I’ve done 20-30 hours of community service each year in high school, but this seems really small compared to the hundreds of hours some of my friends have done. Part of the reason for this is that I try to only strive for meaningful service, but part of it is that I haven’t had that much free time, between all my AP classes and extracurriculars. Do you think that I will be penalized for not having that many hours? How big of a factor does service hours play in admissions?
I don’t know how important it is to admissions. I did a small amount of community service. It wasn’t enough to justify putting on my application. I got accepted early action. Of course, each applicant is unique so I wouldn’t put too much stock in anecdotal information such as mine.
It’s not important to admissions. This is a common HS myth. You can have ZERO and be perfectly attractive to Stanford.
If what you did has been meaningful, that will speak for itself. Do include it, if so.
Stanford wants to see a deep and lasting commitment to SOMETHING. It does not matter so much what the something is as long as it is a positive human endeavor. The top schools are trying to become less formulaic. Taking care of one’s disabled parent is now being looked upon as favorably as winning science competitions - at least by some schools such as Harvard, and I would guess, Stanford.
I do think you have to do something other than just study for classes and get all A’s. That will be a rejection pretty much automatically, as it has been in our high school for many years now. So if it is not community service you are doing, there has to be something else that is meaningful to you and shows a deep-rooted interest on your app.