"As founder and president of my school's knitting club..."
By now, you surely know that having leadership positions is advantageous in the college admissions process. That said, self created, senior year, uh-oh better get something to put in the “positions held, honors won or letters earned” column, short lived leadership positions are not always helpful.
If your school lacked a yearbook and you managed to secure funding, select faculty guidance and recruit staff in order to create one, that’s big. If your school is a new charter school and you were the first student government president, that can be big too. If, on the other hand, you created a card playing club because you felt your school lacked the necessary social outlets that card lovers needed, and by doing so, you have weekly meetings where you play card games and discuss your enjoyment of different games, this, as an example of leadership, is not necessarily going to help you get into college.
I do not mean to discourage you from starting card playing clubs, knitting clubs, movie clubs etc, but do so because you think it’d be fun. Start organizations that harness your passions and allow you to meet new people, teach others, and above all else relax (a word probably not often uttered during senior year). If you do so, call these efforts what they are. It will be much more believable if you start a social club and celebrate it as a social club, rather than try to spin it into an experience in leadership, governance, and management.
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Posted on November 5, 2007 under Advice |
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Comments (4)
My school has all sorts of serious clubs from National Honor Society to Art Club. But we also have those random clubs like Dungeons and Dragons. I don't get it. But either way, I want to start an interesting club but I don't have many ideas...
Posted on November 8, 2007 8:26 PM
This was really helpful. I thought that colleges looked for only to see how many clubs you joined and were active members of. I recently became President of my school Book Club. My school doesn't have many clubs and this was our debut year for a new society..
Posted on December 6, 2007 5:59 PM
Unless your knitting club happens to donate knitted items to hospitalized children or sell knitted items and use the profits to purchase wells for African villages or to save patches of rainforest from loggers...
; )
Posted on December 25, 2007 9:15 PM
Actually, I am one of the co-founders of my school's knitting/craft club and I find this article a little sad. Our club donates everything we make, from sweaters and scarves to cards and drawings to impoverished children and the elderly in the local area. But regardless of that fact, I believe any club started, no matter if it's more social, can still be a leadership experiance. During our club all we do is sit around and knit and chatter, but someone has to raise funds for yarn, and keep track of that money. Someone has to buy yarn and needles and craft supplies. Someone has to keep track of members, and recruit more. Someone has to drive over to donate these items. Anything can be a leadership experiance--you just have to make other people see it with as much passion as you do.
Posted on January 5, 2008 9:11 AM