How many community service hours should i have for top schools?

<p>On my application I put 250 hours of community service for peer tutoring classmates/underclassmen in writing.</p>

<p>Yes I had 20-30 here and 20-30 there, but my main focus was tutoring students which is part of the reason I plan to major in English and optimally become a college professor.
Anyway, sorry about that digression, but my question is is 250 hours in 1 area enough?</p>

<p>Please don't respond if you're going to make a sarcastic joke like "you have to cure cancer too... or 10000 hours".</p>

<p>I would just like to know if 250 hours in one volunteer aspect is impressive, especially if i got a volunteer award for it</p>

<p>not really... and it doesn't matter about how much cs you do, what matters is, if you are passionate about it. Colleges can sometimes see that the cs you are doing pertains to nothing of your interests, so they think "O' the applicant is just doing it to put it on his/her resume".</p>

<p>exactly
so im going to be an English major
i tutored 250 hours of writing tutoring
and in one of my essays i alluded to the profound effect tutoring others in what i loved had on me
now what do u think?</p>

<p>its a good amount, nothing to brag about.</p>

<p>On the common app atleast you really don't put down total hours, but instead how many hours you do a week and how many weeks you do that in a year. This provides the college with a more realistic view. I mean you could do all of it in 2 weeks and then stop, so idk it sort of depends, 20-30 here and there is not as good as like 3 hrs weekly for 4 years.</p>

<p>^ you could always "exaggerate".</p>

<p>obviously im not going to exaggerate because theres no point in being honest about every other detail of the app except for one thing
i do it roughly 10 hours a week</p>

<p>if 250 is " nothing to brag aobut" i guess nmy qwuestion is what nu mber is?</p>

<p>500? 750?</p>

<p>bumpbumpbump anyone else have an opinion</p>

<p>

Well, if you ask a silly question... </p>

<p>There is no magic number for community service. Many applicants are admitted who did no community service at all. Admissions officers are not going to admit Applicant A because he did 50 more hours than Applicant B or because Applicant C did community service in an area unrelated to his academic interest (the horror!).</p>

<p>
[quote]
I would just like to know if 250 hours in one volunteer aspect is impressive

[/quote]
The question about impressive ECs comes up regularly. There is a post by NSM, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs. The post is at <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html&lt;/a> From the info in in those posts, 250 hours of volunteer work (while of course laudable) is not impressive to adcoms.</p>

<p>BTW 2 very interesting articles about ECs that stand out (same author, different examples) are at How</a> to Be Impressive Without an Impressive Amount of Work and How</a> Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind? Take a look and I think you'll get some ideas.</p>

<p>I think what is strong in application is the close tie you have created between your tutoring and your long term goal of being an English prof. I don't think the number of hours really matters, as long as it was enough to have the effect on you that you report.</p>

<p>Also, I think the whole community service hours advantage seems to be wearing off--That is, it has become just another thing kids do to "get in" and therefore has become less valuable.</p>

<p>^^^^ Listen to Deirdre.</p>

<p>Make sure to tie those peer tutoring hours (and your love of learning....) to your desire to be a professor. That's what's important.</p>

<p>why don't you submit an additional essay about how it affected you... then you won't need to worry about the hours. the'd know- even if they don't have time to read the essay- that your involvement was serious and significant.</p>