Entry into Student run Clubs at Ivy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is correlated to grade inflation. There was a NYT article last year about Yale's incredible grade inflation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/nyregion/yale-grade-inflation.html

When everyone has an A in every class, how can you distinguish yourself? Make even the identity clubs competitive (eg: Asian Club)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/yale-college-undergrad-clubs-competitive/675219/

how can the Asian Club be competitive? How do you prove you are more Asian than someone else?

And why would you want to limit membership?

IIRC, we LIKED having a large korean student's association because it got us extra money. Are they funding clubs differently these days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son at an Ivy hasn’t run into this.

He made the Club sport team and joined the club he wanted.

Same. My kid is unhooked. He has found lots of friends, joined club and a sports team and is having fun.

I guess it depends on the Ivy.

+1

Same. Club sports team he made is competitive though. Rolling cuts over 3 days of tryouts. 100 kids for 4 Freshman spots. He got one of them. But, club travels and plays other colleges- flys to championships, etc. This one plays nearly year round. Most colleges certain sports are very competitive to make the teams. Very large schools near impossible.

There are intramural teams for kids not on the Varsity or Club teams.

This. One at an Ivy and one at UVA. The Ivy kid has had much more opportunity--easily gotten into clubs he wanted. Not wealthy, not hooked, etc. The culture at UVA was much harder to get into things. And club sports were even more like a rush than talent and the sheer numbers coming out for the popular sports made it impossible.

[Anonymous]

This reminds me of our elementary school in NW DC: i swear there were mothers who operated under the motto of "An activity isn't worth doing (or a party worth hosting, etc) unless someone else is being excluded."


My kids ended up at a Big3 private for high school and the grads from their school have no problem getting into the top clubs (investment, etc) at Ivies. It's all a name game. I hate this; thankfully my kids are studying the humanities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of our elementary school in NW DC: i swear there were mothers who operated under the motto of "An activity isn't worth doing (or a party worth hosting, etc) unless someone else is being excluded."


My kids ended up at a Big3 private for high school and the grads from their school have no problem getting into the top clubs (investment, etc) at Ivies. It's all a name game. I hate this; thankfully my kids are studying the humanities.

The truth is they got in to those clubs because of the strength of the private high school. At the Ivy, being a graduate from a private school automatically gives you cachet…. for Greek life, private student, clubs, and eating clubs.
Iykyk

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of our elementary school in NW DC: i swear there were mothers who operated under the motto of "An activity isn't worth doing (or a party worth hosting, etc) unless someone else is being excluded."


My kids ended up at a Big3 private for high school and the grads from their school have no problem getting into the top clubs (investment, etc) at Ivies. It's all a name game. I hate this; thankfully my kids are studying the humanities.

Folks, something is getting strangely lost in translation on this whole club discussion.

My kid is at an Ivy and laughed out loud at the idea that the investment or finance or consulting clubs are dominated by wealthy kids.

These clubs are run by the kids scratching their way to jobs at McKinsey or Goldman or wherever...not kids where if dad makes a call they can work there.

Eating Clubs/Final Clubs/Fraternities...completely different animal.

[Anonymous]

Harvard has 13 a capella troupes. If Dingleberry investment club is full, form Dongleberry investment club. Admin will give you a grant.

[Anonymous]

DD at Penn was pretty miserable about the club culture freshman year. I think the thing that was hardest was that she had no idea things were so competitive and it came right at the beginning of her time at Penn when she was still trying to find her footing. It didn't feel great to have rejection right off the bat. Fast forward to junior year and she has found more than enough enjoyable, fulfilling extra curricular activities, all of which are a better fit than what she thought she was interested during her second week of freshman year. Things were MUCH easier for kid #2 (at a different ivy) because he was prepared for the club applications/competition and knew that things end up working out fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of our elementary school in NW DC: i swear there were mothers who operated under the motto of "An activity isn't worth doing (or a party worth hosting, etc) unless someone else is being excluded."


My kids ended up at a Big3 private for high school and the grads from their school have no problem getting into the top clubs (investment, etc) at Ivies. It's all a name game. I hate this; thankfully my kids are studying the humanities.

Folks, something is getting strangely lost in translation on this whole club discussion.

My kid is at an Ivy and laughed out loud at the idea that the investment or finance or consulting clubs are dominated by wealthy kids.

These clubs are run by the kids scratching their way to jobs at McKinsey or Goldman or wherever...not kids where if dad makes a call they can work there.

Eating Clubs/Final Clubs/Fraternities...completely different animal.

Agree 💯 on the banking /PE clubs being for non-wealthy and unconnected kids.

What’s your point on eating clubs?
What is a final club?

[Anonymous]

I've recommended this book before -- The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us, by Paul Tough. He explains how this is actually what the top colleges are: social incubators that require a certain amount of exclusivity.

