How important is community service?

like everyone is telling you, there is no requirement for a single hour of community service. The stuff you hear in the lunchroom about colleges wanting kids that “give back” is just HS kids making stuff up, projecting their views of what a good candidate is onto adcoms.

Then they have their own ulterior motives for a free labor force, or they are fools. Now you know how much trust to put in anything they tell you. Go get a good book or two on college admissions, it looks like you’ll be doing this without their “help”.

Most colleges give little or no weight to ECs. Those that do give a lot of weight, they want to see achievement and/or leadership. Member of this or that, building up volunteer hours, that is not the kind of EC that stands out.