<p>I was wondering, I added up my total time I spent doing community service based on my common application, and it added up to over 850 hours over my four years of high school not including my job (4 hours/week) and also not including the time I spent doing my varsity sport. I was wondering if 850 is alot of hours or if this is around how much the typical applicant does, is this alot, average, or a little?</p>
<p>Cornell is my first choice. My highschool counselor said that Cornell looks more at the applicant as a whole, not just grades and test scores. Is this true? I think it may be because of the alumni information sessions they do. How common is it that people get an informational session from Cornell? My alumni interviewer said he wrote me a good report. How much will this influence the admissions directors?</p>
<p>And, if my SAT scores and GPA isn't extremely exceptional (but still good), will Cornell admissions take into account that all these extracurriculars were taking up a lot of my time and thus my grades may not be extremely exceptional?</p>
<p>they don't get to see how many hours you have, unless you somehow indicate it on your application. but the number of hours isn't everything. they also look at what kind of activities you were involved in, and how you showed your leadership abilities.</p>
<p>Yeah, my app never had the total number of hours.
But I had roughly 800 hours-ish (100 per year, and 200 each for 2 summers).
If you are REALLY into community service though, you might want to some how indicate that on your application...
And like accept100 has put it, it also depends on WHAT kind of service you did.... and HOW you did it.</p>
<p>There's no set number you must have (although I think 850 is a lot). I'm sure your EC's will be evaluated in the context of your application. For example, if you talk about being premed and how you want to serve humanity as a physician and yet you only have 20 hours of volunteering, then that's not very good. If public service is not a huge aspect of your app, then I'm sure the adcom would be okay if you have other great EC's. You don't need volunteering AND work experience AND musical instrument AND clubs AND leadership AND athletic involvement.</p>
<p>I did 6 books of hours...
Yeah, my library works that way. You review 6 books, 10 hours for each book = 60 hours and .25 credit per 20 hours = .75 credits, lol, so yeah....</p>
<p>I have about 100 at the middle of my senior year, but I'm on track for 200 by the end of the year. Service is required at my school, and there are kids who get 1000+ hours over 4 years in every graduating class.</p>
<p>"But I say if you have 850 hours, you might want to emphasize that on your app."
How would you do that exactly? Would you just list the hours in the CommonApp? I'm asking because I'm in a similar situation.</p>
<p>How do you actually keep track of your hours? I’ve never done any community service in my life. Did you actually count every individual hours you’ve spent? Or do the places you worked at keep track?</p>
<p>If you don’t keep track, you can estimate by seeing how many hours you do it in a week and how many weeks in a year you participate in it. Then multiply.</p>
</p>