How important is it for high school ECs to be related to your major?

Applying to College
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Hi, I’m wondering if people have any advice on how closely related one’s high school activities and one’s major should be.

It seems like it would be difficult for students to gain considerable amounts of experience in some obscure fields. I would assume colleges wouldn’t penalize students in the admissions process if they are in this situation. However, would a student who’s major makes up <20 percent of their activities be penalized in the admissions process if a larger amount of involvement in their major is accessible?
I’m just using 20 as a random small number.

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It is, in general, not all that important at all, unless the students wants to claim a lifelong passion for the field.

It can help for majors like CS or various engineering majors, but mostly to demonstrate strength in math. So somebody who wants to apply for Mechanical Engineering, does not need ECs which are related to mechanical engineering, but participation in any math-related EC, such as Math Olympiad, would help the application.

For life sciences, again, it does not have to be related to the major, but a demonstration of science abilities is helpful, though not required. Many students are accepted as biology majors without a single EC related to biology on their resume.

Most importantly, many, or even most, of applicants do not really know what major interests them, or change their minds while at college. So nobody really expects a high school student to know what their college major will be when they are just starting high school.

Mostly colleges want to see that a student did more with their time than hang around wasting time after school. They also like seeing students who have a history of overall success, which is why colleges also like to see students who won awards, and, in general, it is more common for a students to win awards in fields in which they are interested.

All that being said, the vast majority of non-profit four year schools do not look too deeply, or at all, at your ECs, and are more interested in your academic achievements. As a rule, public universities, even “elite” ones like Berkeley or UMichigan, put far more weight on academics than on ECs. “Elite” private colleges weigh ECs more heavily, though even there, an applicant generally needs to have strong academics to be competitive.

For colleges which put a large emphasis on ECs, it is better to find ECs related to one’s interests and passions, and do one’s best at them, than to try and guess “what colleges like”, and select ECs based on that. It is very difficult for a person to excel in an activity that they do not love, and are doing because they think it looks impressive.

Colleges which care about these things want to see drive, passion, tenacity, resilience, and success. “Checking the boxes” and doing “the right things” does little to impress AOs.

So, to reiterate, it is not very important, or really not important at all, for high school ECs to be related to the major which is on the college application.

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Nothing more boring than a one dimensional person.

1 Like
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My kid was extremely involved in performance music, but wanted to go to a college that did not offer that. Kid was interested in a completely different field for profession, and first choice school was very strong in that. Kid wrote a supplementary essay explaining kid’s legitimate interest in that field. Kid got in.

However, I do think that you need to be able to make a case for interest in a major that school does offer, if your EC’s don’t match up with your intended major.

5

I think the answer depends on the college. For LACs (or LAC-like colleges), ECs aren’t expected to be any indication of, or to support, your intended major. For other colleges that look for commitment and depth in your intended major or some related fields, ECs are where they will look for such characteristics.

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Thanks for the replies.

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My ECs had nothing at all to do with my intended major. I still got into every university I applied to (including one highly ranked one).

One daughter’s ECs again had nothing to do with her original major (the one that she applied for). Oddly enough some were related to what she ended up majoring in. The other daughter had very few ECs. Again both did quite well in admissions.

I think that the point is that you can apply yourself to a task that requires both commitment over time and personal responsibility. Working with others also matters.

For nursing it might be valuable to have some related ECs. However, I think that it is generally fine to have almost any EC that shows responsible behavior and the ability to do something well.

A LOT of students in North America change their majors after starting university.