Mandatory Volunteer Hours and CAS

[LiquidSoap]

In Canada and my province, it's mandatory for high school students to get at least 40 hours of community service AKA volunteering. As far as I know, IB students have to do that along with CAS, and you cannot log your mandatory hours as CAS hours if you've already done the former.

So my question is, should I only complete the mandatory 40 hours and log all the rest into my CAS? Or should I split them evenly, let's say 200 hours for mandatory and 200 for CAS?

The reason I'm asking this is because I know that Canadian universities like it if you have a lot of community involvement hours, and are therefore more likely to get accepted if you have 200+.The thing is, if they do not consider CAS as the same thing as mandatory hours, I'm afraid that they'll only see the 40 hours instead of the 360 other hours I logged (just making up a number).

Hope that made sense. Thanks.

[kw0573]

With your logic, you should log the bare minimum for CAS and the rest in voluntary hours. Having applied to Ontario univiersities, I can tell you that I listed a lot of extracurriculars but only 80ish volunteer hours and still got in. c

There is a big difference between volunteering and CAS. For example, jogging daily and practicing an instrument count as CAS but not volunteering, but one-day volunteering at a fundraiser don't count as CAS. So the two are not strictly interchangeable. You should have your CAS activities approved, and I recommend you allocate all these hours towards CAS only.

[VeronicaG]

I was allowed to 'double-dip'. I volunteered in the summer for 80 hours, and this satisfied both the CAS Service requirement and the Ontario 40 hours. I made sure that the activity followed Ontario rules (and it did) so my coordinator saw no harm in me counting it for Ontario.

I'd do minimal Service hours if I were you, and instead focus on the Ontario requirements. However, you should still keep up with the Creativity and Action hours since universities also care about what clubs/teams/councils you are on.

Also, some universities couldn't care less about volunteer hours. You certainly don't need 200 to guarantee acceptance. Your marks are more important. If you are looking at top engineering/business/health science programs, you will probably have to write supplementary applications or do interviews. Some programs just require essays, so it's your writing skills that determine acceptance. 

What universities are you thinking about? I'd check out their admissions requirements and check acceptance forums to see what other people did to get in (yconic is a good place to start)