<p>I only joined for the interest to be honest. I didn’t realize how important ECs were to colleges until…this year. Yeah, I know, bad. If I had known I would’ve started a lot earlier and ran for much more officer positions, but oh well. I joined Key Club because I like volunteering. I joined our school’s academic team/quiz bowl team because I find it fun haha.</p>
<p>I applied to be an officer in DECA at my school the first week of sophomore year (that’s our areas first year of high school in the high school) because I wanted extra credit and it would look good for college mainly. But I really got interested in it and now I love it. I’m only a junior and I’m the president now. And it’s been really fun. I’ve turned the club around and gotten us more involved. But a lot of my officers are in it for app fillers only, and they never do anything. That’s the only club I’m a part of.</p>
<p>I usually do things out of interest, but I haven’t discovered many so far, unfortunately. Freshman year I just joined a bunch just because. I hate that I only join “useless” clubs like pep club/spirit squad and diversity club. it means nothing if you’re not a leader, because the clubs never actually hold any events. that’s what sucks about my school. they’re so inactive and just…ugh. for example, spanish club should just be called chips and salsa eating club. that’s basically all they do. i’m in outreach, though, which i like; i just need to volunteer MORE. they’re one of the few clubs that actually do something. the others are ones like model un and academic team. i joined the latter, but i never made it to any of the meets because i was too busy 
i def wanna be active in that next year, though. but what bugs the heck out of me is that some of my friends joined ONLY FOR COLLEGE, and they made that completely clear. thing is, they don’t care if they end up at the state school or notthey actually said they wanted to go there up until a few weeks ago (where literally EVERYONE GOES, despite my school being a tough, private college prep school), so i don’t know who they’re trying to impress. the dumbest part is that one friend in particular didn’t go to ANY meets or meetings and said she would still put it on apps. i would never do something like that. putting down a random club that you did NOTHING in to look good. it doesn’t seem right; it seems so phony. i would at least do something in the club to have a reason to put it down. unless i actually do something in academic team in the next couple years, i’m not writing it down lol.</p>
<p>Always for personal interest. I could never maintain existence in a club I didn’t like simply for college…I adore my ECs.</p>
<p>I’ve loved politics/history forever. Yet in our Political Debate Club at school (Model Congress), there are so many kids there to get it on their transcript. It kinda hurts considering I was one of few to show interest in this subject all these years, and now all these kids join just to get it on their transcripts. But two things console me.
- You don’t know who wants to actually learn. There might be that one kid in your EC (or maybe many) who seem to be there to get it on their transcript, but maybe they actually want to learn about the EC and grow as people.
- Only the “toppers” are looked at for many clubs. According to some ex-admission officials that I know, clubs like MUN, Mathletes, Science Team, and the like are so large that unless you’ve won awards or performed at a top level, it really can’t help you much.</p>
<p>Honestly, if clubs had no effect whatsoever on college admissions, I most likely wouldn’t be in as many as I am. I might do one or two just for the heck of it, but not to the point where I had tons of extra stuff to do outside of school, like I’m doing now.
My main motivation for joining clubs was college, but I picked stuff I was interested in. So a little bit of both.</p>
<p>I start because of college, but I stay because of interest</p>
<p>I always hated how I would feel pressured to join twenty clubs in high school in order to get into college. I only had two activities that I was involved in so I always felt my extracurriculars were very weak. However, I guess they saw that I was genuine because I got into my top choice college. What’s really nice about college is that resume padding seems to be much less severe for activities (work experience is a different story). For me, science phD programs don’t seem to care about fluff activities, just research and grades, so now I can just follow my interests with less pressure. Sure, my research experience helps my resume but it’s what I want to do in my life. The best thing about clubs though is that most of the resume padders quit when they actually get to college, so the environment within them is a more positive one.</p>
<p>Interest & peers. For example, I joined marching band because they needed more pit players, and two of my best friends were in it; jazz band because I don’t play jazz piano on a regular basis, and I love it; GSA- my friends wanted me to be in it, plus I believe in the cause; etc. Most of my activities don’t look particularly good for college, but I enjoy them (usually), and they help me retain whatever amount of sanity I have left.</p>