My firstborn is applying to college. I have seen people talk about the number of hours of volunteer and extracurriculars, but what exactly should my kid write? He is creating a résumé. Should he write the number of hours per week that he does these activities on his resume? Sorry if this question has been previously asked. I don’t recall having to do any of this back in the 80s! 
The Common App asks for number of hours for each EC in the Activities section. I wouldn’t put hours on a resume, just dates.
1 Like
How do you figure number of hours for each EC? I mean, just guesstimate? My D22 is a theater kid and over the years has done a lot of plays, although last year was a bust. She’s never timed how many hours rehearsal lasts.
My kid was in the same boat. If I recall, the Common App asked that one identify which years one had participated in which activities, and how many hours one had spent on them. Somehow I think that it was how many hours/week in a given year, for each activity. When we totaled up the hours spent, it was astonishing. We’d never thought of it that way, but it was as if my kid had been working a full time job while attending high school. Theater kids spend a LOT of hours rehearsing, especially in the last couple of weeks before opening, and if it has a run of two weeks, they spend a ton of hours performing during the run. So yes, you do guesstimate. Have her do her best to total it up, and put that down. Admissions committees realize how many hours kids who do theater spend on it. When I think of how little time my kid had for schoolwork, what with all the hours put into practicing, rehearsing and performing with all those ensembles, I have no idea how he kept his grades up. I think that these kids get very good at working efficiently during the time they have for studying, and I think the schools recognize this. She should be honest, but she shouldn’t shortchange herself by underestimating it.
2 Likes