Volunteer Hours

Applying to College
1

<p>Do more volunteer hours give you a better chance to get accepted into a good college?</p>

2

<p>Yes. </p>

<p>For more selective schools community service is often a “hook”, or activity that helps you stand out. Especially valuable are situations where you provide leadership while helping address a need in your community. </p>

<p>I wouldn’t say it is required, but most competitive applicants will have some community service on their resume. </p>

<p>Its also essential for winning scholarships that use it a selection criteria. I would say about a third of them ask for examples of community service. </p>

<p>Unless you have a real economic hardship in your family, I would encourage students to forgo the minimum wage job experience and devote time to community service instead. </p>

3

<p>No. Most HS require community svc as a part of graduation. How does having something that 98% of your peers have become a “hook?” It doesn’t.</p>

<p>If you have a truly meaningful activity *that happens to involve vol hours *, great. But having/not having them is irrelevant. Competitive colleges want kids who are authentic and achieve at high levels. If you want to read some sublime opinions, look at this thread over on the parents forum
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1621736-why-aren-t-hooks-more-transparent.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1621736-why-aren-t-hooks-more-transparent.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>@T26E4 </p>

<p>It is required (60 is required for me), but that doesn’t mean that everyone can only have 60 (or whatever requirement you have). Many people I know have 200+, which can help with getting into college. </p>

5

<p>“which can help with getting into college.” Improving one’s GPA is more important than vol hours. Vol hours = essential for top schools is a myth. </p>

6

<p>@T26E4 </p>

<p>I never said it was essential. </p>

<p>Of course GPA, SAT, and everything else will help with getting into college, but volunteer hours can help. </p>

7

<p>Can it help? Sure – if it’s in something that’s out of the ordinary. But there are many ways to show uniqueness and worth to competitive colleges.</p>

<p>It’s not as if someone is going to say with two relatively equal applicants “Well Jane here, had 100 hours and Marcy had 200 hours. I guess we go with Marcy” un-uh. Won’t happen.</p>

<p>I guarantee you that our OP here is looking for ingredients to the magic formula. That’s been the tenor of his/her posts. Our discussion on the subtleties here is probably completely lost on him/her.</p>

8

<p>Well, if both applicants are nearly the same in everything, volunteer hours can help/be a deciding factor</p>