<p>I haven't been recording my community service and am worried that this will result in rejections from UCLA or Cal. I've never really seen the point of recording hours for doing good in my community. I am involved in my school and community a lot, as I've been in student council all through highschool, including a president position soph year and am the yearbook editor. Will not having a whole lot of community service result in rejection? because I know that the UC's emphasize accumulating a lot of hours more than your average state or private school. </p>
<p>the number of hours should be your least concern.</p>
<p>more importantly, you should make sure that your extracurriculars portray you as an active, involved individual.
focus on developing a passion for some of your extracurrics. if you do that, the hours should take care of themselves.</p>
<p>If anything, the UCs want people like you, who don't do the service for the hours but instead for actually contributing to the community. The application doesn't ask for total hours, it just asks for the top 5 (i think) activities, how long you have been involved, and approximate number of hours per week for each. I wouldn't worry about recording the hours by a certain deadline unless it's for your high school; I didn't record any until after I found out that I was accepted, and the only reason why I recorded them was for a graduation requirement and scholarship applications.</p>
<p>i was just worried because on every other "chances" thread, people state 150 community hours, or something like that...i know i've done a lot of work in my community, but i haven't bothered counting the hours and asking the organizations to send in letters to my school for the hours to be recorded...i dont know, it just doesn't feel right </p>
<p>it's like selfish community service, which is oxymoronic, and therefore it shouldn't be like that- even though it is in most cases</p>
<p>is the number stated (like 150 in the above post) a cumulative from all of the high school experience? assuming 3 years at the time of college apps, that is only 50 hours per year, easily done. what i dont like is how they expect them to be weekly things, instead of lumped during summer day camp volunteering for a few weeks</p>
<p>the 150 was just a hypothetical number I chose at random...</p>
<p>what i don't like is that community service has become a selfish activity- people do it to put hours on their application instead of actually doing it out of the kindness of their hearts</p>
<p>i like your attitude. try to portray someone who genuinely cares about community service in your personal statements, if you choose to write about that (but don't talk bad about those who are selfish). </p>
<p>and hours arent the important thing. the important thing is learning from your service and developing a character that likes to do service. usually this can only be done if one has done it long enough, hence the hours. </p>
<p>of course, a lot of people put in a lot of unenthusiast hours too.</p>