I will have the opportunity to work as a non-paid intern at a local accounting firm this summer and I was wondering if colleges even care about the amount of hours you have worked at the company or just the experience that you have gained from it? I have the option of working all day or for half days and I would like to know if internship hours are like volunteer hours (the more the better)? If the amount of hours is a main determining factor of how beneficial this internship was, how many hours, in total, would be a good amount for 2 months?
There is no magic number for internships or volunteer work. Just having the internship in general will be a good activity to add to your app, so I wouldn’t worry about achieving a specific amount of hours. Plus, the colleges won’t know that you were offered the option of having more hours. I don’t think colleges are particularly looking for experience to be gained from an internship, it’s more of showing that you are committed to something and spend your time productively.
If you did do half days, would you be doing something else productive with your time that you could include in your application?
Looking forward though, when you’re applying to actual jobs, it may be more beneficial to have worked the full days because then you will have more skills/experiences to describe on your resume.
When you apply to college, your Activities list is going to say either
“Accounting Internship, Summer 2016, 500 hours, duties included X, Y Z”
or
“Accounting Internship, Summer 2016, 200 hours, duties included X, Y Z”
No one on this planet is going to distinguish between the two. You’re a HS student with an interesting internship. No one is going to input your hours and see how you compare to others. The reader will look at that in under one second and continue to look at the rest of your profile. Don’t get caught up in the weeds. Good luck
Maybe see if you can work a half day on Friday if it works for the company – this way you can get an early start to the weekend. When my S did one volunteer internship during college, they gave all the interns Friday off.
