Hours for ECs (Athletes)

[cuddlemonsters]

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[To be MD]

Is anyone else having trouble trying to estimate the number of hours you've put into a sport?

9999 is a good one to put. It signifies an estimation of a ton of hours doing an activity.

Plus, how can an adcom question it? Of course you're applying to med school and are not, instead, pursuing a career as a professional athlete. After all, you fell 1 hour short of the '10,000 hour rule' .

 

[MaxPlancker]

If you've been involved over a decade and typically at a very high level, 9999. Or as Vegeta says "Over 9000!!!!"

 

[cuddlemonsters]

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[MaxPlancker]

I'm serious. I did a sport over a decade and counting and that's how I went about it.

 

[cuddlemonsters]

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[Catalystik]

Is anyone else having trouble trying to estimate the number of hours you've put into a sport?

make a reasonable guess!

I'm going to quote two helpful posts on the topic here, in case it will be useful to the OP, or others with a similar question.

I'm a student-athlete as well, and I think it would be a little risky for you to just round those hours like that. If you were a part of a collegiate association (ex NCAA), I would calculate the NCAA mandated hours per week for your sport. For example, if the NCAA limits the hours of activity to 20 hours per week in season and 8 hours per week out of season then I would go through with a calendar and calculate the total hours per year. Afterwards, you can add hours for travel, mandatory meeting, community service, or required team events. I did all of this and calculated my hours to be around 2200 for 4 years and 2 years of summer school.

Another NCAA athlete here, and I was in a sport that by no means followed the mandated 20 hours per week. That may have been what they listed on our hour reports every week, but I averaged 36 hours a week in season with rehab, video, and "optional but required" on field time without the coaching staff present. So I would caution other athletes at limiting their hours to NCAA numbers if their actual experiences vastly exceeded that. My calculation ended up being ~3000 hours for 3 years, for example.

I do have a question about whether or not you need to elaborate on experiences with really high hour totals- if space allows, should I provide a brief explanation of how I calculated this?
i.e. 14 hours a week out of season, 36 in, etc.

Yes. If space allows.

 

[purplegold201635]

Thanks Cat! I would like to address the athlete that estimated 36 hours per week. My team did not abide by any NCAA hours limits either and I am certain that my actual total hours are above what I reported, but LEGALLY there's no way for you to prove that you actually participated in 36 hours a week unless you had someone sign off on every "optional" workout/rehab/meeting/what have you. I just low balled and went by the book because those are the hours that I had to legally sign off on.

I'm not sure how strict adcoms are going to be, but hopefully all of them know that an NCAA sport (esp the money-makers: football, basketball, and baseball) are certainly full time jobs that not only require 20-40 hours a week at times, but your ultimate identity in college.

 

[Catalystik]

@purplegold201635 thanks for another informative helpful post.

 

[aymar]

I completely agree with @purplegold201635 ... Something I failed to mention in my last post was that I checked with the contact I provided prior to submitting, and verified that they could confirm the hours that I listed. I would caution anyone from listing hours that can't be confirmed by the contact you provide, even if they are completely legitimate. Better safe than sorry 🙂

 

[ChrisMack390]

(Hours of weekly practice)(Number of weeks) + (Length of average game)(Number of games) = your answer

 

[cuddlemonsters]

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[purplegold201635]

I wouldn't be able to really have a point of contact to verify my hours as my sport isn't as big as basketball, football, or baseball. I do have over 30+ awards and trophies from competitions though. Would it be an issue if I don't have a verifier? I did play with people, but I didn't always train/practice with the same people and some of it was also performed solo.

Could your head coach verify the hours for you?

 

[cuddlemonsters]

No, they could not. This isn't one of those sports where a head coach would be present all/most of the time.

 

[purplegold201635]

hmm.. I would just put a point of contact that can confirm that you were on the team at all. Give them a heads up and let them know the number of hours you calculated, just in case anyone came asking questions (but I doubt they would).

 

[Catalystik]

No, they could not. This isn't one of those sports where a head coach would be present all/most of the time.

What about assistant coach, athletic trainer, water boy, gym manager, etc?

hmm.. I would just put a point of contact that can confirm that you were on the team at all. Give them a heads up and let them know the number of hours you calculated, just in case anyone came asking questions (but I doubt they would).

Yes.

 

[deleted709753]

I would just put 0 hours. You can't quantify how many hours you put in for practice, games, traveling etc. Adcoms, especially other athletes, will know that athletics takes up a significant portion of your time. Just be sure to write a strong experience description and they will get the message.

 

[JustAPhD]

(Hours of weekly practice)(Number of weeks) + (Length of average game)(Number of games) = your answer

Eh, travel time can take up a significant (>10 hours per week) amount of time on top of that. Plus every week tends to be a bit different.
Regardless I don't think the exact number of hours you put down really matters.

 

[cuddlemonsters]

Thanks for all the helpful posts!