<p>I didn't really do anything extra in high school as far as leadership role goes. I did join plenty of clubs but I was only a member, which kind of sucks for me since colleges/scholarships are looking for applicants with leadership positions.</p>
<p>I was just wondering how applying for grad. school works... Do you have to be pretty active as far as leadership positions in clubs, activities, community service, and sports goes (while maintaining a kick ass GPA)? Is it high school all over again? Is it just as competitive applying for grad. school as it is for undergrad.? Easier? Worse? I want to apply for a particular Ivy League grad. school (Harvard, but hey, I said that freshmen year and look at me now..) </p>
<p>Just curious. I just wanted to know what I needed to work on for the next 4 years. Kind of like making up for what I didn't do in high school...</p>
<p>It is generally accepted that for law schools including Harvard, Columbia, and NYU and all the schools beneath that your undergraduate GPA + your LSAT score is 99.9% of the admissions criteria. It’s completely the opposite of undergrad admissions where even a 2400 won’t guarantee you anything. Common wisdom puts it that if you have a 3.85+/170LSAT you will get into anywhere except Stanford and Yale. Stanford and Yale focuses on the “soft” factors— because each year their class is only around ~250 people.</p>
<p>For Medical schooL</p>
<p>GPA + MCATS + RESEARCH
These are pretty much the only factors that matter. Is it helpful to be a head of this or a head of that? Sure. Not by much at all though. If you have great GPA + MCAT + RESEARCH, you’re in.</p>
<p>For Graduate Studies:</p>
<p>GPA + Recommendations + any papers/original research you’ve done on that topic. Extras don’t really matter.</p>
<p>**I have a feeling you’re referring to HLS (Harvard Law) in which case as long as you maintain a 3.85+ gpa and 170+ LSAT you are what they called an “a-u-t-o-a-d-m-i-t”. </p>
<p>** one exception is work experience. If you have significant work experience … (i.e Analyst for Goldman Sachs), they’ll let you slide A BIT on your GPA or LSAT.</p>
<p>So seriously then, what’s the point on being the head of this or the head of that in college (or to even join clubs to begin with)? There’s people I know in highschool right now that are presidents and vice presidents of 4-6 clubs just so they can impress the adcom. What’s the reasons behind the college students going above and beyond their expectations in the classroom into their EC activities? </p>
<p>Now mind you, I do want to try being president of a club. I didn’t do it in highschool, so I definitely want to go for it in college. But does having these leadership positions help as an undergrad.? Just want to know people’s reasons for having these types of roles in college…</p>
<p>Lol… uh passion. Believe it or not people like to partake in activities, and lead some, for the sake of doing it for their sense of fulfillment. Some people like to be leaders.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, the purpose of Clubs and Activities, at one time, weren’t created to “impress adcoms”.</p>
<p>Personal opinion : For those people going to grad school, especially NOT right out of undergrad, the most important factors are usually board scores
( GMAT, LSAT,..), work experience, interview(s), GPAs, the undergrad college. ECs in undergrad colleg, IMO, are less important to grad schools than ECs are to undergrad schools. I went to undergrad college, majored in accounting, became a CPA, practiced for a few years, applied to both business and law schools, and ended up going to law school. ECs never really entered the equation. I would say do ECs at college to learn, to have fun, etc.. but not with a view towards grad school. Then again, things may have changed in the past 25 or so years…</p>
<p>In graduate school applications (that is, master’s and PhD; medical and law schools are professional schools), there is generally not even space to write extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>This is up to debate. It matters more for Law than for Medicine. But the general concensus is not by much unless all else is equal. Of course, you don’t want to go to really really sucky schools…</p>
<p>No none of this applies to B-school. B-school is 95% dependent on your work experience and to a much less extent, college GPA. GMATS almost don’t matter. If you work at goldman sachs IBD and they like you, you can get a 3.0 at some TTT college and you will be picking any B-school of your choice.</p>
<p>That said, you will 99% not get into B-school right out of college. And even if you do, it’s a bad idea becaues the idea behind B-school isn’t to actually learn anything, it’s to network. How are you going to network with people that’s on average 5-6 years older than you who has been in the real world doing work?</p>
