I was recently told by a upperclassmen at a success seminar that it is better to focus on one club ( excel, and take leadership roles in it) than to be a member of many clubs.
The reason I am asking is because I am involved in a ASME club which I invest 20+ hours a week and will be a team lead next year as well as being a driver/rider in our competition this year. My roommate on the other hand is in many clubs, but he spends less time at each one and is just a member of each one. I am not saying one route is better than the other, but for some reason I see this as a common trend for many students to be involved in multiple clubs, but never get too deeply involved.
Would you generally agree with the upperclassmen’s statement of focusing on one club rather than multiple?
As an upperclassmen, I agree with your upperclassmen.
Interviewers will ask you what you’ve done in your clubs. And they can usually figure out who is lying about their involvement. Interviewers will be more impressed with people taking responsibility and initiative than those who showed merely attendance.
There’s more to clubs than paying whatever fees and going for mandatory meetings, or even for the free pizza. Sure, you can be part of many clubs, but you risk not being very involved anyhow.
When you take the time to invest in one particular club, you get the sense of camaraderie and friendship, as well as being able to participate in important events, and actually feel like you’re contributing. For example, I’m part of a club that is setting up a MESA day event at my university, where I’ve been requested by fellow club members to be a judge of competitions and speak in a Q&A panel, as the only first year.
Time to invest will hail results, and these results will help boost your resume. I feel like that is harder to accomplish when you stretch yourself thin.
There’s more to clubs than paying whatever fees and going for mandatory meetings, or even for the free pizza. Sure, you can be part of many clubs, but you risk not being very involved anyhow.
When you take the time to invest in one particular club, you get the sense of camaraderie and friendship, as well as being able to participate in important events, and actually feel like you’re contributing. For example, I’m part of a club that is setting up a MESA day event at my university, where I’ve been requested by fellow club members to be a judge of competitions and speak in a Q&A panel, as the only first year.
Time to invest will hail results, and these results will help boost your resume. I feel like that is harder to accomplish when you stretch yourself thin.
I agree - membership in a club, by itself, is nothing at all. What matters is what you do, learn, and demonstrate, and clubs are only useful when they help you with this. Get really involved with something, take it seriously. If you have time left over for other activities, great, but there is no advantage in being a member in name only.
I definitely agree with your guys’ responses! Being involved with the club I currently am in has taught me so much. Not only engineering skills and knowledge, but how to be a leader and help others that were in my position before.
In addition I’ve made a bunch of new friends from freshmen to seniors who are very friendly and helpful in both in the club and outside of the club. It’s also given me a good background to talk about especially in job interviews and talking about some of the amazing opportunities and projects I’ve been able to work on and actually contribute to something instead of going through the motions!