<p>I've heard a lot of different things on this so I'm not sure. </p>
<p>I'm a 3rd year at UCB and after stumbling academically trying to find what I really wanted in a major, I earned a few not-so-good grades along the way (to be exact, a NP, two D's, and two C's) and the rest have been around B+, A-, A. Though my GPA started out badly, I've consistently improved my GPA every semester (even if just by a bit), and this semester's GPA was a ~3.8, which bumped up my cumulative GPA quite a bit. </p>
<p>So I've heard that GPA is THE most important thing grad school/PhD programs look at, and I know my academics are NOT that great from what I just said. But here are the things that may balance it out. </p>
<p>From my first semester here up until now I've been involved in a lot of stuff. I've done an internship for a resource center on campus, have leadership positions in 3 different clubs (president and secretary), a Program Director for a student government senator, helped organize a few delegations for a couple conferences, among other stuff.
And during my 2nd year (and I intend to let grad schools know about this during the comments section of the app) I had a lot of mental health issues due to death of family.</p>
<p>Sooooo with all this put together.....how important are extracurriculars to PhD programs and grad school in general??</p>
<p>Almost all PhD programs require 3 letters of recommendation preferably from professors that are closely related to what you want to study. Extracurricular activities certainly help, but it ultimate comes down to the following factors (listing them in the most important order in my opinion):</p>
<ul>
<li>Statement of Purpose: an essay why do you want to do PhD in a certain program</li>
<li>3 letters of rec that I described above</li>
<li>Research or project experience related to your PhD program</li>
<li>Major GPA, GRE score</li>
</ul>
<p>GPA is not the most important thing especially if you’re going for PhD rather than Master’s or other professional programs. It comes down to explaining why you want to do this and what relevant experience do you have that inspired you.</p>
<p>Having research experience is crucial since that is what grad school is about. It is definitely important to have some undergrad research experience and try to get a good letter of rec from that professor.</p>
<p>PhD programs do not care at all about extracurriculars. The only factors:</p>
<p>(1) GPA in your major, courses related to degree goal.
(2) Letters of recommendation from faculty who know you well, preferably in a research/internship context, or in an upper division advanced class. Letters from professors who taught you in lower division lecture classes are USELESS.
(3) GRE scores, general and in some fields, subject tests.
(4) Research and/or related internship experiences.
(5) Statement of purpose.</p>
<p>Extracurriculars do not matter, unless perhaps they are closely related to PhD field.</p>