Foreign Exchange as an EC on Common App -- How many hours per week?

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

I’ve recently returned to the US after a year of study abroad in Japan via Rotary Youth Exchange. I’m now a senior and am busy filing out college apps, but on the common app I’m forced to state how many hours per week I participated in a particular EC (which seems ridiculous to me, but oh well). Although I do plan to write my essay about my exchange year in Japan, I want to list my exchange as my major-most EC (should I do this?) and thus need to specify how many hours per week I “participated” (considering I was physically in Japan full-time, I’d say 24 hours a day, lol).

I considered putting the amount of time I attended (a regular Japanese) high school there: 7 hours a day, 5 days a week = 35 hours a week. However, saying that I did this for 35 hours a week for 48 weeks sounds kind of ridiculous (that’s 1680 hours, btw). How should I go about this?

2

bump

3

You were attending high school. You will have this school listed in the Education section. List any activities you did outside of school while you were there, just like you would for your other HS years. Counting every minute as an EC is not appropriate IMO. AdComms will see that you spent the year abroad.

If you are writing your essay about your exchange year, the school’s will have insight to your overall experience. It’s best if each section of your App adds something new, and doesn’t just repeat things that are in other sections.

4

I received no academic credit for the courses I took in Japan, however. I took some AP courses online but nothing at the school itself that actually counted. Would you still recommend I put it on the education section?