Extracurricular Hours

Applying to College
1

<p>On the CA Activities list, my extracurricular/volunteer hours total to around 500 hours per year (about 10 hours per week), not including all summer activities. I am homeschooled, so I have more time and a more flexible schedule. These numbers are totally true, but I am concerned that admissions counselors may not believe me. </p>

<p>Are my hours within a normal range? If not, would it be a good idea for me to deflate them to a more reasonable number?</p>

<p>Thanks!!</p>

2

<p>Be honest. Don’t worry about what someone would think. If you put in the hours, put them on the CA.</p>

3

<p>Good news for you. They aren’t going to challenge your hours. Why? Because hours don’t matter. At colleges that care about ECs, accomplishments do.</p>

<p>Fact is, most colleges don’t care about ECs or give them minimal weight. You can see this from the Common Data Set filings. So those adcoms, obviously, are not going to worry about how many hours you claim. At the top 100 or so colleges that DO care about ECs, merely piling up hours does not make for strong ECs. </p>

<p>The question about impressive EC’s comes up regularly on the forum. There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is 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>As you will see from that link, at the most selective colleges they are looking for depth more than just participation. Stanford, for example, says

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