<p>This is a question that I've been asking since my college junior year. I do have many ecs and they're all related to my field, so...??</p>
<p>No. You won’t even be given space to list them.</p>
<p>No. Only your lab/research work matters.</p>
<p>Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t it also matter what program you’re trying to get in. For instance, if you were trying to get into say an MPA or MPP program, wouldn’t these schools consider some of your extracurriculars, maybe if you held a position in the student govt. or you did lots of volunteering to help disadvantaged people.</p>
<p>There is always a way to work in EC’s that are related to your proposed field of grad study. If nothing else, place them in your SOP as examples of how you explored and developed your interest in your proposed field. If these ECs don’t fit there, its likely they really aren’t related to your proposed field of study.</p>
<p>for a professional degree (law, medicine, or i guess a masters in public policy), some extracurriculars may be useful, but even then they aren’t weighted that heavily. an MPA or MPP with a practicum option rather than a thesis will value ECs somewhat, and an MPP or MPA with a thesis option only will still prefer research to ECs (although you will at least have space to list your ECs on the app, which isn’t true for PhDs).</p>
<p>Actually, ECs are quite important in medical admissions. Of course, ECs have to be relevant (hardcore basket-weaving won’t get you into medical school), but their necessity for acceptance is reflected in pre-meds’ frenzy to participate in things like student health services, community health activism, etc.</p>
<p>We have to make a distinction between work experience and ECs. Graduate admission look kindly upon work experiences, ECs are at best considered as weak indicators of interests and says nothing about the applicants’ capabilities.</p>
<p>Wait a minute. </p>
<p>Assuming you have the basic credentials covered to be accepted into a program, EC’s may help differentiate you from others, right? </p>
<p>If 2 applicants have comparable credentials aren’t they going to accept the one that has spent some time making the world a better place?</p>
<p>mjk12345, in my humanities field, we don’t care about ECs. Period. </p>
<p>In the hypothetical case you describe, ECs would not make a bit of difference. The writing sample and the applicants’ fit with the faculty would probably tip the scales one way or another.</p>
<p>So, Professor X, in a non-hypothetical situation such as mine (senior Anth major trying to get into a sweet Anth grad program) would something like volunteering abroad make a lick of difference?</p>
<p>I’ll answer for Professor X: no.</p>
<p>While volunteering is an admirable activity, it has no bearing on graduate school admissions, which focus on scholarship, not making the world a better place.</p>
<p>It depends on the field. PhD admissions generally do not care about extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>Master’s programs (especially professional ones such as MBA, MPH, MSW, etc.) DO care about extracurricular activities and work experience. I know this as fact because I had to list my employment and extracurricular involvement on my applications.</p>
<p>i will reiterate what others have said. unless you’re headed into a professional masters program, they don’t care about your ECs. at all. as others have stated time and again on this forum, there isn’t even a place on those grad applications to list your ECs.</p>
<p>i wrote 10 applications last year. i had started 14 before narrowing them down. there were a number of ivy league/top 10 schools on that list. none of them had space to list extracurriculars.</p>
<p>i’m sorry if any of you have invested yourselves heavily in ECs with the belief they would make a difference on grad school applications. hopefully, the real reason you undertook those activities was to better the world, help people out, or enjoy yourself in a community setting.</p>
<p>I impart to you all words of wisdom a friend received from his advisor when he asked about the importance of volunteer work for grad school admissions:</p>
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<p>I think the real issue is are these ECs valuable experiences or are they related to your proposed chosen field? Volunteering in a research lab is highly appropriate for graduate applications. Among the applications I’ve read and ranked, one applicant was highly effective when discussing her experiences in Africa (non-research related) and her growing understanding of the problem with maintaining viable vaccines due to lack of refrigeration. She used this to demonstrate understanding of the significance and real world need of her proposed grad research interests (immunology-related). She was able to make a very cogent and fact based argument of the need for the research she proposed to do that did elevate her application above those with similar GPA/test scores.</p>
<p>So, the question is if these ECs are really related to your field as stated in the starting post, you would be able to legitimately and easily work them into the application. If you cannot work them into your application, then your original statement of ECs being related to your field was incorrect in some fashion. And thus, these ECs would be irrelevant to your application.</p>
<p>I listed ECs on my CV and they were relevant to what I plan to do, however I do not think they made any difference. It is about directly relevant experience, i.e. research, co-ops, etc. I think it might only matter if it is VERY exceptional, like you started your own foundation or whatever.</p>