<p>I was just wondering about all these clubs that seemingly every american applicant puts on his or her EC list. I'm talking about those called something like "Philosophy Club", "Investment Club", "Math Club", and so on..</p>
<p>People either claim to be part of these "clubs" or entitle themselves fancy titles like "Founder" or "President". </p>
<p>So, I'm simply wondering what being in these clubs involves? What do you do in them? How many hours per week doyou participate in them? To what level are these kinds of ECs respected by Admissions (I mean, they seem quite common to say the least :P)? How come almost everyone puts them on their lists?</p>
<p>// A bewildered Swede</p>
<p>This is a peculiar US cultural phenomenon. Don’t worry if you haven’t got anything like that to record on your application. International applicants are not expected to be clones of their age-peers who have grown up in the US.</p>
<p>But I’m just interested in what the clubs really are 
What do you guys do in them?</p>
<p>Not even all the high schools here have them: in fact, my high school never had anything called “Philosophy Club” or “Investment Club” or anything similar to those. You’re evaluated based on the opportunities available to you and the context of your environment, so as long as you’re doing your best to take advantage of all that’s available and possible, there’s nothing to worry about. </p>
<p>If you would like to apply to schools in the U.S., your guidance counselor should submit some sort of high school profile similar to this one here ([Sample</a> High School Profile](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/counseling/profile/sample]Sample”>Sample High School Profile – Counselors | College Board)) to help describe the basic academic and extraccuricular context of the high school.</p>
<p>LOL. Excellent question! My observation would be that many of these “clubs” exist for the purpose of inventing things for their members to do. So, for example, a philosophy club might decide to have its members read some philosophy and meet now and then to discuss what they’re read, or have a philosophy professor at a local college come and give a guest talk. A math club might have its members play math games or enter math competitions of various sorts, competing intramurally or against other schools. The subtext is that many people (though not all) participate in these clubs primarily so they can list that activity on their college apps, especially if they get themselves elected to an officer position. Being a founder is even more impressive, so there’s an incentive to found such a club, and an ongoing incentive for a few people to step forward into leadership positions in each successive year, and to recruit enough members and generate enough activity to keep people coming back so the club can continue to exist. I don’t mean to be completely cynical; many people join clubs because they’re genuinely interested in the topic or activity, and find it enjoyable and rewarding to be in regular contact with peers who share that interest. Indeed, I think to a greater or lesser degree I think that characterizes almost anyone who founds, leads, or regularly participates in a club. But the significance of club activity as a make-weight in the EC section of college applications shouldn’t be underestimated.</p>
<p>^^That’s exactly what they are. It’s an interest thing. A bunch of people who have the same interest get together and explore said interest. They don’t have things like that internationally? Or is it just not in school?</p>
<p>So it’s basically just a place people go to discuss something of their interest?
Ok, so people don’t spend more than a few hours per week om them? </p>
<p>@Aspire11 No, not really. Atleast not in the average and “ordinary” schools. My school, which is one of the top high schools in the nation, has a few though. It’s become kind of a trend since many people have become fixated with studying in the US (two students were accepted to Ivies last year). But at my school at least, the clubs aren’t that serious to be honest At least they don’t seem to be. For example the finance club. They meet about once a month for about an hour, and most people that go just go to get free “fika” (Swedish word meaning to eat cookies or drink coffee, or both)
That’s why I’m wondering, because from experience they don’t really show commitment or passion
What Do you guys say?</p>
<p>Interesting. Do you guys have sports teams?</p>
<p>Yeah, at my school all the clubs meet once or twice a week for about two or three hours. And it goes beyond just subject interests. While there are clubs like Math Club, the most popular ones are clubs like Yearbook, Debate, Art, FBLA (kids interested in business), Student Life (organizes big school events), and even clubs for causes like SAVE which raises awareness for AIDS or Pink Ribbon Club which fund-raises for breast cancer. </p>
<p>By the way, Sweden is an awesome country. The nicest, sexiest guy I ever dated was from Stockholm♥</p>
<p>In many cases, a club exists for two purposes. One is to, as the others have mentioned, united students of a similar interest in an activity. The second is to be used on college applications. The latter is a very viable explanation in many schools, where there are clubs that allow for 8 vice-presidents and 10 officers and so on. Our school has seen the formation of several clubs lately, many of which I can attest to are for little purpose other than to invent leadership positions. Luckily, colleges look to see if there has been any influence of a club (winning competitions, raising donations, etc.), so it doesn’t work to spam an application with 20 leadership positions, of which 19 have no merit.</p>