How important are internships and extracurricular during undergrad?

[marid]

Just curious...does internships and extracurriculars--the ones that are related to your field of study--become less important after a certain amount of time had passed? Am planning on going to grad school in 2 years tops and was wondering if I should focus on volunteering activities in my resume other than my extracurriculars/internships. 

[fuzzylogician]

What field are you applying in? 

[marid]

18 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

What field are you applying in? 

MPA particularly in non-profits. I have several internships under my belt and was involved with my school's USGO (Undergraduate Student Government Organization)

[DogsArePeopleToo]

I think after a couple years' worth of post-college work experience, some of the undergrad extracurricular activities could recede into the background. At the very least, they can be factored out of different versions of your resume depending on where you apply.

For example, I was in student government too, and I worked on the IT help-desk. But when I applied to a researcher job with a human rights organization two years out of college, I didn't include that bit. But my time with the student newspaper was there.

Now that I'm hoping to apply for an MA program, I'm having to go through the process of elimination again: IT help-desk won't cut it; volunteer with Asian Student Association won't cut it; student government, maybe...or maybe not? It's hard. But in my case, some of this work risks pulling me back to undergrad when I'm trying to show my credentials as a professional with five years of experience.

[makingtheleap.back]

For these mpp/mpa applications they're also often asking for resumes instead of CVs. I would imagine part of the answer lies in how long your resume is currently.

For those who are more experienced, I know an mpp resume can go over a page, but would y'all recommend ensuring everything fits on two pages?