<p>If all of your extracurriculars are following a certain theme, should you not include an EC that doesn't follow the same theme? What I'm asking is, let's say you declare 3 academic interests and you have 3 extracurriculars that clearly match that interest, but there is a 4th one that you have been doing for a really long time but it doesn't clearly correlate to those 3 interests. Should you not include that 4th one?</p>
<p>Don’t over-think this. If it is something you have spent significant time on then include it!</p>
<p>I would worry less about theme then on accomplishment. You want to include activities where you have shined and ones you have invested your effort. </p>
<p>I do like the idea of focusing on a few though. If you add too many ECs it looks like you were just trying to collect letter pins.</p>
<p>I have no idea where this notion comes from that an applicant’s extracurricular activities must “match” his or her academic interests. After all, they’re called extracurricular for a reason. </p>
<p>Do the things that interest you, and do them as well as you can. Then tell colleges what you did, and what you learned or accomplished by doing it.</p>