Are non-academic abilities really important for admission?

[Danini]

I heard that non-academic abilities like volunteer work, extracurricular activities, whether you are good at sports, music, etc play a considerable part for admission. I really doubt. So what is the truth? Do we need to mention a little bit about non-academic abilities in SOP?

Thanks!

[Golden Rule]

No and no. Whoever told you that is clearly confusing undergraduate admissions with graduate admissions. You can of course mention influences on your research interests outside the classroom, but no one is going be impressed by your extracurricular activities in and of themselves.

One slight exception is that Berkeley asks you to write a diversity statement.

[Canuckonomist]

Originally Posted by Golden Rule

One slight exception is that Berkeley asks you to write a diversity statement.

So does NWU.

[oldprogrammer]

The only thing a PhD AdCom cares about is your potential to do research. Think of your SOP as a "statement of research".

[YoungEconomist]

Originally Posted by Golden Rule

No and no. Whoever told you that is clearly confusing undergraduate admissions with graduate admissions.

Exactly!

In fact, when I first decided that I wanted to get a PhD, I went to the economics department at my university and picked up this little brochure they put together to help undergraduates prepare for admissions. One of the first things it says is, "PhD programs in economics do not care about well rounded applicants." I thought to myself, "Getting admitted is no joke, I got a lot more work ahead of me then I thought" (gulp).

[jeeves0923]

If you are a US Citizen or permanent resident and will be applying for an NSF fellowship, extra-curricular activities, particularly those that fall into their "Broader Impacts Criteria", are extremely important.

Otherwise, adcoms likely won't care...

[hubrishedge]

Originally Posted by jeeves0923

If you are a US Citizen or permanent resident and will be applying for an NSF fellowship, extra-curricular activities, particularly those that fall into their "Broader Impacts Criteria", are extremely important.

Otherwise, adcoms likely won't care...

I would disagree with this statement too. The NSF is really just looking for good researchers, just like adcoms. However, unlike adcoms, they are really insistent that any projects they fund actually have real world value. Hence the Broader Impacts statement, where you say what good your research proposal actually does, and how it furthers science and national welfare. If you put "If I get the NSF, I will continue volunteering in a soup kitchen every weekend" in your BIS, they'll probably fall off their chair laughing. (Which is not to say I believe you're making this claim, Jeeves ) Suffice it to say that if you waste any of your precious two pages talking about an extracurricular activity thats not directly related to your research, you're wasting space.

For more info, see http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpg/broaderimpacts.pdf

[jeeves0923]

Of course hubrishedge! They want the extra curricular things to be related to your research. They want to see that yes, you are truly interested in this research beyond the classroom. I suppose I wasn't clear enough... in any event, if a person's research proposal is about urban economics, it would be looked kindly upon if he or she has done some volunteer work in urban areas.

I got an honorable mention last year, and one of my reviewers gave me a comment saying that I should have mentioned more (or had more) direct involvement in volunteer activities relating to my proposal.

[italos]

UC Santa Cruse asks you to write aa personal history essay different form a SOP.You can mention there everything you retain have done as important in your life academic and not

[hubrishedge]

Wow Jeeves! Congrats on the honorable mention. I'd been told that they didn't care about such things, but it looks like you would know best in this case :-).

Also, to expand upon the OP's question, I'm curious if anyone knows how important, if at all, those diversity statements are. I seem to remember Yale and U Maryland also required them, in addition to those schools listed above. While my application days are behind me, I am still kind of curious about the role those statements played.