Community service/SSL question

Applying to College
1

<p>So, I was talking to my friend and she said that she has about 360 volunteer hours, most of which she got from volunteering in the school's main office during 9th and 10th grade (we're juniors right now). I have about 160 hours (and counting...) from doing various different things. This year I am involved in a bunch of different activities, most of which give me SSL hours. My question here is: what do colleges prefer for community service? Lots of activities that you've put in some hours to (not like 100 but like 20-30) or one thing that you've done for a really long time like my friend (she's done a few other things, but I know at LEAST 200 of her hours are from working in the main office)? In other words, should I back away from some of the other stuff and focus my attention on only a few things? Or should I not worry about it? Do colleges even really care about what you do for SSL hours?</p>

<p>Many thanks,
FrayedPages</p>

2

<p>You should know that most colleges give little or no attention to ECs. They entirely (or almost entirely) admit by scores and grades, and some such as large publics actually publish the index score you need to be admitted. </p>

<p>But if you are thinking about the most selective colleges, then member of this or volunteer at that are not ECs at the level needed to be competitive for admissions. Sitting in the main office for 200 hours does not seem quite up to what other students applying to these schools are doing – see, for example, the several posts by a Ivy alum interviewer about what she’s seen applicants do at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So my advice would be to first find out whether the colleges you think you’d be interested in applying to even care about ECs. If not, then you might well very decide to continue doing them because you want to. But if you are thinking primarily about what will look good to adcoms, which to be honest is the primary motivation of many doing ECs, then the link above gives you an idea of what the competition is up to. Two very interesting articles about ECs that stand out and how to get them (same author, different examples) are at [How</a> to Be Impressive](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/05/28/the-art-of-activity-innovation-how-to-be-impressive-without-an-impressive-amount-of-work/]How”>The Art of Activity Innovation: How to Be Impressive Without an Impressive Amount of Work - Cal Newport) and [Save</a> This Grind?](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2008/09/12/case-study-how-could-we-save-this-ridiculously-overloaded-grind/]Save”>Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind? - Cal Newport) While I don’t agree with everything in them, take a look at these 2 articles and I think you’ll get some original ideas.</p>