do undergrad ECs carry much weight for grad school admissions?

Graduate School
1

<p>Here at Penn I've got extracurriculars coming out of my arse. And unlike most of the ones I did high school, I'm doing them because I love them.</p>

<p>-singer, Penn Glee Club
-singer, president, Pennsylvania Six-5000 (a cappella)
-Apple Campus Rep, Apple Inc. (free macbook for meeee)
-op/ed, Daily Pennsylvanian
-pr chair, vice president, Korean Students Association (all while being white, yay diversity!)
-president, Penn rep in Seoul, LiNK (liberty in north korea)
-frat
-Wharton Asian Exchange
-Wharton China Business Society</p>

<p>Do these do any good for grad school?</p>

2

<p>Not really.</p>

<p>Grad schools (apart from med and law schools, which run a bit differently) don't really care about your ECs, because they know that you'll spend the next several years in their program doing utterly nothing but study and research, which will slowly suck the life out of you (but in a good way). In fact, there weren't even spots to list ECs on the apps. The only way it would matter is if any were related directly to what you want to study.</p>

<p>That's not to say you shouldn't do those things - do them if they make you happy. But grad admissions is very different from undergrad admissions.</p>

3

<p>
[quote]
do undergrad ECs carry much weight for grad school admissions?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Nope, they won't mean much, if anything.</p>

4

<p>yeah - come to think of it, there wasn't anywhere on the application to fill that out at all. and no CV requested either.</p>

5

<p>only if they were related to your field of study</p>

6

<p>for med school/ science/engineering ph.d - They don't hurt you but don't help you much either</p>

<p>Business school - yes, if you can show leadership, and accomplishments. It also helps for consulting/ Ibanking jobs too especially if you were able to maintain a high gpa at an elite school like Penn.</p>

7

<p>that depends on your field. if some of those involve your fields for which you are applying to study, then that works. another thing is that it could tell that you can do well while handling 10 other things. remember being a grad student you have to do research, teach, find your own fundings, please your advisor, etc. i have friends in penn singers and i know it's harsh to do well when u need to spend a day on weekend plus six hr/day the week be4 the show.</p>

8

<p>I think vale's hit it. The ones that relate to your major/studies will count for something, but the rest won't.</p>

9

<p>for grad school admission:
GPA is #1
then comes GRE scores + research experience</p>

<p>They don't care if u teach kids how to swim or study all day anymore.</p>