<p>Lately, I have been a little worried over volunteer work/hours, as I have none and I feel that I need it.</p>
<p>I do not understand a single thing about how the whole 'system' works, so I was wondering if anyone could help me out here and answer my questions, along with any tips or additional information.</p>
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<li><p>Are volunteer hours absolutely necessary? The uppermost colleges that I am applying to are Rose-Hulman and Olin, if that helps in the context of this question.</p></li>
<li><p>How many volunteer hours are recommended?</p></li>
<li><p>How should I go about looking for a place to volunteer, and where do I look? Like...does a place have like a Volunteer Help Needed sign on their front door or something?</p></li>
<li><p>How do I record my hours? Obviously the hours need to be proven via a record and/or signature of sorts, but where do I get something like that, and how does that work? Or do the volunteer places usually have those?</p></li>
<li><p>What would a good place to volunteer be? I've been told that certain places to volunteer are better than others, according to your interests and what not. Like, is it better to volunteer in a soup kitchen than a library? etc.</p></li>
<li><p>What are some of the places you've volunteered at for hours?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>All help is gladly appreciated!</p>
<p>what year are you?</p>
<p>Senior in the fall</p>
<p>dont bother. volunteer work right before you apply is obvious to adcoms.</p>
<p>I’d answer the rest of your questions, but only one needs answering:</p>
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<p>Absolutely not, especially if that take time away from more meaningful pursuits. Plenty of kids get in to top schools without ever stepping foot in a soup kitchen. Besides which:</p>
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<p>No, volunteer work is not necessary to get into top colleges. The non tippy top colleges factor community service at most into merit aid consideration. </p>
<p>Top colleges tend to have a lot of students who do volunteer work – including while they are in college. That’s because top colleges do their best to admit students who truly are interested in helping other people, not just getting ahead themselves. </p>
<p>If, for instance, you look at Phillips Brooks House on the Havard site, you’ll see that student-run community service program has many major community service projects that students do for no credit or pay. In general, graduate/professional schools don’t care about ECs or volunteer work, so the students aren’t doing service to try to get benefit for themselves. The students simply like making a positive difference in the world.</p>
<p>I’ve always gotten much more out of the volunteer work that I’ve done than what I’ve put into it. That’s because I did volunteer work for causes that I cared about. This can be hard, though, to understand if you think of volunteer work as a chore to do to get ahead yourself.</p>