated when it comes to H admissions.</p>
<p>Where do we put these hours on our app? Will it just be evident from our activities lists or will we have to put them somewhere seperate?</p>
<p>i got about 1200 or so...much of it is part of one activity where I'm a leader, so those hours will be part of the activities list</p>
<p>^but i'm worried they wont believe me...so my only supplemental rec. is from the director of that program, and i guess that'll be proof enough</p>
<p>eyezonharvard, can u explain that? I get your point if you're trying to say that doing 5 hours here, 2 hours there, etc. in a bunch of places isn't helpful at all...but what's overrated about concentrating many hours on a specific volunteer effort?</p>
<p>Well, I should've stated my viewpoint more clearly. What I meant to say is that too often people on CC come out and view their 1200 hours of community service as a "hook". Community service hours are not a hook. They're a nice thing to have on your app, but not matter how many you get, they won't be a hook on their own.</p>
<p>The "hook" is not the hours themselves but rather whether or not the community service you did involved something noteworthy, and by noteworthy I mean something extraordinary. Because let's be brutally honest here, this is Harvard; where the extraordinary is the rule not the exception.</p>
<p>So don't run around trumpeting how many hours you did in "community service". To be sure, that's very commendable, but it's not a hook. Now if you were to come out and say "I did 500 hours of volunteer work at the local hospital, where I helped with a landmark study on childhood cancer", then I'd say "Good job, you have a hook".</p>
<p>i agree with you. a bunch of hours is definitely not a hook unless it had impact.</p>
<p>I agree. One could spend 5,000 hours stuffing envelopes and that is not going to impress Harvard. Basically, that would demonstrate no leadership or creativity. Any drone can stuff envelopes for 5,000 hours.</p>
<p>A student who organized a successful service project, devoted a couple of hours each week for a couple of years to mentoring a disabled child (and had a supplementary recommendation from the child or their parent saying how the student helped improve the child's life), these are the kinds of things that are impressive. It's impact, not hours spent that's important.</p>
<p>Harvard is looking to admit students who'll be leaders in a variety of fields, including being leaders in doing service with Harvard and their own communities. It's not looking for for people who'll do what they are told for hours on end, but who can't develop projects or lead initiatives. Someone who has volunteered with an organization for hundreds of hours and still is just stuffing envelopes or answering the phone is not demonstrating the initiative that Harvard looks for.</p>
<p>Couldn't have said it better myself.</p>
<p>My son, a current Harvard freshman, had VERY little community service. Other than what was required by the honor societies in his school, his only ones were about 50 hours of hospital volunteer work over one summer, and some volunteer tutoring. All his major ec's were in the areas of research, debate, sports (not an athletic recruit) and music. I don't think that they are looking specifically for large quantities of community service unless that's what the student is truly passionate about. Students should actively pursue their true areas of interest, and if that includes service, great.</p>
<p>What do you guys think about my volunteer:
70 hours with basketball team
60 hours leukemia lymphoma society
50 hrs with National Honor Society
40 with Key Club
70 with local library</p>
<p>Maguo: If you're applying to places like HPYS, your list would not be impressive because all that your list reflects are hours, not impact. It also seems that you've done random volunteering that was arranged by the clubs and teams that you were on. That's not as impressive as when a person's service indicates a strong interest or passion as well as leadership.</p>
<p>Here's a hypothetical example of something that might be more impressive:</p>
<p>Animal Shelter: 100 hours total.Freshman year-present. Clean cages, walk animals, hold animals while they are put to sleep. Help register people and clean up for the annual Turkey Trot fund raiser. (Enclosed with application an extra recommendation from the head of the animal shelter, who had worked closely with the student for several years.)</p>
<p>National Honor Society: As vice president created and organized a dance-a-thon fund raiser that raised $500 to help animals who were separated from their owners because of Hurricane Katrina. 20 hours.</p>
<p>Spent one day a week each summer taking their dog to retirement homes. This was a way that residents who were not able to have pets were able to interact with an animal.</p>
<p>That's exactly what I am doing!!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Yes...I am doing this right! Guys understand...I know I am not the only in this condition, but I am doing this all alone:(. My school has never had anyone apply to Harvard and the counselors have never had to write a recommendation of such magnitude! I had to do all my research to discover edges in the app process! I created extensive recommendation guides for my teachers and counselor (who is my sposor for Beta club:) ) so that they can incorporate certain advantages that will be hooks in my application. This will be a short part of it and the rest will be a rec with ANECDOTAL evidence to support adjectives. I think I am doing this right!! :) Is it really something if ALL your teachers and counselor selects "top of my career" or is that something of dilluted merit and most applicants have that? Anyone else have that? Anyone else have outstanding? How weighted are these?</p>