<p>This summer I did some volunteer work. Because I spent about half the summer out of my home city, and the position was only open a few days a week, my total hours number only around 45. Is this too low for selective colleges (fairly, but not exceedingly high-tier, stuff like UCLA, UMich, Tufts)? I should mention that the work wasn't a standard uninteresting soup-kitchen affair, it was at a new center that helps senior citizens learn how to use technology (I basically helped people set up their phones, learn how to use PCs, that kind of thing), but will the low total hour count reflect negatively, i.e., is it even worth mentioning?</p>
<p>It's not my only EC, but it's one of 3 that are at all important.</p>
<p>Honestly, it shouldn’t reflect negatively on your application in any way. However, don’t include it on your application if you felt forced to do it. While compared to others’ time spent, 45 hours might not seem significant, it’s quite a bit of time. This isn’t an especially moving EC, so I wouldn’t depend/focus on it too much, but from what I’ve heard, colleges are rather lenient about community service and rarely require it.</p>
<p>Yeah, volunteering is sort of on the same line as awards: they’ll definitely help your application if they’re there, it isn’t necessarily a negative if you don’t have many.</p>
<p>This is not something that will make or break you, especially at huge universities like UCLA and Michigan. If you have a limited number of ECs, and no other service projects, then list it. I think that sixty hours is typical for meeting service requirements at schools that have them. Some students stretch the hours out; others perform them in a single project, typically during a break. There’s nothing shameful about forty-five hours. That would amount to one day a week for five weeks, or a typical internship.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t have a service requirement or anything, I just felt like it might be good to have something like that to do. I suppose it’ll probably work in my benefit to have something else to list, so thanks for the advice.</p>