Importance of Hours for Activities

[Numba1Plumma]

The pre-med advisor at my school said that in his experience, the hours for any given activity on your application are pretty irrelevent. Schools just care about the activity itself and what you say about that particular activity. He also mentioned that most people inflate their committed hours to any given activity so he advises that most people do not even worry about mentioning "hours per week devoted to activity." I was wondering what everyone else's opinions are with regard to this topic and if past and current applicants really stressed this hours business. Thanks!

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[rhesuspieces]

It shouldn't matter whether or not hours are relevant if you plan on stating honestly how many hours you devoted per week to an activity.

 

[juliedi]

I'd say just put down the number of hours to the best of your ability. If you have to estimate not a problem, but don't completely lie about it.

 

[NickNaylor]

Agreed with the above. Do your best to estimate but don't lie.

 

[monkeyMD]

Wait. Are you supposed to put down the total amount of hours you did some particular activity, or just the weekly time?

 

[StephBee]

I feel like there are thresholds. Like 1-2 hours a week = no biggie. 5-10= bit more of a commitment. 10-30= part time job. 30+ = fulltime commitment, 6 hours a day min 5 days a week.

Like, I for example, work 35 hours a week. So it's a bigger deal than if I worked like 10 hours a week...make sense?

 

[NickNaylor]

Wait. Are you supposed to put down the total amount of hours you did some particular activity, or just the weekly time?

There's a specific field to put in hours/week, but I'm pretty sure most people put a total hours amount in the description of the activity (at least I did).