<p>sry, this question seems very common but i couldn't find it anywhere on this forum.<br>
How many hours of volunteer should one do to go to a decent college? In other words, how many hours should one work until colleges look at your transcript and say, "ok, you did enough."<br>
I'm kinda starting late because I just received a letter from a hospital after like a year of signing up an application. I'm thinking i could get 200 hours in if i work 3 hours every sunday, for 1 1/2 years. I don't want to impress colleges with lots of volunteer hours, but just enough to look 'good'. i'm sure they really don't care unless you're like a volunteer-freak.</p>
<p>I hope you're joking. You shouldn't do anything (or take any course) to "look good." Many U's don't even look at volunteer hours; many students arrive without them. Other applicants have an overabundance of them, & discover that unless it's connected with a true passion that carries through the student's life, there's no advantage in admissions. E.c.'s that are based on achievement (impressive athletics, performing arts, campus achievements that are continued off-campus or related to some h.s. course, such as debate) are more likely to provide a boost to an applicant. If the volunteering is an extension or a sharing of the e.c., that could be important.</p>
<p>OTOH, some students half-heartedly start a volunteer effort, which then surprisingly becomes an enthusiasm after the fact. So I would say, try it. A few hours a week won't hurt you or the hospital. But if you start hating it, there's no reason to continue. Even if a h.s. requires comm. svc. (ours does), it's much better to find something you can enjoy or is meaningful. Then the student can sometimes incorporate that learning into an essay if it can be done without sounding hackneyed.</p>
<p>...and I meant to add that "the long haul" is still preferable to the the short history. <em>However</em>, that is again IF you are getting something & giving something from The Long Haul (the 1.5 yrs). If while doing the 3 hrs., you find an add'l volunteer activity that you like even better, you can decide to replace the first one or add the second, because what really matters is something called Service <em>Learning</em>. Some people get more out of, or get more transformed, from one day's worth of work which has a powerful impact, and/or which leads to something else. </p>
<p>It's very difficult to give a generalized answer to your question, because volunteer efforts are very personal. Depending on the environment & the personality, it can feel as impersonal as working in an office. That's why i say, try it.</p>
<p>The colleges won't care about your volunteering if you can't care about it.</p>
<p>There are very few colleges that use ECs as part of their admissions process, and those literally are the top colleges in the country. Most colleges that consider ECs do so as part of choosing merit aid recipients.</p>
<p>The places like HPYS that do consider ECs as part of the admissions process are not impressed by numbers of organizations one is involved in or how many hours one has done volunteering or whether one has volunteered at all. </p>
<p>When it comes to community service, what impresses them is the impact: What programs you started, people whose lives you changed, money that you raised as part of volunteering. They also can tell the difference between someone who just put in the hours to try to look good and someone who truly cares about what they've done. The latter person will not be able to demonstrate any impact.</p>
<p>At Harvard, most of the students on campus do community service even though it's not required by the college. One of the biggest campus organizations is Phillips Brooks House, a student-run organization doing major community service projects throughout the Boston area.</p>
<p>Why do they do such activities? Because the students genuinely like helping others. Harvard grads continue doing CS for the rest of their lives because truly like it and care about making a difference.</p>
<p>theres no "magic number"</p>
<p>For Ivys, 200-300 would be a minimum, but it depends on the quality of your other extracurriculars.</p>
<p>I have been the head of my local alum interviewing committee for Harvard, and have been on Harvard's national admissions committee for alum: The Ivies do not have any minimum for CS. </p>
<p>It's possible to get into an Ivy with no CS.</p>
<p>What Ivies and similar schools care about is the quality of one's community service and other activities. "Quality" is measured by impact (which could be demonstrated through honors/awards related to your EC, or by your essay or an additional letter by, for instance, the parent of a student whom you'd tutored).</p>
<p>A student with no CS who has spent their free time working a job to help support their family would be ahead of a student who has done 1,000 hours of random CS to impress colleges. A student who has spearheaded a significant community or school project (and I don't mean heading the prom committee) would be ahead of a student who has done hundreds of hours of random community service. </p>
<p>Anyone who is selecting their ECs to try to impress top colleges probably isn't the type of student that those colleges would want to admit. The students such colleges want are those who have leadership and/or service-oriented passions, and talents in those areas, and pursue those passions with creativity and results.</p>