Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They ask specifically so that people won't list a bunch of clubs they joined but never attended.
3 hours a month for 6 years looks great--sustained commitment and regular participation.

6 years? Do you include hours from middle school?

No. Common app is clear that activities are 9th-12th only. You can mention that you've been doing it longer in the description, though.

Use the other parts of the application to communicate additional information. For example, you can weave into an essay the fact that the kid has been doing an activity since middle school. Some virtue signalling schools are test blind, meaning they won't even look at your SAT scores. Guess what, mention that in an essay "XXX taught me to work hard or focus (or whatever) and this resulted in my scoring a 1580 on the SAT in one sitting". They can't unread what they have read.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They ask specifically so that people won't list a bunch of clubs they joined but never attended.
3 hours a month for 6 years looks great--sustained commitment and regular participation.

6 years? Do you include hours from middle school?

No. Common app is clear that activities are 9th-12th only. You can mention that you've been doing it longer in the description, though.

Anonymous wrote:Just make it up. My kids all did. It means nothing. Nobody is adding up the hours.

Don't cheat

Just make it up. My kids all did. It means nothing. Nobody is adding up the hours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They ask specifically so that people won't list a bunch of clubs they joined but never attended.
3 hours a month for 6 years looks great--sustained commitment and regular participation.

6 years? Do you include hours from middle school?

My kid did robotics club since 5th grade, so yes it was included. Went from member > team captain > president so why not include?

+1 I wouldn't list something that was only done in middle school but an activity that has been done throughout HS that started before that, fine to list how long you have been doing it.

So you also include the hours from then? Like Girl Scout hours since Kindergarten?

No, you can say you've been doing it since K and you currently do it X hrs/week for X weeks/year

Anonymous wrote:The app asks for the # of weeks per year and # of hours per week (when doing it). I don't think there is one right answer, it depends what you are interested in. My DS's only service activity was something he did for 3 hours per event once a month since 6th grade. Not a ton of hours but sustained commitment to one organization and he ended up writing a great supplemental essay about it.

If your son enjoys what he's doing and values contributing to that organization, he should keep it up and see if he can continue to help during the school year too.

This is correct. So for a summer activity my son might have done it 30 hours/week but for only 5 weeks total of the year. But another activity like music lessons might be 2 hrs/week for 50 weeks a year.

It asks for average hours spent per week, I think. You can probably look this up.

There are only 10 activity slots in the common app, so even if you don't have that many activities you may run out of space unless you group some things together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They ask specifically so that people won't list a bunch of clubs they joined but never attended.
3 hours a month for 6 years looks great--sustained commitment and regular participation.

6 years? Do you include hours from middle school?

My kid did robotics club since 5th grade, so yes it was included. Went from member > team captain > president so why not include?

+1 I wouldn't list something that was only done in middle school but an activity that has been done throughout HS that started before that, fine to list how long you have been doing it.

So you also include the hours from then? Like Girl Scout hours since Kindergarten?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They ask specifically so that people won't list a bunch of clubs they joined but never attended.
3 hours a month for 6 years looks great--sustained commitment and regular participation.

6 years? Do you include hours from middle school?

My kid did robotics club since 5th grade, so yes it was included. Went from member > team captain > president so why not include?

+1 I wouldn't list something that was only done in middle school but an activity that has been done throughout HS that started before that, fine to list how long you have been doing it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They ask specifically so that people won't list a bunch of clubs they joined but never attended.
3 hours a month for 6 years looks great--sustained commitment and regular participation.

6 years? Do you include hours from middle school?

My kid did robotics club since 5th grade, so yes it was included. Went from member > team captain > president so why not include?

Anonymous wrote:They ask specifically so that people won't list a bunch of clubs they joined but never attended.
3 hours a month for 6 years looks great--sustained commitment and regular participation.

6 years? Do you include hours from middle school?

It's BS. Roll up the "isolated" activities into a theme of your invention.

They ask specifically so that people won't list a bunch of clubs they joined but never attended.
3 hours a month for 6 years looks great--sustained commitment and regular participation.

The app asks for the # of weeks per year and # of hours per week (when doing it). I don't think there is one right answer, it depends what you are interested in. My DS's only service activity was something he did for 3 hours per event once a month since 6th grade. Not a ton of hours but sustained commitment to one organization and he ended up writing a great supplemental essay about it.

If your son enjoys what he's doing and values contributing to that organization, he should keep it up and see if he can continue to help during the school year too.

Was just wondering... I'm assuming for each volunteer activity listed, you write how many hours you did? My kid is volunteering this summer (excited about it, enjoying it) and would love more hours, but the organization only needs a certain number of hours (probably 25 hours across the summer). I guess I was trying to weigh that in other volunteer opportunities - does the kid need to show that they really did a deep dive into one or two specific volunteer things? I know it's important to do volunteer work for the right reasons (not just to get into college!) but still, when weighing choices of how to spend one's time, maybe being able to dig in more at one place versus volunteering at a few different places is better, all else being equal?