Im a sophomore. I want to double major in English and philosophy, I don’t have any extra curriculars besides debate (I just moved) so I was going to join the computer science club (the first meeting is today). But then I remembered seeing somewhere that doing ECs that are scattered/don’t line up with your major can actually hurt your chances? Advice?
I’m very sorry if this is the wrong subforum for this question!!
Join the club that you are interested in! My D had some ECs that didn’t align at all with her major. It’s OK!
I agree with @momofsenior1. Participate in the ECs that you want to participate in. I think that participating in the computer science club is a great activity regardless of your potential major.
A few people have expressed surprise that I got into a highly ranked university as a math major when most of my ECs (sailing, skiing) had nothing at all to do with math, or even academics. What I think helped was that I did what I wanted to do. This meant that I did it well.
Philosophy is a somewhat logical exercise. Computer science is also a logical exercise. To me they fit a lot better than you might be thinking.
Of course there is also the issue that you are young, and you might change your mind wrt potential majors.
Join it - CS skills will come in handy for tons and tons of majors and careers. Especially if it’s what you want to do!!
No matter what kind of activities your ECs are, someone will criticize that choice from a college admission context:
- Focused on your intended college major: too unilateral or one dimensional.
- Not focused on your intended college major: does not tell a consistent story with your intended college major.
- Varied: too scattered and incoherent to tell a good story of any kind.
But also, for the more selective colleges where ECs become more important to differentiate between applicants with top-end GPA in hard courses and top-end test scores, achievement and commitment in an EC is what makes it stand out from the “background” level of ECs.
I agree with the above comments. I think membership in the computer science club would be a plus on your application because it would show that you have a wide range of skills and interests. I think what some people mean when they say your extracurriculars should relate to your major is that you should have SOME activities that relate to it (to show that your interest is genuine) not that all of them should.
It’s fine. What’s risky is that you’re making a late decision based on something you think you heard somewhere. You will need to learn more about what does matter to your eventual targets- what they say, not random comments from who knows where.
There’s a ton of difference between diverse ECs, which top colleges like, vs cramming your schedule with any old time commitments.
But right now, you’ve only mentioned one club. Hope you’ll have more well-considered activities, some that cover your interests, some that contribute in meaningful ways, and the right comm service.
No, because there is a movement to align CS with all kinds of liberal arts degrees.
The only thing is that they could be afraid you are trying to get into an easier-admit major and hoping to switch to CS later.
So I would address in your application why philosophy and that CS is just a hobby, or whatever.