Title says it, is it a good idea to log all the hours I do of volunteering?
DD and I log her hours on a shared Google spreadsheet.
I sit on a scholarship committee and we do use that information. We only ask for verification when one of the judges raises a concern AND you are a finalist. Whether through ridiculously careless cheating or truly honest mistake, you’d be surprised how many kids say they spent more than 52 weeks a year (or more than 168 hours a week) in activities. When called on it, a careful log smooths things over.
I would, for these reasons.
If your school has National Honor Society, they often want a certain number of hours for you to be eligible.
When you apply to college, you can say that you spend 2 hours/week x 14 weeks on a particular activity.
Also you may forget what you did as a freshman for volunteering when you are applying to college.
Our school system has us fill in forms w/ official signatures noting our hours everytime we volunteer for something and they keep track for us. The final amount is then sent to colleges w/ grades and such. If it’s not an official tracking like through the school, I’m not sure how much it will be taken into account.
@ms50263 My school does have those forms! Should I start making the people I volunteer for fill those out?
Definitely! The hours you track yourself will likely not be taken seriously. Does your school have a service hour requirement for graduation? Something like you have to finish a certain amount of hours of volunteer work in order to graduate?
Most volunteer organizations where I live, both in and out of school, give certificates at the end of your volunteering with signatures proving you did actually work there. You should probably try asking the place where your volunteering if they could provide one.
@ms50263 My school does have a service hour requirement, however I finished that already. So if I volunteer extra I should just submit more forms and add on to those I already did? Do you think the total service hours are sent to colleges?
Yep. They don’t stop recording after you finish the requirement. IDK about your school, but usually my report cards show an updated service hours total.
I have to log my hours for school, but I feel like colleges care more about what you actually did / what impact you actually made in your volunteer hours than the # of hours itself. This is just advice I got from a senior friend I have at shcool tho, but I think this makes snese!