How many volunteer hours do high school students need for applications?

There’s no top-secret admissions formula that says, “Hit 137 volunteer hours and you’re in.” But aiming for somewhere between 50 and 200 hours is a good rule of thumb. Still, don’t treat it like a speed-run challenge. Ten hours spent doing something you actually care about beats 100 hours of bored checkbox volunteering. Colleges aren’t hunting for the most hours—they’re looking for heart, consistency, and stories that show you made a difference. If you’ve been tutoring kids every Saturday or leading beach cleanups in your free time, that’s gold. So forget chasing numbers. Do something real, and be ready to talk about it in a way that sounds like you, not a LinkedIn robot.