Club Culture

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Board Games Club. Consulting Club. A Cappella Club. Pre-Med Club. Pre-Health Club. Pre-Law Club. Pre-Career-Crisis-Club… 

I’m joking, but barely. College truly seems to have a club for everyone, which sounds great until you realize that having a hundred options can be even more paralyzing than having none. Seriously, how are 18-year-olds supposed to know exactly what they want already? 

Our time as students is finite, and college makes sure to remind us of it: course enrollment, application deadlines, four-year plans, and the ever-looming date of graduation. Clubs should be fun, but when there are hundreds to choose from, it becomes easy to just… not choose.

A lot of what makes club involvement intimidating comes down to some common fears — of commitment, of rejection, of wasting your time. But rest assured that you don’t really need to have your whole life figured out to get involved. Some exposure and a clearer understanding of the process can go a long way.

Club Fairs

Club involvement, of course, starts with finding a club. 

Depending on the institution, club flyers might be everywhere or nowhere. However, most colleges and universities have some version of a club fair at the beginning of the school year. But most schools run some kind of club fair at the start of the year. Typically, there are tables hosted by different clubs, where active members are available to answer questions from incoming and current students. I highly encourage attending and asking as many questions as possible. I particularly recommend hearing the club’s little introductory spiel when you don’t have a specific question; it can tell you more about what they actually care about!

These people were once in your same position, so don’t be afraid to probe them and find out how they joined the club initially. Are there mentorship programs for new members? Is the club big or small? What projects are available? If it feels right, you can even ask a club member for their contact information to ask follow-up questions later or express further interest. 

For example, when I tabled for my school’s speech and debate team, we were encouraged to hand out around 1,000 flyers over several tabling sessions. Clubs need new members to function, and the person behind the table usually truly wants to talk to you, whether they’re there because they volunteered, got assigned a shift by club officers,  or genuinely want to meet people. Curiosity is all you need to bring!

Fear of Commitment

Okay, say you now have a shortlist, but will you really go to eight different general body meetings in the next week just to decide which one you like? 

This was genuinely a bottleneck for me in my first year, when the idea of talking to strangers for a week straight was not exactly appealing after just moving in from another country. What would've saved me so much time is asking one simple question: what am I actually looking for?

It could be companionship, professional exposure, mentorship, a form of exercise, a creative outlet, community service… or perhaps just a reason to leave the dorms on a Thursday. Whatever it is, once you know what you actually want out of a club, narrowing down gets a lot easier.

Here’s some advice for freshman year specifically: don’t join three clubs that all serve the same purpose. Instead, try one or two things across a few different categories. Maybe that’s something social, something career- or academic-adjacent, or something built around a hobby or skill you want to develop.

I joined both a run club and a fellowship group in my first year largely because I wanted companionship, and I participated in the Big-Little mentoring programs for both. While both were good experiences, they took up the same space in my life, their meetings kept overlapping, and in retrospect, I wonder if I'd have built deeper friendships faster by just picking one. I'm not in either club today.

My experience with my school newspaper was quite different. I joined it wanting something specific: a skill to build and a long-term project to work on. It gave me exactly that, because I went in knowing what role I wanted it to play and set my boundaries accordingly. Pick clubs based on the role you want them to fill, instead of bending your goals around a club you’re attached to.

Another conflict is simply logistics. While student-led organizations are often flexible when it comes to attendance, meaningful experiences and friendships in a club are more likely to happen the more you show up. Participation in several clubs, even in the exploratory phase, may spread you too thin and make it difficult to reach the close friendships, leadership opportunities, mentorship, and sense of belonging that typically make you want to stay. I recommend three to four clubs in the exploratory phase, because you can always add on clubs in later semesters or years as well. College clubs don’t (typically) expire. 

Fear of Rejection

Let’s be honest, going to a club meeting all by yourself can feel embarrassing.

Most of the time, students join a club’s first meeting solo.  Friend groups are already established, and maybe sometimes the atmosphere isn’t as welcoming as you’d imagined. Funny story: After the first debate practice I attended, I told my roommate there was no way I’d go again. I had spent almost the entire three-hour session sitting alone, after many attempts to make conversation with the people next to me. Our coach gave a rather intimidating first-day speech, everyone else seemed to come in with public speaking or debate experience, and I was surrounded by fully formed groups. By the end of the night, I was convinced it was just not the right place for me. 

I honestly don’t remember what changed my mind, but I decided to go back, and then again and again. Ultimately, I spent nearly 200 hours with the team in practices and tournaments and even took on leadership roles. If I could tell my first-year self anything about clubs, it would be to give a club three meetings before you make your final judgment.

Approach the early meetings like an experiment. You wouldn’t draw a scientific conclusion from a sample size of one, right? Even high schools conduct experiments with n = 3. Your college experience deserves that too! If the first meeting was awkward, it could’ve been because you were tired, the attendance wasn’t great that day, or because the person you were going to hit it off with just wasn’t there. Maybe (likely) everyone else was nervous too. After third meetings, you’ll have enough data to make an informed opinion on what’s going on in the club. If your instincts are still telling you it’s not the right place for you, at least you can leave knowing you gave it a real shot.

If you can rope a friend into coming with you, that’s even better! Try not to spend the entire meeting talking only to each other though, as it can make your group look exclusive or closed off. Used right, though, having someone familiar next to you makes it so much easier to talk to everyone else. And if you notice someone wanting to get involved in the conversation, bring them in! One of the strange comforts of college is that anyone can look composed while privately panicking. The confident-looking person sitting across from you may have spent the last ten minutes outside mustering up the courage to walk in, so make that bad joke, ask them about their major, introduce yourself even if it comes out awkwardly. I can assure you, it’ll either be worth it or it will become a funny story.

Finding, exploring, and ultimately joining clubs can be complicated and tiring, but with some knowledge and savviness, the process can become systematic and natural! Start broadly and boldly. Ask questions and figure out what you actually want from extracurriculars. Give promising organizations more than one chance, and once you find somewhere that feels right, give yourself permission to invest in it. The goal isn’t to join ten clubs and whittle them down to one or two, but to find somewhere where eventually, walking into the room doesn’t feel like walking into a room of strangers anymore. Good luck!