<p>Hello all! While surfing through the forums I've seen a couple posts that say volunteer work isn't all that important to college admissions, unless you have an exceptional amount or something...what is considered to be an abundant number of hours? I currently have 1,500+, I don't know if this is considered "a lot" or not. Would it be at all advantageous to include this in an admission?</p>
<p>1500+ means 37 weeks at 40 hours/wk. That’s probably more than I’ve worked at my FT job in 1.5 years. The number is bizarrely inflated.</p>
<p>I would consider this an exaggeration. Maybe you were away at some camp/event. Don’t say 168 hours for one week at event X. </p>
<p>I think the point is that you should be volunteering your time because you want to help out (not because it looks good).
I think the best way to do that is to serve the community without being a “volunteer”. </p>
<p>I actually do many volunteer activities just because i love them! Trust me, college wasn’t something my family ever really discussed a lot…I’m finding out sooo much going into senior year because of it. Never have i had the opportunity to be driven just because of college.</p>
<p>@T26E4 the number actually isn’t inflated at all. I myself was even surprised after calculating it! I volunteered 10 hours a week for 2.5 years assisting with therapeutic riding lessons for the handicapped and mentally disabled. Considering they didn’t come in the dead of winter, it was approximately 44 weeks a year! That alone equals 1,100 hours. Other activities include marketing and volunteering for the local SPCA, volunteering for a charity hospital, working festivals and events, working with an acupuncturist, and doing random barn work, like dragging my butt out of bed at 5:30 to go break ice and water horses and muck in 10 degree weather, just to be at the barn and helping out on my own time, unpaid, because i didn’t mind. Lets not forget supervising and dealing kids ages 3-16 during summer horse camp…8am-5pm days, 7 weeks a year for 1.5 years. That comes out to about 378 hours alone. Honestly, I’d say 1,500 hours is a bit of a modest calculation!</p>
<p>it’s not about hours. for example creating a school in 3 hours would be much better than 1500 hours of “volunteering”</p>
<p>It is not about the number of hours, it is about your passion and dedication. I bet this 1500+ hours would give you a lot of experience and interesting stories to be integrated into your essays. My D only has 200+ hours volunteering but focusing on the restoration of broken area and helping kids in poverty in the metro area every summer. That gave her good essays for college admission and scholarship applications.</p>