<p>How much would this hurt an otherwise strong application?</p>
<p>It depends on the school. If they used a holistic based admissions then it is one part of what they are looking at. Strong scores, GPA, rank, LORs, essays, are all going to matter. Would it have been better to start earlier? Sure. Is it going to kill you resume? No.</p>
<p>Yes, it could come off as resume padding. No one needs community service to be admitted to a top school. The impression I get is that you panicked about the way your resume looked during junior year, when the college admissions craze began, and frantically started looking for opportunities to ladle soup. I imagine adcoms will get the same idea.</p>
<p>It really does depend. Unless it is something you are passionate about, it really does not matter if you do any at all. My son taught some math classes to mathcount (middle school math competition) students. He did not have many hours, but it meshed nicely with his passion for math.</p>
<p>My daughter did not start volunteering until late in her junior year, but it is at a therapeutic riding stable, and everyone loves her there. The director wrote a lovely supplemental rec.</p>