Is it preferable for a student to have 2-4 ECs in a single area of interest, maybe related to their intended major, or is it better to have 2-4+ ECs in multiple areas?
Most of my ECs would be STEM related, with the exception of one or two. I was wondering if I should drop the two that aren’t related to STEM in order to show deeper passion and become more involved in the STEM activities. Or, I could focus my energy on 2-4 ECs in multiple areas, but show an equal passion for all of them.
I thoroughly enjoy doing all of my ECs, but I feel like I would excel if I focused on further developing my involvement in a couple of them.
Either way, no one really knows the answer to this question. Some people have many seemingly random ECs, but still get accepted to top schools, while others have very dedicated ECs and get rejected (and vice versa). Focus your time on doing activities you enjoy, not on what you think looks better for admissions. If you would rather spend your time being focused on a specific area because it will be more rewarding, then do it! If you love all your activities and don’t want to drop any, that’s fine too! The bottom line is, as long as you’re spending your time doing things you enjoy, it will come through in your application and supplements no matter how related those things are or aren’t.
I would say you should focus on activities you really like-- possibly ones that relate to a career you’d like to ultimately have or a passion you want to pursue. Your essays are going to prompt you to talk a lot about these things, so it would be good to have the ECs to back that up. And MAKE SURE TO TAKE ON LEADERSHIP ROLES within these ECs…and, even better, have some real accomplishments to talk about. Even if you just take on ownership of the social media outreach for your club, do the most inventive, complete and surprising job ever, and have some great numbers to include and maybe even some work to link to…
On CC, I see so many kids trying to compile huge lists of ECs-- many of which they only do for one or two years-- in an effort to have a ‘great resume’. It’s silly…exhausting…and not very impressive. If you say you have a passion for medicine or science, I would expect you would have participated in clubs, volunteer work or contests that allowed you to spend time doing that kind of work (or meeting those kind of professionals). This is even true when you leave college and go out into the professional world-- a few focused ECs, where you created or achieved or led something, is more important than the fact you spent one year on the Chess Team (nothing against the Chess Team, but if your one year on that team is given the same weight on your application as your Leadership of a student tutoring program that you developed for 3 years at a local school you are not calling enough attention to the really important stuff).
They should reflect who you are and what satisfies you. I’m pretty sure that adcoms can see through resume padding very quickly. If you haven’t found your passion and that’s part of the person you portray on your app, I suspect that “trying on” different activities would not be a problem because you’d be actively exploring. If, on the other hand, you claim to care deeply about something and you’re not engaged with that because you have 10 ECs, that could be a problem. Schools are looking for authenticity.