I am a rising junior and have 0 extracurriculars related to my school. I work in a research lab (BME) and am working on co authoring and authoring two papers total and am actively involved with my religious organization. However what takes the most time from me is the fact that my sister is autistic and I do everything for her. By everything I mean like 75% but i always help her with homework , take her or pick her up from school most days, take care of her physical needs and even sleep with her. My question is if this is enough extracurriculars for graduate school? I plan on applying to a medical physics program btw not related to BME at all so thats another issue lol. But anyway should I not mention my sister? She takes up a lot of my time but also I don’t want the admissions committee to feel like I have too many obligations at home and won’t want to accept me if I want to go out of state. Thank you for the help!
This isn’t an undergraduate “check-the-boxes” kind of admission. No one really cares about the number or breadth of extracurricular activities when admitting graduate students. What’s important is giving the admissions committee the confidence that you will succeed in and be a good addition to their program. In that sense, you really just need to have a subjectively good combination of grades, scores, recommendations, and (preferably research) experience.
I recommend that you talk with your academic advisor about what you need to do to enhance your graduate school applications. Each discipline has different expectations, so even if your friends are focusing on internships or volunteering to get into their programs, it doesn’t mean that you need to do the same. The fact that you are already working in a lab and writing up papers will enhance your application (and will likely provide you with professors who can write strong letters on your behalf). You could let one of your letter writers know about how much help you provide your sister so they could mention it in their letter to demonstrate your character and maturity (and time management skills), but your materials should focus on activities related to your intended course of study in graduate school.
thank you very much! I have contacted some graduate schools and they all seem to mostly care about research and stuff which is good since I think I have that aspect covered lol.One of my advisers does know about my situation so I think he could speak about that aspect but still I’m going to try to get involved in some physics club just to sprinkle more things on my CV