<p>So... I have like 50ish hours of community service but none of them are "signed" so I don't even know if they count. However, I will have like 400+ hours of research at a local university by the time I graduate. Will it still look bad without the community service?</p>
<p>I've gotten some statewide and national awards for research.</p>
<p>You probably should try to get someone to document your hours for you.</p>
<p>You don’t need community service to get into college. The relatively few colleges that factor things like ECs and CS into admission are far more interested in the results of what you did – whether it was work, CS or ECs – than how many hours you put in or which activity you chose to pursue.</p>
<p>I don’t know who started the myth that community service is necessary to get accepted to top schools, but it’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>Your research experience (for far more reasons than the number of hours you spent on it, as NSM said) is clearly far more important you, and will be far more impactful on your application.</p>