Community Service Hours

Applying to College
1

<p>I have around 375 hours right now, but it's from multiple things.
I worked at the church playing piano for awhile, but then I started going to another church so I stopped.
Then I went to the Boys and Girls Club over summer as well as working at a recreation center.
I have hours from various events that are a one time deal kind of thing.
I also worked at the library last year for tutoring.
Now I'm working at the hospital for about a year now and go there every week. </p>

<p>It's pretty inconsistent but sometimes, my schedule or things changed the opportunities I had to stick and commit to one. Does that look bad on college applications?</p>

2

<p>"Does that look bad on college applications? "</p>

<p>No. Colleges don’t care about vol hours despite what propaganda your HS community tells you. Most colleges don’t even care about ANY ECs. Only a few do. </p>

<p>Please do things that interest you and will benefit those around you. Your voluntarism is desperately needed. </p>

<p>But colleges aren’t keeping track. It’s sad that schools/teachers force you into this rat race to tally hours. Free yourself. Stop keeping track as well.</p>

3

<p>Not true^. Most colleges DO look and care about EC’s</p>

4

<p>futurefocus: most = more than 50%. You’re saying more than 50% of US colleges weigh something besides transcript and test scores? </p>

<p>While they would like to have kids who are active in things, the fact is about +80% of US colleges do not evaluate non-academic factors (transcript & test scores)</p>

5

<p>Every college (the decent ones) cares about ECs!</p>

6

<p>T26E4: ok ya, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking about all the low level colleges that only care of grades.</p>

7

<p>Caring about extracurricular activities is still different from caring about an applicant’s tally of community service hours.</p>

<p>There are about 2500 universities and 4-year colleges in the U.S. Most of them are just looking to put backsides in the seats. If you meet their academic standards, you’ll be admitted. A few hundred colleges and universities (maybe fewer) get way more academically qualified applicants than they require to fill their entering classes. These institutions choose among those academically qualified students on several bases, including extracurricular accomplishments.</p>

<p>If you’re a jock, they’ll be interested in how good a player you are. If you’re a soprano, they’ll want to know how accomplished a vocalist. If your shtick is community service, they may well be interested in how much good you’ve done, but even then they won’t care terribly much precisely how many hours you tallied while you were doing it.</p>