Time spent on activities

[Amduseus]

Within the activities section of the common app, they ask how many hours per week you spend on each activity. However, many of my activities have a very wide range of hours/week depending on the time of year. For example, during the off-season for Robotics, I might only spend a few hours a week for things like weekly meetings and miscellaneous stuff, but during the build season I spend upwards of 30 hours a week, and we typically go to competitions each year which can take several days. Because of this, there’s no static number of hours I can put in, not only for Robotics but also a few other activities.

What should I put on my common app?

[augustuscaesar27]

I had the same problem. Ultimately, I tried to take a kind of weighted average: for example, if I spent 5 hours on an activity 30 weeks a year, and 30 hours on it 4 weeks a year, I’d do ((530)+(304))/(30+4) = 8 and put down that I spent eight hours a week on the activity, thirty-four weeks per year. It’s definitely not perfect, but I haven’t yet thought of a better way.

Additionally, you may end up writing about the activities that matter to you in the main Common App essay or in a particular college’s supplemental questions. This could be a way to clarify the nature of your commitment.