<p>I am wondering if college admissions officers would think that my ECs like volunteer work done since, say 11th grade with about 60 hours each year, was a ploy to get into colleges. The problem is that some volunteer work such as working at a youth holiday program requires maturity and not a 9th grader looking for something to do. For example, I've always wanted to work at my local museum but they require volunteers to be at least 18. So what do you think, would admission officers see EC only done only for 2 years as a lack of commitment? I've tried my best to explain some of my EC in my essays but there isn't enough space on the Common App for all of them.</p>
<p>I have a similar problem. Overload of EC hours in 11th Grade, other years not as much.
I personally wouldn’t try and explain it though. I just found a focus and tried to show that I had a passion for doing that particular type of activity although I didn’t spend a long time doing them.</p>
<p>Most colleges don’t care about ECs. Those that do care won’t be particularly impressed by short term ECs for the reasons that concern you, because they will have plenty of apps from kids with long term focused ECs.</p>
<p>@sherpa. What if a “short-term” activity involves dedicated volunteer work or an activity that only accepts more mature students? That would me you’re only eligible to join in 11th or 12th grade. The only long-term activities I see are music, sports, or some activity which you can take from an early age.</p>
<p>^^ I wouldn’t see 60 hours as super dedicated, and I can’t see colleges seeing it as such either. I mean almost EVERYONE has community service these days and a little over an hour/week seems a bit less than the norm. I guess adcoms would understand however if there generally wasn’t service available around you(extremely rural area), but if not community service is really easy to get hours.</p>
<p>I see that unless you’ve achieved some major recognition for community service it wouldn’t give that much of a boost on an application. I just wanted the adcoms to see that I’ve done some community service in areas that interest me and the ones that interest me require mature students; I wouldn’t imagine a typical 14 year old working at my local observatory teaching about planets. I’m more of an academic person and I’ve read that grad schools (depending on field) mostly don’t care about ECs.</p>