The students who attend an Ivy ready to work really hard and get top grades don't get it when the rich kids who did none of the work get the plum internships upon recommendation of the professor after hanging out in office hours. Top colleges are about networking, they aren't a community college career training program. With that being the case, well, you don't let everyone into skull and bones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dc (entering freshman) was a little shocked by the student club culture. Every single club needs applications and interviews and most have a very low probability of acceptance. Seriously regretting the decision to go to an Ivy. This was hardly DC's idea of what college life would be. We were willy to not know about any of this stuff?

You are on DCUM and there were multiple threads going back two years on this very topic.

That said, my kid is at an Ivy and has found clubs that aren’t crazy competitive and some that aren’t competitive at all.

+1. this practice is well known

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of our elementary school in NW DC: i swear there were mothers who operated under the motto of "An activity isn't worth doing (or a party worth hosting, etc) unless someone else is being excluded."


My kids ended up at a Big3 private for high school and the grads from their school have no problem getting into the top clubs (investment, etc) at Ivies. It's all a name game. I hate this; thankfully my kids are studying the humanities.

Folks, something is getting strangely lost in translation on this whole club discussion.

My kid is at an Ivy and laughed out loud at the idea that the investment or finance or consulting clubs are dominated by wealthy kids.

These clubs are run by the kids scratching their way to jobs at McKinsey or Goldman or wherever...not kids where if dad makes a call they can work there.

Eating Clubs/Final Clubs/Fraternities...completely different animal.

Agree 💯 on the banking /PE clubs being for non-wealthy and unconnected kids.

What’s your point on eating clubs?
What is a final club?

Finals Clubs. all male (traditionally) dining societies. look at wiki under "Harvard social
clubs"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son at an Ivy hasn’t run into this.

He made the Club sport team and joined the club he wanted.

Same. My kid is unhooked. He has found lots of friends, joined club and a sports team and is having fun.

I guess it depends on the Ivy.

+1

Same. Club sports team he made is competitive though. Rolling cuts over 3 days of tryouts. 100 kids for 4 Freshman spots. He got one of them. But, club travels and plays other colleges- flys to championships, etc. This one plays nearly year round. Most colleges certain sports are very competitive to make the teams. Very large schools near impossible.

There are intramural teams for kids not on the Varsity or Club teams.

This. One at an Ivy and one at UVA. The Ivy kid has had much more opportunity--easily gotten into clubs he wanted. Not wealthy, not hooked, etc. The culture at UVA was much harder to get into things. And club sports were even more like a rush than talent and the sheer numbers coming out for the popular sports made it impossible.

And my UVA had nary a problem. She joined the Jefferson Society (debate), a political club, worked for Larry Sabato's Crystal ball, worked on school newspaper, had great friends and never even set foot in a Greek house. And you are wrong about club sports. UVA has over 700 clubs and all
have tables out each year in the fall welcoming new members. It is a public, after all. Often it's just the kid ....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dc (entering freshman) was a little shocked by the student club culture. Every single club needs applications and interviews and most have a very low probability of acceptance. Seriously regretting the decision to go to an Ivy. This was hardly DC's idea of what college life would be. We were willy to not know about any of this stuff?

UVA and Georgetown do this too. Everywhere has clubs like this. These clubs are not ALL the clubs. And they are not necessary! There are plenty of non-application clubs at schools.

Precisely what clubs at UVA are like this because my UVA graduate says this is not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD at Penn was pretty miserable about the club culture freshman year. I think the thing that was hardest was that she had no idea things were so competitive and it came right at the beginning of her time at Penn when she was still trying to find her footing. It didn't feel great to have rejection right off the bat. Fast forward to junior year and she has found more than enough enjoyable, fulfilling extra curricular activities, all of which are a better fit than what she thought she was interested during her second week of freshman year. Things were MUCH easier for kid #2 (at a different ivy) because he was prepared for the club applications/competition and knew that things end up working out fine.

Frankly, she should have known about the clubs at penn. There's a subreddit on them. One thread, three years ago, goes into excruciating detail about the clubs at Penn. There have also been multiple theads on competitive clubs here and on College Confidential. Everyone needs to read up
in the culture at the schools their kid is applying to. If you don't want these kind of clubs then don't apply to Ivies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD at Penn was pretty miserable about the club culture freshman year. I think the thing that was hardest was that she had no idea things were so competitive and it came right at the beginning of her time at Penn when she was still trying to find her footing. It didn't feel great to have rejection right off the bat. Fast forward to junior year and she has found more than enough enjoyable, fulfilling extra curricular activities, all of which are a better fit than what she thought she was interested during her second week of freshman year. Things were MUCH easier for kid #2 (at a different ivy) because he was prepared for the club applications/competition and knew that things end up working out fine.

Frankly, she should have known about the clubs at penn. There's a subreddit on them. One thread, three years ago, goes into excruciating detail about the clubs at Penn. There have also been multiple theads on competitive clubs here and on College Confidential. Everyone needs to read up
in the culture at the schools their kid is applying to. If you don't want these kind of clubs then don't apply to Ivies

How bad is Cornell?
Duke?
Vanderbilt?
Northwestern?