Do all of my activities need to be related to engineering?

Absolutely don't give up things you enjoy just to focus in on engineering! There is room for both!

When you apply to colleges they will want to see on your application that you are well-rounded and have experiences in a variety of interests. Sports teach teamwork and perseverance. Playing a musical instrument has been proven to improve your brain's ability to make new connections. Art helps you view things creatively, and can be great stress relief.

Having a hobby outside of engineering to relax with during school and during your career is incredibly important for work-life balance!

Also, figuring out which other activities interest you can help you choose an engineering field! An interest in history may lead you into civil/structural engineering and building preservation. A love of music might lead you to pursue acoustical engineering. Robotics can lead you to electrical or computer engineering. A strong interest in chemistry or nature or climate change action could lead you to chemical or environmental engineering. Engineering is the *application* of science and math, in the advancement of a cause. Activities outside of engineering help you find a cause you are passionate about using your engineering skills for.

This is a great question! No - all of your activities do not need to be related to engineering. Not only are colleges and universities looking for future students with diverse interests and experiences, but those experiences will help you expand your toolkit and grow as an individual.

I am currently the chief scientist for a large organization and my background is in aerospace engineering. While in high school I was active in sports (softball and soccer), and I played travel softball during the summer. I was also active in community service organizations that allowed me to socialize with friends while giving back to the local community. Finally, I really enjoyed writing so I would find opportunities to do that as well in the form of poetry and short stories.

As a student athlete, I learned the importance of working as a team and being a leader when they needed someone to step up. I was a fastpitch pitcher and I learned what it was like to operate under pressure and push back against all odds. These experiences taught me grit that I used when I needed to dig deep in my engineering courses and leadership skills that helped me guide my teams to successful projects. Community service projects brought me happiness both in what I was doing for the community as well as spending time with friends. It helped me build better connections with those around me and remembering to take time to help others. Finally, spending time honing my writing skills helped me be a more effective technical communicator as a professional engineer.

As a student, I did focus on a lot of math and science courses to prepare me for college. I also took time to take a dance class because it was an opportunity to get my body moving during the day! Do what makes you happy and bring your whole self to engineering – we need different perspectives and ways to approach problems. If we all have the same experiences and approach problems in the same way, we may never solve some of the most complex problems!

Of course, you can and should be in other activities!

I was in multiple musical groups during college and grad school. I resumed playing when my kids started playing instruments. It was one of my favorite parts of college, and where most of my friends are from. Music has close ties to math – my college (University of Illinois) clarinet choir was about one-third music & music education majors, one-third engineering & computer science majors, with the remaining third all the other majors! We were invited to an International Clarinet Congress in Paris – the only Americans invited to perform, and the only amateurs!

I studied clarinet acoustics for my senior project, which led me into my career in acoustical engineering. Some of the things that I learned about clarinets helped me control the noise from a jet engine test cell years later.

On the flip side, nearly half of the music performance majors in my son’s freshman class (Indiana University) had taken AP calculus – for fun.

Others, like my sister, are into sports. She played for the University of Illinois’ volleyball team its first 4 years – before it was recognized by the big ten. She was in Civil Engineering, had to take Friday classes off to go to games, but she still got better grades than me. She continued to get a master’s degree in civil engineering.

Engineers should be curious, team players, and always looking for a better way to do things. This can be learned in many different activities.

Good luck!

I believe that the best engineers are complete people – with multiple facets, talents, and interests that complement their engineering skills. I have noticed that many of my colleagues who are truly outstanding in their research lives, have other “lives” as musicians, artists, chefs, athletes, cartoonists, humanitarians, etc.

I think having an opportunity to problem solve in the “back“ of your brain while you do some other activity at the “front” of your brain is really useful. I find that I am able to resolve research problems or get ideas while I am on a long run. While on sabbatical, I taught myself how to cable stitch in knitting. In fact, I think my hobbies of sewing and knitting throughout my life have helped me tremendously with my spatial reasoning skills – very important to engineering.

It is true, however, that studying engineering can take up time, so you may not be able to actively participate in all of your extracurricular activities, but being a healthy, balanced individual will also help you excel in your chosen path. Creativity is a critical component to engineering problem solving, activities that help foster your creativity are activities I would encourage.

