I’m a freshman (undergraduate) engineering student (EECS) at a pretty competitive university, and was offered a spot in the school’s student government (already applied).
However, while there are benefits to being part of the government—such as meeting new people from all grades and even the professors and other admins at the uni, and being able to organise and facilitate events—I’ve frequently heard that it’s rather hard to maintain good GPA if you are involved in a student government.
The school’s pretty notorious for the rigor of courses and even grade “deflation”, and honestly, as someone who’s been planning to maintain at least a GPA above 3.6, I’m now a little bit scared to commit myself to the student government so soon.
So my questions are
- I’m not a STEM whiz nor a genius, I’m more of a hardworking student who has (so far) been able to get good grades by putting in the work. Would being involved in a student government compromise my GPA?
- Regardless of how student government activity affects my GPA (provided that I don’t fall too behind), does being part of the student government affect you favourably during employment (for engineering jobs)?
Do those types of ECs matter to employers in your home country? If you’re concerned that your GPA might fall below their requirements for entry level jobs then you could do another activity instead. But you could always try it to see what the workload is like and drop it if it consumes too much of your time.
Grades come first but leadership opportunities are usually looked upon favorably on resumes by employers.
That said, my D was very careful first semester of freshman year to not over commit. She joined one club with a minimal time commitment. Second semester she added another. She didn’t add any major time commitments until sophomore year when she felt she had a better grasp on balancing studying and activities.
I would suggest you clarify the expected time commitment/week. How many times do they meet? How much work is required outside meeting times?
External activities compromise your academic performance to the extent that you choose to allow them.
Professionally, in 15 years of technology recruiting, I don’t remember any students/resumes with student government roles. I’m sure they were there, but I would have passed right over them, focusing on course work, grades, behavioral interview/case responses, and internship/work experience. I’m obviously just one data point, but I also don’t remember it ever being discussed in group candidate evaluation/decision making or our written evaluation documents.
As with any EC, do it if you enjoy it, to the extent that time/effort is available, but don’t think it’s the ticket to employment.
It can, but it doesn’t have to, just like any other activity. It depends on how intense the student government is at your campus, how many other things you have on your plate, how easy or hard you find the curriculum yourself, and other factors.
I also hire for technology jobs (although not usually people straight from undergrad) and I see student government as kind of a value-neutral thing. It’s so hard to gauge a person’s level of participation and what that actually means since every college is different - at some places the SGA has a lot of power and responsibility and at others, they don’t. If a person was president or vice president I might favorably see that as evidence of leadership ability, but it’s not likely to make a significant difference directly speaking on my assessment.
However, there are lots of other reasons to do things in college besides what’s going to directly help you get a job.