Reply to High number of SSL hours has any impact ?

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Reply to "High number of SSL hours has any impact ?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our child graduated from MCPS in 2022 with 1500 + SSL hours.  No doubt in my mind that those hours, along with 4 years of high school leadership activities, is what got child accepted to UMD.  Many classmates with higher GPAs and more AP classes were rejected. Universities (even huge ones like Maryland) need students who will participate in campus life.  A high number of SSL hours shows commitment to involvement in one’s community.  It matters.  We require all our children to complete at least enough SSL hours to earn the “purple tassel”.  Colleges are so wildly competitive these days, strong academics just are not enough.  [/quote]

Just want to note here that UMD, and most state Us, do not ask for a large volunteering commitment, contrary to Georgetown and some other institutions where it's basically a requirement. In the above PP's case, it acted as a hook because the number of SSL hours was noteworthy. But most kids who get into UMD just have the "normal" amount, plus high stats and other ECs. My son was accepted to UMD Honors and a scholarship with 80-something SSL hours, 4.67 wGPA and a dozen AP courses. He had no ECs apart from a dog-walking and boarding business during the pandemic, plus fostering dogs for a shelter that did not give SSL hours... so we don't know how that played into his admission, since none of it was verified by a third party - it could have been entirely made-up, UMD had no way to check.

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I second that. 
Each county has a different criteria as to the eligibility of SSL hours. For example, my DC (MCPS) joined a church-based youth orchestra with weekly practices and earned a few SSL hours for playing at two concerts a year. In the meantime, their peers from Carol county got SSL hours for all the practices (2 hours a week) in addition. I doubt if UMD would check the difference. [/quote]

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