<p>On the Common App, you probably know that for each activity you provide, it asks for the time you committed to it per week. I just have one question with this:</p>
<p>What if the time happens to vary wildly over the course of the year? For example, I was the president of our school's Latin Club. Therefore, the most pressing times came during preparation for/registration for conventions and trips, which themselves often took up an entire day or two. However, at the same time there were some weeks in which there was literally nothing going on. Should I just do my best to total everything up and average it out for the school year?</p>
<p>I would make it the average. Let’s say that during the busiest time of the year, you are with the club for 5 hours a week. And during the slow times are 1 hour a week.</p>
<p>Just make it 3 hours/week</p>
<p>i had the same problem
i rounded up
oh well</p>
<p>Estimate, round, or divide total hours spent by the number of weeks spent. Be as accurate and truthful as you can, but don’t overthink it. They’re not going to audit your datebook; they just want to get a good idea of how you’ve spent your time and what kind of commitment your activities required.</p>
<p>My kids had the same issues. They had activities that sometimes just took 3 to 4 hours a week, but then had a full-time 4-day event in another city every other month. They just estimated the total hours and divided them by the number of weeks to come up with a weekly number.</p>
<p>You are not going to get rejected or accepted just because you changed three hours to four. Just be honest, and don’t really sweat over it too much.</p>
<p>While I understand why they ask this question on the CommonApp and other apps I always found it to be quite frustrating based on similar arguments to those above with questions like hm should I be a little more generous in my estimation or is this even an accurate representation. But in the end I think one should just make a best estimate and move on, there are more important parts of the app to focus on.</p>
<p>Do the average, but if it’s an EC that takes up 2-3 months of the year (like a seasonal sport), I would put down 15 hr/week for 12 weeks. It makes the EC look more substantial.</p>