<p>Im planning on applying to the top schools. Hyps + a few more. For people applying to those same schools, how many community service hours do you have? Also, if you're not, but have any idea, about how many hours do accepted students at these schools have?</p>
<p>Vol hours are not evaluated. Why? Because nearly everyone has them or people can’t have them (work, sports, poverty, etc.). Thus they aren’t an indicator of anything special whatsoever. It’s a myth, foisted on HS kids. Yours can be zero and you get admitted. The other guy can have 1000 and be rejected.</p>
<p>So, you’re saying community service carries no weight at all in the admissions process?</p>
<p>It carries no more or less than other ECs. And some students with minimal EC hours of any kind can be accepted depending on their personal situation/circumstances. There is no specific formula. “Oh, that kid has less than 200 service hours, he goes in the reject pile.” It doesn’t work like that.</p>
<p>@Post #3: I’m not saying it has no weight. For very selective colleges, they want a diverse student body. Only these colleges factor in things such as ECs (voluntarism being one of them). 90% of colleges don’t weigh ANY ECs.</p>
<p>If an applicant has a particularly outstanding achievement in voluntarism, it’s definitely a boost b/c it can make him/her app unique. Otherwise, for the rest of us unwashed masses the # hours is completely “meh”.</p>
<p>Ill be applying this year and I have about 150+. I’m thinking 168. I think where you volunteer is an important factor, not just how many hours you have.</p>
<p>^ absolutely this.</p>
<p>If you volunteer, make sure you can say something about it that’s meaningful and/or non-cliche. I feel like most kids will go with the “it made me grateful for everything I have blah blah we need to help people who are less well off” but it just sounds bland. </p>
<p>Perhaps you could highlight the unique things you did and what you gained from each activity - something you should do regardless of it being a service-type EC or another kind. For my high school community service I had JROTC and serving meals at the food pantry. JROTC was the main EC I wrote about in my Common App, so I talked about how I had developed my leadership skills and how humbling it was to assist and serve those who had served our country in the past. </p>
<p>If someone were to ask me what I gained or enjoyed about the pantry I would tell them that in the end, it really doesn’t matter if you’re poor or rich, black or white, young or old (as our food pantry serves everyone, half of whom are elderly and half of whom are families with young children - some were poor, some were just seeking to have a home-cooked meal with others)…it’s about taking care of other human beings.</p>
<p>Sounds a bit better than the typical “omg it made me realize that my life is so easy!”</p>
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<p>This.</p>
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<p><em>insert flowery non-quantitative response</em></p>
<p>Not sure the exact number, something around 500 hours. It matters and implies that you are aware of your community/are trying to give back. That being said you can get in without community service.</p>
<p>This thread made me a lot more confident than I was before…</p>
<p>I’ve met a fair amount of kids with immense numbers of hours tracked, and almost every one of them is as cynical and uncompassionate as a corrupt politician- I’ve heard a number of them say that they don’t even like helping “worthless beggars” and “burdens on society” but hey, “it looks good on applications,” so they track each and every minute of service, from the homeless shelter to helping carry papers to the office. It’s sickening. </p>
<p>I hope that what people here say is true and that hours matter less than real service and leadership- not to sound self-righteous, but I feel better when I help just for the sake of helping, and I deliberately lose track of hours. </p>
<p>Hopefully that won’t ruin my chances of getting into a top school, but I wouldn’t want to go to one that doesn’t understand the difference between real service and hour-whoring.</p>
<p>You’ll be fine, MedBound17. Your attitude says more about you than community services hours or grades will. If you don’t get into whatever your reach/dream school is, then they’ve lost a worthwhile candidate. I felt the same way in high school when my friends would nickel and dime for their required hours. I didn’t volunteer very much, but I did it because I wanted to and enjoyed it.</p>
<p>MedBound, you mean they’re like Justin? [url=<a href=“http://www.theonion.com/articles/soupkitchen-volunteers-hate-collegeapplicationpadd,1422/]Soup-Kitchen”>Soup-Kitchen Volunteers Hate College-Application-Padding Brat]Soup-Kitchen</a> Volunteers Hate College-Application-Padding Brat | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source<a href=“Content%20warning:%20contains%20profanity%20and%20scathing%20satire.”>/url</a></p>
<p>I don’t track my hours; I know that I have a good number of them, but they’re pretty irrelevant in terms of college admissions or … anything else, really.</p>
<p>I didn’t list any volunteer hours or activities on my app - because there were many other things I did instead.</p>
<p>It’s not some box you have to check off to get into such and such fancy school, guys. Volunteer because you find it meaningful and have gotten something out of it.</p>
<p>I’m going to apply next year and I have almost 200 hours so far.</p>
<p>volunteering has been always my passion (!). </p>
<p>you won’t get rejected because you don’t have volunteer hours. I have been volunteering in some places for last 4 and a half years. But I haven’t counted and put those in application. at least 500 hours. and counting.</p>