In my Common App activities section, I mentioned that I am both an intern and volunteer at a local nonprofit organization. I stated that the activity takes up 3 hours per week for 20 weeks per year. However, I did not explicitly state the number of hours I have already done thus far. In one of my other volunteering activities, I stated that I do it for 1 hour per week for 35 weeks per year. Once again, I did not state how many hours I have done so far.
I also mentioned that I am a volunteer at another organization in the additional information section. However, I did not state any hours once again.
Is this an issue? I more or less emphasized what I specifically did rather than how long I did it for. I’m also assuming that admissions officers might calculate the number of hours I have done based on my hrs/week and weeks/yr for the first two activities.
Relax. I think Admissions Officers are fully capable of multiplying 3 X 20 and coming up with 60 hours per year. Likewise, I think Admissions is fully capable of multiplying 1 X 35, so again I would let it go.
As many high schools now REQUIRE students to do community service hours in excess of 60 hours per year, IMHO Admissions basically IGNORES all such minimal service hours on a student’s EC list. Instead, they look for what kind of IMPACT those hours had on your community. And unless you have written about those hours in your essay, or your teachers wrote about it in their recommendations letters – it’s a non-issue. In fact, I’ve written this in the past and firmly stand by it
FWIW: Both my kids didn’t have any community service hours on their activities list and were accepted to HYP and a bunch of other top schools. So, community service hours, in my opinion, are highly overrated,
@gibby I was planning to exclude the 1 hr/week EC, but it is a program that I have been participating in every Friday for the past two years. I even wrote my extracurricular supplement about it. Does this make the situation any better?
^^ Maybe. It all depends on what you said and the “tone” of the essay. Keep in mind that when my kids applied to HYP, they each submitted the SAME transcript, SAME teacher recommendations, SAME Secondary School Report (SSR), and the SAME essays to each school – however each of my kids were rejected by at least one of those schools. Bottom line: the entire college admissions process is subjective; what one Admissions Officer (and one college) responds positively to, another may feel meh about – and it’s impossible to know in advance how they will feel when you press the submit button. Best of luck to you!