I’m debating whether or not to do key club. Im a sophomore but people say doing key club shows colleges you dont have passion and others say not doing it diminishes your chances. What do you think?
Key Club, while not unique by itself, is
- Certainly better than doing nothing
- Still a viable way to show passion. People say it doesn’t show passion because it’s a club that is in most schools. However, really making the club grow and having a major impact on the school or community still shows passion in it of itself so I wouldn’t really worry too much about that.
Join key club and see for yourself. If you like it, keep joining and participating. If not, then find another club or activity and see if that works.
Doing or not doing any one EC is meaningless in the entire spectrum of things. I eschewed NHS even though I was among the top students. Why? I was too busy with my other ECs and didn’t have time for their mtgs and requirements.
For someone to say it diminishes your chances, tell them to go fly a kite.
How else are you going to spend that time? Key Club is a better use of time than playing video games, but if there’s some other activity or job you’d rather do, do that one.
Key Club is not a big deal in some parts of the country - other organizations may have a similar mission/activities. And Key Clubs vary quite a bit as far as how active they are. At some schools, there are few if any other options for students to participate, so if you aren’t the type of person to organize a new club yourself, you might want to make the best of it.
Tell us more about the pros and cons as to why you are considering not joining it.
@Hanna, I appreciate your generality, but one of D’s new friends at Stanford “spent most of his time in HS playing video games” - not what anyone would expect to be the path to Stanford. Of course, it probably helped that he wrote the code for over a dozen of them.
Key Club is a great activity. My daughter was very active in her high school group. She did it because she enjoyed it not because she was looking to pad her resume.
My kids didn’t bother. They were too busy with ECs that had captured their interest and their intellects. If you have nothing else, then fine. If you enjoy it, then that’s a good enough reason. But to join because you think it will help your college application? Nonsense.