I am going into my junior year. I plan on starting a club through an organization to raise money and spread awareness of stomach cancer. I really want to make an impact on my community and help fund the cure for stomach cancer. Aspiring to be an oncologist, I think starting this club will help me learn a lot. I have had a lot of people tell me that this type of extracurricular activity will look good on college apps. I plan on attending a high academic school. Is this true that stating a club looks good on applications?
Starting clubs can look good on college apps, but it shouldn’t be the primary reason you’re starting it. I think the best test would be to ask yourself: If starting the club provided absolutely no benefit at all to your college apps, would you still want to start it? If you can honestly answer yes, then by all means, do it! But if not, maybe you’ll want to think about it a bit longer. Ideally, the club should be something that you’ll be eager and excited to spend time on, and not just “more work to do” each week.
Some students will start clubs just to make their apps look better, but colleges can often see through that. I was talking to an administrator at my school a few months ago, and he mentioned that every year there are students who start clubs because it’s the easiest way to get a “leadership” postition to put on college apps, and it’s pretty easy to tell when that’s the case. I personally know a girl who is president of two or three different clubs, but all the “members” are just her friends and all they do is chit-chat at every meet. Don’t run a club like that - it doesn’t really benefit anyone, and it won’t help your application much either. Start a club because you want to and you’re passionate about the subject, not because college apps are forcing you to.