How competitive is it to get into clubs at your child's college?
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Anonymous
| Kid is at Yale. Getting into clubs is insanely competitive. |
Anonymous
| This whole thing is do stupid. People are recreating college admissions. Just study and have fun. |
Anonymous
Ridiculous. My DD is on Daily Bruin at UCLA. She had to interview, but wasn’t so bad. People have gone nuts. This is do stupid. Better off working for a prof. |
Anonymous
| I know parents who went straight from bragging about the college their kids were attending, to bragging about the clubs they got into once there. It's pretty gross honestly. |
Anonymous
Depends on the club. Sports clubs depends on the school. Debate clubs, etc are not that tough to get in. Pole dancing Clubs believe or not is a thing and it is tough to get in. Eating clubs are easy…. |
Anonymous
| I wonder if the competitive preprof college clubs really matter? My kid is starting at penn and club applications and interviews sound very time consuming... during a time when kids are just settling in. I dont really understand the benefit of and high demand for preprof clubs. Do they provide a real advantage in the future job search or not? Wondering if they can/should avoid those clubs and focus time on studies, meeting people and finding some fun activities/orgs to join. Would appreciate any thoughts/experience on this topic... |
Anonymous
| OP: Thanks to all for the replies. I posted for two reasons - 1. I just started working in higher ed and was not aware of how competitive it is to get into clubs at many schools and 2. Have dc starting college this fall. |
Anonymous
Tour guide at Williams said the same. Clubs are required to be open. |
Anonymous
They likely need both the social aspect and the pre-professional aspect and it could be the same or different clubs that provide it. Both of my kids met their future roommates and friend group from their clubs. My older one is in one connected with their major that also has a social aspect with formals, community service etc. and my younger is in more of a social /activity based one where you can be a general member without needing to apply and as long as you pay your dues you can go to the social events and main activity. You can also decide to try out for the competitive teams for that activity. The challenge when looking for internships etc, it’s tough to get that first internship in your field if you don’t have a connection and you don’t have any applied experience or any recent leadership/examples of working effectively with teams. Sometimes kids will have project based work in class that they can highlight and group projects experiences on how they have handled different situations. I’ve also seen kids gain some of that experience by joining a club that wasn’t competitive and is something they enjoy and then working on the team or getting a leadership role in something that relates to their major as part of that club. I would also add sometimes, it stands out when someone has an interest that might be on the opposite end of what they study. If I am screening 50 resumes for am intern, an interesting activity won’t make up for lack of experience or fit but it will help them stand out of everyone is qualified on paper and they all have the same activities. |
Anonymous
For med school no and honestly your kid is better off doing their own thing and avoiding the pre med echo chamber. Not sure about other fields. |
Anonymous
| Apparently acapella clubs are a really big thing. Are those very competitive too? DF's kid got into one and it seemed to be a very big deal (or at least that's what DF seemed to think) |
Anonymous
My kid’s university (Ivy) set him up on in an internship in Europe while also attending European university for study abroad sophomore year. That intern work experience in his areas and connections then made it easy to get other internships here in summer. |
Anonymous
This is how it should be. These are already elite schools. |
Anonymous
This. Work for a professor who might even pay a small amount or study hard during the year to free up the summer for a real world professional experience like an internship. It’s incredibly stupid to be an undergrad’s biatch, when you could work the job fairs, and apply for positions on your own. |
Anonymous
The students may be in for a rude awakening when they get out of there. I don't see any evidence that life is an open club. It's quite the opposite. It can be a rough ride making it through some of these elite colleges but they make it through and they're tougher because of it. At least mine is. |