I know quality is what really matters, and top level schools are looking for remarkable achievement/commitment, but how many hours a week are they looking for a kid to put into ECs? 5? 10? 20? 30?
I do not think that you can live your life trying to guess what a highly ranked university wants you to do. I think that you need to do what is right for you, and then find a university that fits what you have done.
Also, we put way too much stress on our high school students in the US. The effort to guess what a top ranked university wants is driving way too many high school students in the US to suffer from significant stress related health issues.
Top priority for me would be to stay healthy and sane. Next is to do well in your classes. To me everything else is way less important.
If an EC is interesting to you, and it if contributes to the “stay sane” goal, then it is a good EC. If you can help make the EC better for the other students who participate, then to me that is leadership. Of course if you are in a competition and win fairly, that might also be considered leadership.
My first week at MIT (I was young) an upper year student told me to find my way to relate to the 'tute (a nickname for MIT). At the time I found this very hard to understand. However, I now think that it is the right approach to handle not just the stress of the 'tute but also the stressful process that is the US education system.
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This is great advice - not just for college but for life! Do what makes you happy, and find a place that is a good fit for that. If you are always trying to chase exterior “goals,” you will never feel content or happy.
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you are going down the wrong road here. Find a way to make a contribution doing something that matters to you (once you identify what it is; many HS students spend the first year or two exploring to find it). The hours it takes, that will be the right amount.
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It depends. I don’t think that the top schools are looking for a certain number of hours. They’re looking for involvement in, and leadership in, activities that mean something to YOU. When we totaled up the number of hours my kid had spent all through high school on his main extracurricular activity (music), it turned out to have been 40-50 hrs/wk! But he didn’t look at it that way. He was doing what he loved, so it wasn’t a burden.
So if it’s not too late, think of what you love to do, think of what leadership roles you might achieve in those activities, and go for it. Don’t worry about tallying up a certain number of hours.
Ex- Admissions Officer here, hours themselves don’t necessarily matter. As the others have already said, finding a cause or topic you are passionate about is infinitely more important. Colleges are looking for high levels of involvement and achievement. This can be shown through awards, leadership positions, and content creation-- however, one thing colleges don’t generally use as a metric, are the hours committed themselves. Spend how ever many hours are able to and are comfortable with, remember there’s so much more to life than just admissions!