@momofsenior1 Project teams (engineering) are one example of selective clubs at Cornell—these can be extremely competitive with sub 20% acceptance rates.
@HMom16 Every Ivy/T20 does, to some extent. See the following from Dartmouth’s student newspaper: https://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2018/10/elias-elitist-extracurriculars
@Midwestmomofboys I can’t speak to state flagships since there are far too many for me to be familiar with—but I do know about T20s (including Berkeley) since my area’s sent students to them over the past few years. Thanks for providing that info!
The flagship my D attends, UGA, has a lot of competitive clubs. They require applications and multiple rounds of interviews and have 5-20% acceptance rates.
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@PikachuRocks15 I don’t think clubs that require tryouts or some prior skill, such as Glee Club and Accapella, are in the same category as clubs that require applications just to join.
@HMom16 I don’t know what you’re talking about-- lots of Dartmouth clubs have competitive audition or application processes. Preprofessional finance/consulting clubs as well as acapella/performance based groups are pretty competitive. And some random clubs like Dimensions (the group that welcomes prospective students) are really selective
@“leave dartmouth” i.e. the point of my thread :lol: Thanks for providing more evidence.
I think sometimes schools don’t want to acknowledge that this competitive mentality with clubs does exist, because I definitely don’t remember Admissions Offices ever telling me that clubs could be selective—only that Brown and other schools have a lot of clubs.
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Of course they acknowledge it. Is there an admissions person in this country who will simultaneously brag about the high level of its orchestra while maintaining that anyone who loves music can join?
Not sure why the idea that some level of skill is required for certain activities is disturbing or shocking. Whether it’s fencing or playing the cello or performing Macbeth set in contemporary America- some activities are set up for beginners (you can take fencing lessons at Brown! You can learn to play the cello!) and some are set up for people with some experience and skill.
That’s why there ARE so many clubs. Because the highly skilled tennis player likes to play against people who are similarly skilled, but the novice wants to play against other people who are just learning to serve.
@blossom Thanks - that’s exactly my point.
Seems like competitive clubs would be those where there is some sort of capacity limit relative to the number of students who want to join.
Perhaps some cases involve skill based clubs like sports teams or performing arts groups. Perhaps others involve situations where exclusivity is desired for resume-building toward competitive post-graduation goals, like the pre-IB/MC and pre-med clubs.
Regarding LACs, it may be that their smaller size means that any given capacity-limited club is less likely to overflow and need to be selective.
@ucbalumnus I completely understand why volunteering and art/music/skill-based clubs have applications, just not why many pre-professional clubs have applications and even interviews.
If the pre-professional club is aimed at some competitive goal (e.g. IB or MC employment, or medical school), the desire for exclusivity may be due to the competitive nature of those in those pre-professional paths. If club membership is somehow favored (by employers) for the professional goal, then there may be an incentive to keep it exclusive to maintain that status.
I have hired for some of the top employers in the country for over 30 years, and can assure you that “membership” in these pre-professional clubs-- at least for consulting and I-banking- is absolutely not important except in the minds of the college kids who join these clubs.
You are better off having a real job which shows initiative, hard work, leadership and influencing skills than you are having a manufactured line on your resume about being the “events chair” for the consulting club.
Figure out a way for contact-less delivery for the local food bank near your campus? Hunger doesn’t stop for Covid. Now THAT’S impressive. Go to a monthly meeting to decide which corporate big-wig to invite to campus for a lecture? Yawn.
Can’t speak to med school. But my kids have oodles of friends in med school right now and they all did the “normal” things in college- volunteering in nursing homes, working with a professor on writing research grants, one worked as an LPN in a long term care facility to close to campus every Sunday for four years (that’s impressive- and she needed the money).
This seems like a tempest in a tea pot!
I think it is also often so all those admitted can have some (at least nominally) important title/responsibility that will go on their resume. For example some of the clubs my S has been involved with will only select as many people as they have activities to organize, or projects to do or articles to publish.