<p>Hi, I'm a freshman and I'm not sure how many clubs to join. I want to do my school newspaper on Tuesday or Wednesday, History Club on Wednesday, Amnesty International on Thursday, and eventually volunteer work at a cerebral palsy association on Saturday and Sunday and maybe Friday. Should I add Future Business Leaders of America on Monday? I'm just worried I won't have a lot of time to do my homework since I'm in all honors and Future Business Leaders of America and History Club do a lot of field trips and volunteer work. What do you think?</p>
<p>Aren’t you over committing? I joined one club that has about 16 hours a week and I’m skeptic about joining a second. I mean my University’s website says we have to spend at an average 2 hours per credit hour outside class studying in a week. Lets say you take about 14, which is close to average, thats 28 hours, plus about 14 hours in class, 42 hours, 1-2 clubs is about 20-25 hours a week, so total is 62-67 hours. That in itself is a significant part of your week, and this doesn’t include any breaks, meals, hanging with friends, sleep time, etc. Most advisors recommend to commit to no more than 2 clubs, its up to you though. How committed do you plan to be to each club? That matters too, I mean you could spend less than 5 hours on a club per week if you wished to do so</p>
<p>I wouldn’t add a club, and I would consider thinking about dropping whichever clubs you dislike for sophomore year. Your first priority should be your schoolwork, then ECs. Keep in mind, too, that adcoms don’t necessary mean clubs when they say ECs. There are ways to be interesting and involved outside the confines of school clubs.</p>
<p>join only the clubs you have interest in</p>
<p>The thing is all the clubs interest me. Would it be okay to add a club next year along with National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society?</p>
<p>Superficial interests don’t really matter. Use this year to explore those superficial interests, then pick one or two to delve into for the rest of your high school career.</p>
<p>As for honors societies, they’re generally not worth doing unless your chapters are particularly active. (The same goes for any club–even officer positions mean little in an inactive club.) </p>
<p>This message of focus is one few CCers truly take up. We repeat the mantra “quality over quantity” on every chance post without following it ourselves, and without inspiring the poster to follow the advice themselves. If you want to make any kind of impact with your ECs, you will need to be aggressive in pursuing focused, high-impact ECs rather than a smattering of honors societies and club presidencies. I recommend Cal Newport’s Study Hacks blog and his recent book.</p>
<p>Whoops my bad I wrote my post assuming you were a college freshman</p>