Grave common app error

Applying to College
1

For an activity I did, I wrote that

  • I did year long, 52 weeks, 6 hours a week for 4 years (including commute time going and back which is about 1 hour)

BUT I WROTE I ONLY DID IT FOR 300 HOURS
If I did every week for 5 hours for 3 years, I would have 780 hours…

the reason I only have 300 is

  1. I “started” in 9th grade, but only actually started doing work substantially in the summer before 10th grade. Even excluding 9th grade, it I continuously did it for every single week of the year, I would have 520 hours…
  2. 10th grade… I did quite a lot in the summer, but I showed up irregularly because of school duties and activities, same in 11th grade… In fact, I missed about a third of the year in 11th grade due to requesting a “health break” (It was too busy balancing my ECs)

Should I email my regional AO about this?

2

No. AO’s know that it is an average over time.

Also, I wouldn’t count commuting in the calculation of hours.

3

Actually, I was told by a former AO that it does count in hours.

Also, what do you mean by an average over time?

4

Most ECs are averaged out as far as the hours. Many kids do something all year long but it is not the same number of hours every week. Take something like baseball, maybe you practice and work out an hour a day in the off season, play three hours a day during varsity season and ten hours a day during the summer because you are involved in summer camps. You would average out those hours to come up with a weekly average. Very few activities are the same number of hours every week all year long.

I wouldn’t worry about your “grave” error. In reality we say we do something every week but there are always breaks in there.