I am a college senior with good scores in SAT 1 and 2 and 5s on my APs I want to pursue engineering but most of my Extracurricular Activities are related to community development etc, I equally love doing maths and science and my transcripts justify that. Do I need build something or publish some papers or win an international science Olympiad to pursue engineering at college.Would that hurt my chances at top engineering schools? What would admission officers think of that? Is it wrong to do something as extracurricular unrelated to your future major?
I’d guess that at some top schools it does make a difference, but there are top 50 schools you can get into without ECs related to your major. Our kid was like that, good SAT & AP scores, but no related ECs.
Colleges, top colleges especially @youcee, bemoan the fact that HS students believe the myth that they’ve are being evaluated on whether or not they have a laser-beam focus on what they want to do for the next 50 years of their lives.
OP, you know that the majority of entering freshmen change their majors, right? At my Ivy alma mater it’s more than 60%. So how predictive should an admissions officer view the citation of a 17 year old?
If you have “pointy” ECs, fine. If not, fine. My ECs? I was a dishwasher and a leader at my HS. I got into every school applied.
Your TRANSCRIPT and how you convey yourself through your essays and choices you make (yes, on ECs too) will be what top schools evaluate.
No. Lots of people do extracurriculars that are different from what they study in high school or college (or do for work).
The admissions officers will think you aren’t a one-dimensionsal robot.
Thanks. Sorry I wrote college senior instead of HS.
I have 2 kids that are engineering grads from Northwestern. Neither of them had any “engineering” ECs. They played sports, and participated in writing and art ECs.
So, to answer your original question, Admissions can like it or lump it. Do what YOU want to do. There will be a top school that appreciates what you have accomplished. Good Luck and Have Fun!
You are fine. Do the things you enjoy.
I have one nephew whose parents made him do every possible premed extracurricular from nursing home, hospital volunteer, physician shadowing, biomed research intern, Peru trip with medical mission etc. He dodnt get into BS/MD or regular MD. He decided to do his masters in business and now on leadership track in a Fortune 500. He really regrets that he spent 8 years of his youth on a single track trade route.
Lesson learned, explore things and use ECs to evolve as a person.
I have somewhat of a different perspective on this. Imagine being an admissions officer and having to read thousands and thousands of applications. Most of the kids kind of look the same on paper. The same ECs repeat themselves over and over again: DECA, NHS, Student Council, Scouting, Key club, Community service, science olympiads, etc.
After a while, all of the students start to look exactly the same. If your goal is to get into a top school, then your job is show how you are different. One of the ways to do this is to have a spike in one single area that is so far off the charts (admissions speak for angular). Other students are well rounded and are good at a bunch of different things.
Admissions people definitely take lots of students who are well rounded. But they also tend to take lots of angular students simply because they are easy to distinguish from others. You can still do the things you enjoy and be angular. Just that being well rounded (without a good hook) can be the kiss of death at the top schools. Watch these videos from a former Stanford Admissions officer. In one of them (I can’t remember which) she refers to angular students:
If you are not aiming for the top schools, then this matters very little – just do what you like, ECs aren’t really that important. More emphasis is on grades and standardized test scores.
For almost all majors, ECs are pretty much open-ended. The comments above are all quite useful.
But ECs for premed can be a bit trickier. During a campus information session at Columbia, the admission officer mentioned that they “expect” some indication of commitments in strong applicants’ files; e.g., hospital volunteering, healthcare internship, etc. Of course, this could be school-specific. I did not hear anything like it at other schools’ information sessions (but of course it could be that no one at those sessions asking a similar question).
I’m a little baffled that they require “pre-med” applicants to have “pre-medish” EC’s when pre-med isn’t even a major.
^ My thought as well.
The OP specifically asked about engineering. As competitive as the top engineering programs are, does an EC such as Robotics provide any boost?
One of my daughters is probably going to major in mech E and she’s heavy into theater as one of her EC’s. I have no problem with it because she’s doing what she loves as an EC.
She also does robotics (and has since elementary school), and she says she can tell the kids who are there to put it on their applications, and the ones who are there because they love it. I don’t know if adcoms can tell, though, but I’m assuming in an interview the phone it in EC kids will not light up like a christmas tree when you ask them about what they’re doing with regards to robotics.
@VickiSoCal @“Erin’s Dad” I was baffled as well.
My kiddo was accepted into 2 top ten engineering colleges w/sports and a side hobby of coding – but cranking math/physics grades, solid but not stratospheric test scores. No robotics or other engineering specific ECs. Again, there’s nothing wrong with them. But engineering colleges know the discipline itself weeds out folks so they’re not going to fret too much over someone not having years of demonstrated experience while in HS.
And Engineering-specific ECs are a relatively recent development for many schools. My son’s GC is having to explain that, while they currently have a robust STEM and Robotics program in the lower and middle schools, it didn’t exist when my son attended (hence why those ECs still don’t exist at his high school). Also I think they would consider any math and science ECs to be on point – so don’t stress just because your activities aren’t engineering-specific.
@T26E4 also makes the very good point that Engineering schools are probably much more concerned about your math and science rigor and performance than they would be about you not being in some engineering club. Of course, I have reason to hope that is the case – similar to her kid – my kid does sports, chamber orchestra, summer game design camp, but spends more of the summer survival camping in the wilderness, rock climbing and white-water kayaking, and is doing his senior service project on wilderness conservation and working at one of the local state parks.
By the way, I’m guessing that the referenced programs that want to see “pre-med” ECs are BS/MD programs where the applicant really is committing to medical school, the programs take few applicants, and competition is completely insane. Any combination undergraduate/straight into grad/professional program is going to want to make sure that the kid really wants that specialty and shows some aptitude.