Community service is one of the most popular extracurricular activities for high school students to do in their free time. There are hundreds of different ways that high school students can get involved in their communities. There is really something out there for everyone, no matter what your personal interests are! Admissions officers also love to see community service on college applications. Having community service experience means that you're passionate about making a difference in the world and are ready to take action and be involved. But how many community service hours for college do you actually need in order to make sure your contribution is “good enough” for admissions officers? Is there a certain number of hours that you need for different schools?

Do You Need to Complete a Certain Number of Volunteer Hours for College?

Unfortunately, there is no magic number of community service hours that is going to be your golden ticket into college. Grades and test scores will always come first.  They asked admissions officers from 33 of the top 50 colleges for guidance on how they judge community service as an extracurricular activity. Their answers are a great guide to what admissions officers are actually thinking when they see your community service hours on your application. You may be surprised to learn that the number of hours you spend doing community service is not the most important focus. In fact, most admissions officers say that they care more about what you have done, why you are doing it, and what you are getting out of it.  Two-thirds of college admission officers say that it’s not possible to have too many community service hours. As long as it’s not affecting your grades or other parts of your life, you can volunteer to your heart’s content. But the opposite is also true. As long as you have made a valuable contribution that you can explain, most admissions officers are probably not going to discount community service work that you have done just because you haven’t spent enough hours doing it.

How can FFC Help?

FFC would like to start a mentorship program where our high school players can partner up with our FFC Coaches and help their team during games, events, or even practices; while at the same time investing in their own future. It helps our high school kids learn honesty, empathy, listening skills, social interaction, and patience in working with the younger players. In turn, Freedom FC will sign off on the total number of volunteer hours for that period.

When?

Knowing the tough schedules of a high achieving high school student, we want to provide an environment where it will benefit the student without impacting their grades or regular soccer training. As such, FFC has younger teams and coaches at every field every day of the week. FFC also has training and games on Friday and weekends. Your coach will be able to work with you individually on a program to meet your college goals. We will also help you maximize on your schedule so you can reach the goal you want to achieve.

Example:

John Smith is a incoming Junior. Would love to have a certain number of hours this year and be able to have a significant enough impact with his work to influence a child or group of children on coach Joe’s 08 team. John would sit down with both Coaches, setup goals and a roadmap and schedule and show up and help when he can. The student can have either a role with the team or just a support helper with specific goals. At the end of the period they can validate the time invested and jointly work on his accomplishments towards a successful college application. Remember, it’s not the total hours but “what, why and what you got out of it.”

Please contact cjensen@freedomfc.org or dchiang@freedomfc.org for questions

Sources:
https://www.quora.com/How-many-hours-of-volunteering-would-be-impressive-on-a-college-application
http://www.collegeadmissionspartners.com/college-admissions-counseling/how-many-volunteer-hours-do-i-need/
https://magoosh.com/hs/college-admissions/2014/volunteercommunity-service-hours/
https://www.quora.com/Where-do-you-put-volunteer-hours-on-college-applications