<p>I have never heard such hatred and disgust with Key Club until I came to College Confidential. It was quite shocking, I mean - at our school, Key Club (which in September has around 200 members, by June, has 15... which should be some indicator...) is pretty much the home of all wishing to inflate their college applications. It's not a terrible club, and unlike some of the stories I read about other schools' key clubs, we actually volunteer, at events such as the Memory Walk for Alzheimer's and the Jimmy Fund walk for Cancer, etc. </p>
<p>I have two questions for you, you can answer either, or both, or none at all, and just offer your commentary.</p>
<p>1) I've read more than once how unless you're an officer, you shouldn't put Key Club on your college application. Do you agree? Disagree?</p>
<p>2) What's key club like at your school? Are you a member?</p>
<p>You should be aware that just doing a walk or two isn’t really heavy for a service club. I hope the “etc” includes some things done on a regular basis, maybe something more hands-on. Without a title, you can still list it- but try to come up with something significant you did with the club and any non-titled leadership role(s) you assumed.</p>
<p>Uhh… at my school Key Club’s a big deal. It takes up a ton of time. We have around 75 members, 40ish of which are active. I’m president this year and I’m definitely putting it on my applications. Seriously… so much time.</p>
<p>At my school, the key club essentially harbors the white supermacist lax bros… They don’t do anything and when I, as a school paper staff writer, attempted to contact the sponsor to see what the club was up to, he ignored my emails and even crumbled up the note I left him (saw it later in his trash can).</p>
<p>I’m entering my second term as President of my school’s chapter.
My freshman year, we had ~10 members and the officers didn’t do anything - the typical “Just of College Apps” kids. At the end of the year, I was elected President (3 other freshmen in the club, everyone else was a Senior and they all graduated).</p>
<p>My sophomore year I got the club to ~15 members, kept it at that, did 18 different community service events, raised $1,800+ for a couple different causes, and established protocol (new sponsors, new members, no advice or training from previous officers). I was given the title “Distinguished President of District XX” for my hard work.</p>
<p>This year, I’ve had over 60 people attend each meeting (3 so far), all of which are active people who are actually going to do community service. My goal is $10,000 raised overall and 20+ community service events. My charter is one of the most active charters where I live (was top 3 last year with 15 members, now my Key Club is the biggest around, in addition to being the biggest club in the school). Not all Key Clubs are filled with people who just want it on their college application. Sure, that’s a part of it, but people who aren’t willing to do the work have already quit.</p>
<p>If you’re an active member of the Key Club, have a significant number of service hours (let’s say 50+ or 100+), and enjoy it, then you could put on your app “Through an active year/my __ active years as a part of Key Club, I gave X hours back to my community”. Just being a member of a club isn’t going to help you much - you have to put forth the effort. If you’re club does nothing (<10 events, <$500 raised overall), then it’s probably just going to seem like a part of a laundry list of ECs. If your club isn’t active, but you like doing community service, volunteer at a library, a hospital, or a volunteer firehouse. Membership in a community service club means nothing without actual community service hours.</p>
<p>Our first meeting was just a few weeks ago…now I question whether it would be a good decision to join. Like others have said, it seems like a laundry list EC. They even put on their advertising posters that it looks good on college applications :P</p>
<p>I kind of agree with the OP. I am the VP of my Key Club as a senior, and I have been VP as a sophomore and president as a senior. Personally, I am putting it on my application because I have done more events and hours than I can count, have organized events, have led meetings, and it has really influenced me.</p>
<p>However, not everyone is like this in my club. SO MANY people come because of college inflation. Heck, the current president advertises it as such, WHICH I ABSOLUTELY ABHOR. It is repulsive that the president, who should be advertising community service and citizenship, is telling people that “colleges look for Key Club over other clubs” and “Key Club looks the best on your resume”. Everyone believes him, and he believes that this is how we should retain our members. I have a few friends I have brought to the club who go to events because they genuinely want to, and they also enjoy the social experience. I respect these people much more than I respect the president. </p>
<p>Sadly, I feel that most people see Key Club as a resume inflater because of what it stands for. Joining clubs for the sole purpose of your resume disgusts me more than anything else in terms of clubs.</p>
<p>Don’t do something just so you can put it on your resume.</p>
<p>As for resume, don’t put it on your resume unless you’re an officer. Instead, put the service you did, which is more significant than the club itself.</p>
<p>I’m the president of Key Club at my school too (I’m a senior), and I was an officer last year as well. Key Club is definitely the biggest club at my fairly large high school (about 2200 kids?) with about 300ish members I think. A huge percentage of our members are just in it for college applications; they show up for the first, maybe the second meeting, get maybe 1-4 hours of service, and never come back. Others are more active, but college applications seem to be the driving factor many of them get involved. But honestly, is that so bad? If it gets kids out there helping the community, even if for just a few hours, isn’t that a good thing, no matter their true intentions? We are able to raise a few thousand dollars, as well as generate large numbers of volunteers to aid various organizations. Many of our volunteers don’t have their true heart, soul, mind, body 100% committed to bettering the world and the community; but why is that so awful? At least for me, its not my job as president to criticize those who aren’t extremely active members of the club or kick out those who don’t come to every meeting or berate those who are just members to look good to colleges; I am focused most on getting people involved, even if its only for one or two events, in order to have a larger impact and help the organizations we care most about in the biggest way possible. A huge incentive to get these kids participating is the fact that for many colleges, Key Club is a great extracurricular to have. No matter their intentions, no matter their level of participating, aren’t they still doing something great by giving a few hours of their time? I can understand the anger towards the people who sign up and do nothing and still put it on their applications; but I think the college will be able to see their level of “commitment” if they have no words to say about it and no hours to show for it.</p>