<p>I am just wondering...do they care whether or not you are the star basketball player, bandleader, and student government president in undergrad? I would hope not, but I am just wonering if they care about that stuff for admissions.</p>
<p>No one ever asked me about my anything other than academic and work related questions. I am an engineer, though. I bet this depends on your field and the school.</p>
<p>This is pure conjecture, but I would imagine not. For high school and college admissions, the focus is on what you can bring to the campus community. The graduate school community, you'll notice, does not participate much in these things, except perhaps as advisors.</p>
<p>As you're entering a graduate program, you are expected to make academic contributions to the academic community, and not so much the other things, though those are important for your development as a person. I sincerely doubt the focus is on those half as much (if at all) as they are on your earlier applications.</p>
<p>(Interestingly enough, I noticed that all the programs I tried to look at the applications for are available only online, and only if you sign up and go through the application. Not so interested in reaching everyone at this point!)</p>
<p>they couldn't care less</p>
<p>It definitely doesn't hurt.</p>
<p>I take it from context that we are only talking about academic grad programs like PhD, MS, and MA programs. Professional programs like med,law, and business schools care a great deal about EC's.</p>
<p>As far as academic grad programs, generally they would only care about an EC that is actually related to the program. Being part of student government might be helpful if you apply to a graduate program in government or sociology or poli-sci. Being a sports star is obviously useful if you are applying to a graduate program in physical education or exercise kinesiology. </p>
<p>Otherwise, the weighting of the EC is far far less than it is for undergrad admissions. It doesn't hurt, but it's not highly useful either.</p>