A lingering question for all students: Should I join an on campus club?
While there definitely are a lot of factors when deciding to join a club, such as: which community to join, which clubs align with your goals and values and weighing the amount of time you have to dedicate to a club, all heavily contributing. However, clubs also act as a miniature, more college version of ‘networking’. You learn how to meet new people, interact with them, and develop skills that are essential to a career.
College clubs allow for students to use their hobbies as a foundation for social, and skill based growth. For instance, joining an art club and meeting friends to go for dinner, or in my own experience, joining Skidmore’s branch of HerCampus led me to explore my writing but also be involved in a new community outside of my year group and plan events on a larger scale.
Although the time commitment for clubs is a heavily contributing factor to students’ reluctance to join clubs due to balancing school work. By being involved in another community it creates a third space that is essential to the ‘college experience’, but also teaches the importance of having a space beyond a bedroom or classes that can be carried to one’s post-college life.
But more importantly, clubs prepare you for the professional world. Whether it’s organizing events, managing budgets, running social media, or working with a team, these experiences translate directly into career skills. Employers often look for students who can thrive outside of the classroom, and college club involvement demonstrates exactly that.
So while joining a club might seem like just another thing to add to an already busy schedule, it often becomes one of the most rewarding parts of college—introducing you to people, opportunities, and skills that stay with you long after graduation.