Clubs at T20s: Yes, you'll still have to apply.

[Twoin18]

@PikachuRocks15

@RichInPitt As other posters pointed out, this isn’t a phenomenon at T20 LACs interestingly, so it’s mainly restricted to T20 universities. It’s probably due to a combination of the competition to get into the school to begin with permeating ever facet of student life on some level (even at Brown) and the medium number of students. State schools have large enough student bodies to balance the # of clubs with the # of interested students, whereas T20 universities probably have a lot more pre-professional students by % than others (IIRC ~70% of JHU freshmen indicate they are pre-med, though this number decreases due to factors such as grades, extracurriculars, and finding other interests.)

I’m not at all convinced that state schools are immune from this. There are plenty of wildly competitive opportunities. Tour guide is a typical one (500 applicants for 10 spots at my S’s college). My S is currently reviewing 100 applications for 20 places for undergrad law journal author/editor positions and many of the other clubs he’s participated in require competitive applications.