I was going through my submitted application again, and realized that I may have listed too many hours.
I added them up, and yep, it’s 59 hours per week.
I’m pretty sure that’s too much? And most likely not believable.
But I was not deliberately lying when I wrote these hours. I mean, it was difficult to sort of estimate how many hours I spent, and sometimes I would think of weeks when one took longer than others, but I was not trying to lie or exaggerate. I really do spend a lot of hours on each activity, and they just happen to fluctuate at times and I don’t usually get a lot of sleep or eating time, and I do things throughout the school day as well. So I’m just not sure what to do. I would really appreciate help. I don’t know if I should contact admissions now and try to explain or.
@goldenbees - I would either call or write the Admissions Staff about the error and provide an accurate number. Best of luck!
I would correct the Common Application for future submissions, print out a corrected EC page and have it ready to FAX to Admissions with an explanation. As per the Common Application Instructions: https://appsupport.commonapp.org/applicantsupport/s/article/Can-I-make-a-change-to-a-submitted-application
FWIW: I’ve posted the below before, but here it is again.
Okay, thank you very much for the advice.
How big of an issue is this? I don’t really consider it an error. It may seem improbable, but it really was kind of a per day situation, if that makes sense. It’s not as though I was spending 8 hours every day on every activity. It would be 5 hours on one day for one thing, one hour for another thing on another day, but all spread over the week and on weekends. Additionally, most of the activities were school activities - typically taking place over lunch which is one hour. So some of the hours written on my application are included in hours I spend at school. And a lot of the hours per week that I spend are done on the weekends as well.
I’m fearful that contacting admissions about this may impact my application negatively. I’m sorry if I seem like I’m overthinking all of this.
How much of an issue it might be really depends on how you presented yourself on your EC list. If you just participated in many of the activities, I would let it go and not correct it. However, if you presented yourself as a President, VP, Founder, or Leader of many clubs or activities, that might raise a red flag. For example, at the 4:15 mark in this video from a former Stanford Admissions Director, the AO questions how a student could possibly have accomplished everything they claimed they did, as there wasn’t enough time in the day to do everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96XL8vBBB7o. If you think an AO might question your EC list in the same way, I would take the time to correct it.
Wow, thank you so much. This is very helpful.
Out of the 10 activities I entered, I have listed being a leader for threeish of them. If it helps, here is the more specific list of ECs I have.
Taekwondo Competition Team (9, 10, 11) - 13hr/wk
Violin / Member of City Orchestra, First Violin Section (9,10,11,12) - 17hr/wk
MUN Press Team, Leader (12) (10,11,12) - 4hr/wk
Peer Crisis Support Line, Volunteer (11,12) - 10hr/wk
School Literary Magazine, Senior Editor (12) (9, 10, 11, 12) - 3hr/wk
GSA, Founding Member (11,12) - 1hr/wk
School Recycling Club, Team Leader (11,12) (10, 11, 12) - 1hr/wk
Girl Scouts, Member (9, 10) - 4hr/wk
Students Union, Member (10, 11, 12) - 1hr/wk
Kumon Teaching Assistant (12) - 5hr/wk
Most of my leadership is from senior year, which is the year where I stopped some of my activities freeing up more time as well.
Thank you again for the help.
Looking over your EC list, I would just let it go.
Alright. Thank you very much again.
ooooof i just came across this thread, added up all my hours, and it turned out to be 53! and now I’m super worried too…
some of my EC list wasn’t entirely outside of school though—my Rocketry activity was part of my Aerospace Engineering class, my experience in Advanced Leadership (kinda like ASB) was also mostly in class, and when I put in “music” I was assuming orchestra class counted as an extracurricular because I have to practice violin and piano at home. Should i notify admissions about this? I have 4ish leadership positions.
You’re fine. No need to worry. People reading you app understand that you’re not saying that you do all of those activities simultaneously each and every week – you giving an average amount of time you spend when you are involved (some things are seasonal/sporadic. Adcoms understand this.