<p>I don’t know of a single college or university where an applicant’s community service hours are an important part of the application.</p>
<p>Grades, test scores, teacher recommendations–these things are important. Essays are important, except sometimes at very large, very numbers-driven universities; even there, they often matter for honors programs, merit scholarships, etc. Extracurricular activities are sometimes fairly important, but mostly at pretty selective institutions. Community service hours in a college application? At most, they’re one kind of extracurricular activity, but not the only kind of extracurricular activity a student could be involved in.</p>
<p>Not that community service is without value. It has great value to the community being served. It just doesn’t matter all that much in college applications.</p>