I’ve been kind of bored with some of the clubs I’ve been a part of in my school, so I wanted to start two clubs in the fall: Debate Club and Investing Club. I love doing debates in class and always wished there was a club for it at my school. I also am going for econ/finance in college and have been mock investing since freshman year, so I wanted to make a club where we could all learn about investing together and participate in stock market games.
However, I don’t want and I fear that colleges may misinterpret my intentions in that they may think I am creating these clubs as a last ditch effort to cram my resume. What do you think? Should I pursue creating these clubs or hold off? I want to start them but I also don’t want to hurt my resume by doing so.
What grade are you in? If you’re going to be a senior next year, it could potentially hurt your chances at super competitive schools. You can always leave it off of your activities section.
If you’re in any other grade, I’d say go for it. If your club adviser(s) is a teacher that you’re planning on getting a rec from, they may also talk about your interest in these things to help the clubs look more “legitimate”.
I suppose a school could view this cynically as you trying to add to your activities list, but I think that’s unlikely, and more importantly, if you want to do it, then do it. It sounds like some great, substantial, interesting, and relevant activities and leadership ops to me. Then present it well – what you did. why you did it, why it was important to you, what you learned from it, etc. – on your activities list, or in your essay or whatever part of the application you can, and that will further reduce the chances of it being seen as superficial.
OP Ask to see if Debate and Investing have existed previously at your school or if any of the faculty have sponsored something similar. And then go from there. I think how you’ve described it is fine but you’re keen not to appear to be simply resume padding (which @czebos seems to be unaware of). See where it takes you.
But you’re right: don’t just be a “club founder” for the sake of having a title (which czebos feels is a good thing). Colleges can sniff out the resume-padders a mile away.
Create the clubs and doing something great with them (ex: have your Debate team go to some great comeptitions/conferences, or have them perform well in your county league, etc.). If you just create the clubs and do nothing substantial with them, then the adcom in question will likely view it as stereotypical resume padding (which is what it would be, honestly).
Definitely talk to teachers about if these clubs have been tried before…or see if they are interested as you will need a faculty advisor…but Also try to get involved in existing programs…like for investing, get involved in the Stock Market game http://www.stockmarketgame.org/ or for debate, in http://www.speechanddebate.org/
I think honestly I would try to get only one of these going…it will take too much effort to get two plus senior year classes plus applying to college.
Maybe we have different definitions of “performing well” and I don’t know very much about debate but I would assume a brand new team (with probably a brand new coach) doing anything other than embarrassing themselves would be an accomplishment, let alone doing well.
I don’t see why someone assumes founding a club you’re interested in- and certainly as traditional as debate- is going to be automatically viewed as padding. No, it won’t hurt your chances. What can hurt chances is if you don’t have the right other mix or are founding a do-nothing activity.
Most first year debate teams would be pretty lucky to place well. Some won’t even have enough kids to head for a league competition. (In some cases, there are requirements about how long the club was established, etc.) You won’t have much time to grow the team or polish it. But if this goes well, you can ask a teacher to mention in in his/her LoR.
@iwannabe_Brown I have been very involved in Debate, and I would agree. It was simply an option I suggested (like successfully registering and attending recognized conferences/competitions).
Thank you for the feedback. I think I will go with the speech and debate club. I’ve already talked with a teacher about this, and she said for the first year, it would be more of an intra-school competition versus facing other schools. After I graduate, if the club is successful, they will face other schools.
I already commented, but I’ll just add now that I like the idea of both clubs – debate is a good, standard club, investing is somewhat more novel, but interesting and relevant. I’d suggest trying to do both – if you can. And that’s an important qualification, because constraints (such as time/schedule) might not allow you to do both.
I’d also suggest not leaving them off your application. I wouldn’t worry about it appearing superficial – just go in with honest intentions, try to have a decent plan, try to do as much as you can, and present it well. Maybe you already have an idea about other students that would be interested in these clubs, and you can see if they can help out, so you can do more.