mamamia2049

I have read on a few forums that 30 hours/week is too much. When people say hours/week are they talking about AVERAGE hrs/week (year round)? Because I have 55 hrs/week if you add up using just the common app but because many of the activities had a low number of week/years, my EC's come out to 21 hrs/week overall for the year (and that would be about 15 hours/week for the school year because I spend much more time in the summer). Is that what you guys mean when you say hours/week? Or do you mean just adding them up. I am really paranoid. Someone please answer.

fireshark

Please recall that the standard workweek is 40 hours per week.

mamamia2049

you didnt answer my question. Is it AVERAGE hours/week during the whole year or not. the 55 hours/week reflects the fact that many of my activities were done at different times during the year. And that too, many of the activities had low weeks/year. As I previously said, the AVERAGE hours/week comes out to 21.

amarkov

Don't get hung up on the numbers. Grades and test scores are the numbers game in applications; nobody is going to number crunch your ECs. Just ask yourself if an admissions worker would look at your application and say "yes, this is a reasonable list of extracurriculars in which someone might be involved".

fireshark

yes, it is throughout the year, otherwise your number wouldnt be an average -.-

mamamia2049

ok so in my case hours/week would be 21 not 55, is that correct? I don't want an admissions guy rejecting me because of a misinterpretation.

amarkov

Yes. If you do 1 hour per week each week of the year, that does not add up to 52 hours per week.

mamamia2049

ok thank you for the answers. I admit I was being a bit stupid in not realizing that, but in the height of tension, I was just freaking out.

mamamia2049

btw, I was also concerned because I highly doubt admissions people have a calculator in hand to do this (maybe they do, correct me if I'm wrong). But at a glance, it does look to be over the top.

Rainmaker

Well if you're specifying that some of your activities only occur during certain months, I'm pretty sure that's clear enough that you didn't do 55/hrs a week of EC. I wouldn't get too worried over the numbers, you should spend this time looking over your essays instead.

spiralcloud

I have 23 hours of ECs per week...that's like four hours a day. And, Speech tournaments are like a WHOLE day so that's pretty reasonable.

55 hours is overkill.

mamamia2049

mine is actually 21. When you say 23, you calculated it to be an average for the year, is that correct?

spiralcloud

No its like this:
environmental work-4years-2hours-40 weeks
speech/debate-4 years-12 hours-40 weeks

etc. etc.
add up all the hours and I reached 23