My short answer is: no, don’t stop doing activities because you think everything needs to be engineering-centric!

For one, it’s great to have multiple dimensions to yourself and to enjoy a variety of things for your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. Being skilled in many things is a great reflection of who you are and what you can bring to your future college, and I would disagree with the direction of any college that is looking for students that are solely interested in stereotypical engineering topics and nothing else. Every engineer that I work with has other things they love outside of engineering, whether that’s music, art, sports, travel… you name it!

Secondly, who is to say what is or isn’t related to engineering? My sister has two degrees, one in civil engineering and one in graphic design, and she has talked about how these things are related. So many skills that you’ll develop in one aspect of life will translate to engineering – teamwork and interpersonal dynamics, problem solving, time management, budgeting, dealing with setbacks, perseverance and grit, communication (written, verbal, presenting)… all of these things and more are needed for engineering AND can be practiced and honed in other hobbies.

It’s healthy and great to have multiple interests – keep exploring!

One of the best ways to prepare for engineering is to know how to build a community you can rely upon in school. I would recommend staying in all of your extracurricular activities, and also involving yourself in one or two when in college, to help maintain yourself as a well-balanced person.

In college, you will rely on not only your own education, but your ability to study and complete projects with others. There is no better way to do that than by getting good at making new friends, and this is also a very important skill to have as a professional engineer and later in life.

Definitely keep doing all of those other activities! I have judged a lot of scholarship applications and we are looking for someone who is well-rounded, not just singularly focused on academics.

Being well-rounded and participating in other activities outside of your STEM studies allows you to work in a variety of teams and communicate in different ways, both of which are required skills in the workforce. There is definitely value to having at least one of your after-school activities be related to STEM though, like robotics, because it shows you want to be spending time on STEM outside of your core academics, which is important if you are going to enjoy the work that you’re paid to do!

The other perk of continuing to do your other hobbies is simply for the enjoyment as well! If you enjoy something, continue to develop in it, regardless if the activity is STEM related or not, and take on a leadership role- this is highly regarded in scholarship reviews as well.

There are a great many things that can help one become a better engineer and should be studied. Some seem obvious like robotics and coding. Others can be overlooked or discarded like music, art, economics, and communication skills. Too often I have met engineers that have focused on the former at the expense of the latter. This has oftentimes made them incapable of communicating their ideas to broader audiences. Limited the scope of their ideas. And stifled their creativity.

Everything you learn helps make you a better engineer because it helps you to challenge your mind, find new ways to think, and broaden your capabilities. An engineer makes things people use. People are at the heart of what engineers do. Learning how to talk to people, understand people, write to people, draw your ideas. Understand the psychology of risk and how it can impact how a person decides to use an engineered device or tool or avoid it. These are just a few of the non-math things that go into being a truly great engineer.

In closing do as many different things as give you pleasure and stimulate your interests.

It is really important that some of your activities do not have to do with engineering. Engineers spend time solving real world problems, so the broader your exposure to sports, arts, global challenges, and more, the better engineer you will be!

This question hit the right note for me as I was always active in sports and music which go along perfectly with an engineering career. To be a good team member and work with all people regardless of mindset and methods, sports are a great preparation. Engineers need to be able to work with designers (arts), economists (project ROI), legal (if you ever are deposed), social scientists (for equity), and many more. Also, music and mathematics go hand in hand and arts of any kind provide you with an outlet and respite from the rigorous studies. Do as much as you can and still keep all the balls in the air - it'll prepare you well!

I love this question! Definitely please continue to do activities not related to engineering that you find enjoyment in, as they can make you a better engineer.

Sports teach you crucial teamwork skills which will help you when you are working on an engineering team and need to leverage the strengths of each team member to bring the project to fruition!

This also applies to activities other than sports that are not engineering-related. For example, I did all the school plays and musicals throughout my high school years. My theater experience helped me to be more confident with public speaking and communication which are important skills that have transferred to my role as a civil engineer.

All the activities you mentioned, whether they are engineering-related or not, will teach you transferable skills that will help you prepare for college and beyond!

No! Enjoy every activity you involve yourself in and it will be in support of your engineering career!

