I recently read a book on college admissions that discussed how volunteer hours and work experience are important to the application. Due to my busy schedule, I only have scattered volunteer hours, the biggest chunks being about 15-20 hours each from tutoring and helping to teach at an interfaith program, with not much of a long-term commitment (maybe with tutoring). As well, I’m working at a concession stand for some money for no more than 2 months this summer, no other work experience.
How important are these aspects of the college application? I have strong academics and other qualities, but I don’t know if I should be concerned about these weaknesses.
The vast majority of colleges don’t care if you have a single hour of work or vol experience and will gladly admit you based on academics alone. Only the tippy top schools – where multiples of students with near flawless academics – do ECs and other activities really matter.
The vol hour thing is a myth for 90% of applicants.
The vol hour thing is a myth for 100% of applicants. Somewhere the ‘admission fairy’ told someone that they needed to volunteer and since then, the race has been on to stack up hours - who knows why? You don’t have to volunteer at all. At selective schools, you need to demonstrate excellence in your ECs, as you do in your academics. It can be in a sport, in an art, in some other field entirely…It doesn’t have to be school-related, measurable, organized, or involve ‘proof’ that you did it. You just have to engage seriously with something that you care about. If you need to work to earn money, that’s perfectly reasonable as an EC. It’s not ‘excellence’ but then, that only matters at highly selective schools. And if you are low income, working to support yourself and your family is as excellent as you can get.