<p>For admission to a PhD program in Physics, will extracurriculars have any bearing at all? I've read that grad adcoms don't care about extracurricular activities for admission to PhD programs, and I wanted to ask in more detail: to what extent is that statement true?</p>
<p>I realize that something as mundane as athletics or joining a club won't sway them, but what about significant involvement with humanitarian charities (more specifically for me, a single charity) or considering the Peace Corps after graduating from UG? (A high school teacher commented on how much his college friend's stint in the Peace Corps impressed Med School adcoms -- I realize that Med School is completely different than Grad School, but I wanted to see to how extreme of a degree it was true for admissions.)</p>
<p>I'm an UG pre-frosh at the moment, so nothing you say will seriously wound me. I've put myself in a good position as far as research is concerned (beginning during my pre-frosh summer) and I'm building strong relationships with professors, but I was just curious about how much bearing extracurriculars will have.</p>
<p>Please and thank you for the feedback.</p>
<p>It’s completely true. Extracurriculars are irrelevant for graduate admissions to academic-oriented (research) programs.</p>
<p>You have to remember that graduate applications are reviewed by professors in the department you’re applying to. What they care about is your ability to succeed in the program. Secondarily, they care about your motivations in pursuing the program.</p>
<p>Peace Corps, humanitarian charities, etc. are nice and all, but they’re completely unrelated to either of those key factors. That you want to go into the Peace Corps has absolutely no bearing on how you might perform in the classroom and the laboratory.</p>
<p>What <em>can</em> matter are internships, work experience, etc. related to the field of interest. Those activities can point to your likelihood of success.</p>
<p>Ah, alright. Well that makes sense.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars DO have bearing in competitions for prestigious scholarships (like the Rhodes, to cite one with which I am familiar), do they not? I realize that this question is only vaguely related to my initial question, as it was about PhD programs, but I wanted to ask while the question was fresh in my mind.</p>
<p>Not only do they not help; they can hurt. I was almost turned down because some on the committee didn’t like my mentioning such interests in my personal statement. It evidently should (at least to them) have been one-dimensional: a laser beam focus on academics and the ability and fortitude to see it through.</p>
<p>ECs that can be useful are ones that are related to your major. Things like SAE, concrete canoe, ACerS’ mug drop/putter challenge, DARPA Grand Challenge, etc. can help show your ability to do things outside of the classroom that still pertains to the stuff you might see in grad school. I also got a few kudos for the science outreach I had done as an undergrad, though I really wish I had known how much weight NSF puts on it before I became ineligible for it. :(</p>
<p>That’s true; Peace Corps and charity work won’t help you in PhD admissions. But if you are passionate about them, you should do them anyway. Don’t lose yourself in your pursuit of a PhD.</p>
<p>RacinReaver is right though in that the NSF likes to see them in the GRF application if they are related to science education and outreach. I volunteered at an elementary school and did some GRE tutoring in college, and I wrote about that in my NSF personal statement as part of my broader impacts.</p>
<p>NSF = National Science Foundation? and GRF = graduate research fellowship? </p>
<p>Thank you all for the feedback; it’s very helpful. Out of curiosity – since we’re getting into specifics – does it make a difference that the charity I work with tries to encourage literacy in developing countries by building libraries and supplying books? I realize that it’s not exactly inherently science-related, but it is a form of outreach that aims to encourage students to be academically minded. As someone whose interest in science was first sparked by books that I got my hands on when I was younger, I know the power those books carry in the hands of inquiring minds, and I could easily try and put a more science-related spin on the work of the charity – supplying more science books.</p>
<p>Forgive the redundancy, but just to ensure that I’ve grasped the wisdom that everyone has shared with me: extracurriculars don’t matter at all for PhD admissions, but science related EC’s do matter for the NSF application?</p>