How important are ECs in College?

[Anonymous]

DS is a junior at a top university. He has better than a 3.5 gpa, and has a work-study job in the library. He is plenty busy with social things and some random volunteer work, but has not really stuck with any particular clubs or groups and certainly does not have any leadership roles to point to. He has had summer jobs of the usual variety for teenagers, but nothing particularly challenging or career-building.

He is unsure of what he wants to do post-college, but will probably go to grad school at some point but not right away.

Question: assuming he has a high gpa and good standardized test scores, will his lack of ECs in college, particularly lack of leadership or long-term experiences, and his lack of any "real jobs" hurt his chances for grad school or for finding a job after he graduates? What should I be encouraging him to do during his last 3 semesters of college to be better prepared for career or grad school?

[Anonymous]

What's his major?

[Anonymous]

"assuming he has a high gpa "

What school does he go to? If you don't want to mention the actual name, list a few similar schools.

[Anonymous]

In college ECs are mostly for the network. Internships are what's really important. I think it's hard to get a job or into a good grad school without significant experiences during the summers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In college ECs are mostly for the network. Internships are what's really important. I think it's hard to get a job or into a good grad school without significant experiences during the summers.

Yes, internship or lab work experience. Internship if he wants to work after school, lab work if going to PhD/med schools. Depends on major.

[Anonymous]

I was a lot like your son -- didn't really stick with EC's, didn't have a lot of work experience, and where it is difficult is in job interviews where they will ask:
1. GIve an example of a time where you had to deal with a conflict between people
2. Give an example of a time you had to make an unpopular decision, etc.
Also, if you're applying for grad school, you're probably going to get funds to be a Teaching Assistant, and you may be at a slight disadvantage if you have never done anything that involves teaching people anything.

If he wants to do Teach for America, Peace Corps, etc. they will also ask those kinds of questions to guage leadership experience, etc.

Even if he's kinda nerdy, it's not too late to get nominated to student advisory committees at school, things like that. He might ask a professor what he can do to get more involved in his major, for example. SOmetimes students are on a search committee for a new faculty member or give input. He could host prospective students, get involved in planning for a speaker series.

Honestly, I wish I had been more involved in college. I think it did, to some degree, hurt me professionally because I didn't have those experiences to draw upon in interview situations, etc.

[Anonymous]

No problem for law school or non-science PhD programs. MBA programs usually want a couple years of work experience.

And PhD programs don't care if you've had teaching experience. You get teaching experience by being a TA; you're not expected to come in with it. Grad students are admitted based on their promise as scholars rather than as teachers. TAships tend to be handed out based on advisor/subfield/interest/availability.

[Anonymous]

I really don't think my phd program even asked.