Why? Simply put, engineering is all about everything around us, everyday! So, the BEST preparation you can have for engineering is to do what you like, observe how the world works, and look at everything you are doing in the context of, “How can this be done better, easier, faster, cheaper?”

No matter if it is music, sports, cheerleading, dancing, driving, studying, or gardening, engineering is EVERYWHERE and is in EVERYTHING!

The beauty of engineering is that it encompasses literally every possible field around you. Everything around you has at least once been touched by an engineer – beauty products, clothing, electronics, medicines, art supplies, etc. So the short answer is no, not all of your activities need to be directly related to engineering. Your experiences in different activities can help you develop interdisciplinary skills, allowing you to approach problems from multiple perspectives.

Having a well-rounded set of interests and skills will broaden your ability to think outside the box and solve engineering challenges, and your impact to benefit society would be greater. Besides, pursuing a range of interests leads you to further personal growth, helps you to build confidence. Look for ways to connect your diverse interests to engineering problems and I am sure you will quickly find a connection.

Absolutely not! It is much more important to be well rounded in order to better relate to people throughout your career. Additionally, other types of activities, for instance sports, teach you valuable skills you will need in your career as an engineer. These skills are not something you can learn in a textbook, rather you have to experience them and work through them. This includes working in a team environment, facing adversity, leadership, organization, accountability, and many more skills that you will need to be successful.

The short answer is do what you love and enjoy doing it regardless of whether or not it appears to align with engineering.

The longer answer is, engineers need to be well rounded. Colleges and companies like to see how you differ and stand out from your peers who are all taking the same coursework. That means learning math and science and STEM topics and having hands-on experience, but that also means being good communicators and team players, learning to navigate real world problems, and having a sense of creativity.

There are lots of ways to explore those things. Engineering and STEM clubs are great for getting hands-on experience but activities like band, sports, and artistic clubs teach you teamwork, sportsmanship, leadership, thinking outside the box, and a whole host of other skills that are also relevant to engineering degrees and real world engineering.

No matter what activities you choose to do, you will find some way to link the benefits to engineering. So don't sweat whether a club or activity feels directly applicable to engineering or not, find what you're passionate about and go do it!

There is no reason to quit doing non-engineering things! In fact, many universities and employers like to see that you are a whole person with diverse interests so having some non-engineering things on your resume can actually be beneficial from the point of view of applications. Also, I think that experience in different domains helps you to bring new insights to engineering problems that others might not have so it can also make you a better engineer!

I would encourage you to do the hobbies you are passionate about, there will be plenty of time during your studies to learn engineering and having things in your life that excite you (whether that is engineering related or not) is important to keeping your motivation up. Personally, I have always been heavily involved in sports which has been important for keeping balance in my life. I also took French classes during university (alongside my engineering courses) so that I could do a semester abroad in France and this has always been a positive, not a negative, in my engineering career.

I really appreciate the question on if you should focus just on engineering related activities or continue to pursue other activities like sports, band, and art. I say absolutely yes you should pursue and participate in activities you are passionate about!

One of the great things about engineering is that it touches all aspects of our life and when we have hobbies we are passionate about, it enhances our engineering studies! As engineers, we are problem solvers, and that takes creativity! What better way to nurture our own creativity than to explore art and music.

And while we may be engineers, we as individuals are so much more than just our careers, we are athletes, mothers, leaders, and artists. By continuing to have hobbies that fulfill us, we in turn are more productive in our work.

There is one caveat to the above: If participating in too many activities affects your ability to study and achieve academic success, you may need to pause a few activities for a time. This does not mean you give them up completely but may decide that one area is more of a hobby than an activity you are committed to.

Well-rounded individuals make great engineers, when you start out in your career, having hobbies and activities ensures your physical and emotional wellbeing!

Do what you like and what fulfills you! First of all, you need to be happy and find things that make you happy and allow you to relax. When I receive applications or write recommendation letters for students, I always look for the things students do for fun. Some of the skills you learn are so important, although they are not related to your major. For example, some sports can teach you teamwork, art can prepare you to think outside the box or to help you with drawings for projects or a thesis. You never know what it’s good for!

The more diverse your activities the better!

