How important is it to have EC’s related to the major we are applying for (especially for international students). Also does it hurt your chances if u dont have many EC’s regarding your academic interests?
I think it helps to have EC’s related to your major because it shows that you’re passionate about what you’re applying for. On the other hand, sometimes there are no clear EC’s related to your major. I can’t speak as to how much it hurts you, but I can say it may help a fair amount if you have several related EC’s that you’ve been committed to for a long period of time and had significant accomplishments in (this would kind of be like making your spike in one academic area). If you don’t have EC’s related to your major, just focus on committing to the ones you’re already in and attaining an officer position/leadership role and maybe winning an award of some kind. I can’t speak as to how EC’s are weighed differently for international students. I know this wasn’t super insightful, but hopefully it helped a little bit!
From what I’ve seen at school, many colleges like to see a diversity of “love” rather than more of the same old, same old. They seem to love the future engineer who also does dance/theater or the humanities major who is leader of the Chess Club. It’s not like they diss the engineer being part of the Rocketry Club - not at all - but if that student is part of the Rocketry Club and gets a major part in a few school plays it shows a bit of well-roundedness.
They’re definitely more interested in seeing depth of ECs, not just oodles of different ones with no substance.
College admissions officials don’t expect you to have your entire life planned out at the age of 14. They realize that some students don’t know what they want; some students may decide on their major late in high school or in college; and some people may be interested in a wide variety of things. Furthermore, most colleges don’t actually require you to apply by major - you apply to the college as a whole, and specify your major later.
If you’re applying to one of those universities where you have to apply to your major or to the school that houses your major, then it probably helps.
In other cases, then it’s probably not super important. What’s more important is showing that you are active and intellectually interested outside of the classroom.
It may be important for direct entry/ direct admit undergraduate business programs.
I think it matters far more if you are applying to a program or major that is more specialized, and a lack of ECs related to that program/major might indicate a lack of sincere interest or aptitude. For example, applying for a specialized international studies program (I am not talking about a generic application where you say “I want to major in international”) and you lack much foreign language study, you have never traveled abroad, you are not in any clubs related to political science or world affairs, etc. Or another example, you apply to an accelerated BS/MD program and you have never volunteered in a hospital, have no health or science ECs, etc.
Thank you all for your responses. It was really helpful.
Also, do you have an idea about how much EC’s contribute to our application (on a scale of 1-10) ?
I think it helps to have SOME EC activity related to your major. A kid applying for a STEM major who has nothing math or science related would be noticeable.
ECs matter for selective schools, and especially for “highly selective” schools; however, ECs matter ASSUMING your application is otherwise equal or close to equal with grades, curricular rigor, and test scores. President of the student council is not going to make up for, in any way, a B average and 25 ACT applying to an Ivy school. Being national high school debate champion, on the other hand, probably would make up for some grades and test score deficiencies.
Oh okay. I have more of a good grades but not many EC’s combination. I have EC’s, but most of them are not academics related. Also, we didnt have many clubs in our school which particiapted in some national competitions. They were mostly interschool (in the same city) or intraschool. Will they still have some merit in my application?