I am a few days away from starting school at literally my dream school, but now I have no idea what kind of clubs I am going to be involved in. Does anyone have any advice on how to balance clubs and academics in college?
I know that some of the clubs at my school are very flexible with meeting times, but there are also more demanding clubs where there are stricter meeting times. How do you balance those too? (For example, a community service club I am interested in has community service projects every Saturday from 8am to 12pm.)
Should I become involved with that type of club my first quarter or wait until I know what kind of homework and study schedule I have, and then try to integrate a club like that into my schedule?
Most colleges have some kind of club fair where you can learn about the different clubs that are available, find out how to sign up for them, their schedules, and whatnot at the beginning of school or during orientation. Clubs and activities are a great way to get involved in your school and to meet others with like interests. My recommendation to you is to explore the options and pick one or two things that you are really interested in and that also fit your schedule. You can always add more if you find you are balancing things well, or take something away if you are struggling to manage everything. It is important to get involved in something in addition to just classes–students who are involved in activities in addition to their studies tend to do better. You are forced to be more organized when you are involved in more than just classes.
My freshman daughter has been in school for about three weeks now. She is an instrumental musician and is involved in two groups already. She also joined an athletic club because she wanted to try the sport. She is in challenging science and math classes for her engineering major. She is working hard but is managing to do all of these things and is happy because the music groups are a much higher caliber than the high school she went to so the groups she is in sound amazing. She loves being part of that.
So enjoy the opportunity to check out what is available to you and pick a couple things you think you will love doing.
Go to the club/activities fair, and sign up to get info on as many clubs that interest you.
Then go to initial meetings and see which ones seem like they fit your interests, schedule, and will actually do something. You can always drop a club if it is too much.