What I found was, as I got into different things like gardening, gymnastics, and going to concerts, was that engineering was involved in just about everything out there. In gardening, biology and chemistry helped me grow healthy disease resistant plants in whatever type of soil I encountered. Gymnastics is applying physics to the human body resulting in twists and somersaults. For concerts, the acoustics of the concert hall and the placement of the seats, curtains, etc, is done by acoustic engineering.

So if you have wide wide-ranging interests, by all means, pursue them! I bet you will find some aspect of engineering or science is involved.

>I cannot stress enough how important I think it is to do things other than Engineering IF that is what interests you. Not only can it be beneficial in your career and life to have lots of different experiences and people to learn from, but you'll also be so much happier and more fulfilled having hobbies and variation in your day.

As a personal example, I really love to write, and I have continued to write scientific communication pieces for various organizations throughout my time in undergrad and graduate school. These don't necessarily have anything to do with my research, I just like learning and sharing new things. It is interesting for me, I've been able to use it to make some extra money on the side, and it has also served me well in interviews and similar because it is an experience that not everyone else has.

Less professionally relevant, I also love to run, and that has been essential to my mental and social well being throughout my life.

I have never had "traditional" engineering hobbies like robotics etc. and I don't think it has hurt me at all. I've done the things I thought were interesting and fun.

It’s great to be well rounded and to have varying interests, so I would stay involved in as many things as your schedule can handle and that you enjoy!

That said you should evaluate what it will take for you to get into university and if you are focused enough on the academics required. If you have gaps then you might want to trade off some of the things that you’re doing, for things that will be more directly beneficial to get into engineering school. Many universities also look at if you have volunteer hours, so you might want to consider that as well. Good luck with everything!

Your activities should always include things outside of engineering! Whether it’s sports, music, social activities, knitting, or whatever, you need them in a balance in your life. Your body needs exercise and social interactions to be healthy. And varied activities give your mind the opportunity to be creative, which may enable you to solve problems you wouldn’t otherwise.

The best engineers are multi-taskers, which many women excel at! Work hard, play hard is my mantra. Being involved in a lot of different activities is a great way to prepare for an exciting career as an engineer.

It is important for your engineering career that you DO participate in activities outside of your area of study.

An engineering career is much more than just the science at hand, it is how the engineer can pull from all facets of the area to ensure your work product provides a solution that is well rounded.

Not at all. You should do all that you like and enjoy. I’m glad to know that you have so many interesting facets to your personality. But your goal of engineering should always be in the back of your mind because this will help you to curtail the amount of time you are spending on your leisure activities. You should focus on engineering-related activities and when you want to take a break you can do all these leisure activities, so you don’t feel deprived and crave for anything at all.

My short answer is NO!

Your hobbies are what you enjoy and make you who you are, and life is more than only school and work. If it gives you joy and fulfills you, I recommend you continue doing it. Each experience and opportunity teaches you something. Continue learning and loving what you do.

ABSOLUTELY NO!

As you move through this phase of your life, finding balance between what you love, what is necessary, and what is a future goal is a critical learning experience. Managing conflicting dates, events and scheduling between competing obligations helps you to understand planning and prioritization.

Up to this point in your life you have had parents, teachers, coaches and others setting your schedule and priorities. To some extent they are still playing a role because they may be your transportation or providing funds for certain activities. It is easy to let them continue to do this for you. I challenge you to start taking these decisions into your own hands.

You will learn how much you can handle on your own. It may mean that instead of asking for a ride to an event from mom or dad, you coordinate with a friend or ask for Uber money on your app. Be prepared to offer reasoning behind the need to attend a robotics competition vs. be at a sports practice. Sometimes you may have to ask WHY behind an activity if it is always in conflict with another. Ultimately, now is when you are deciding your future and understanding that WORK is not the be all and end all is important.

This coming from someone who works way too many hours in a day because I love my job. Yet it is never a priority over my family or my special interest projects. Life can be exhausting at times but you can handle all of it.

Absolutely not - I graduated in minimum time with the highest grade and kept on playing semi-pro volleyball all during Chemical Engineering!

I think it is healthy to release steam and let your brain rest while your body works out and a team sport is ideal because you can interact with your team during the training and games and also afterwards having fun together.

This made me less isolated so in the end helped me a lot to be more socially adequate and well rounded.