Does club officer position have a huge impact on admissions? Answered
Hi!! Club elections are approaching at my school and I’be been manning to run for a few officer positions for a while. These are clubs in which I’ve been active in for a while and I feel like it’s definitely achievable.
But that’s not my question - I know that officer positions reflect positively on your character, but does it matter which one? I was debating running for treasurer or secretary for each club. Would it look more consistent if I were treasurer for 3 clubs? Or would it look redundant. While I do want to eventually inch up to a higher position, I want to account for the fact that I may not get to. So, would it be better to run for the same position for each club or various ones in different clubs (treasurer for 1, secretary for 1, publicist for 1 vs treasurer for all)
I apologize if this seems like a stupid question, but thank you so much!!
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3 answers
I will give you my brutally honest and blunt answer. You can be the President of 5 clubs and still get rejected by colleges. You can be the secretary of 1 club and still get accepted by colleges.
WHY?
Colleges don't want you to join and lead clubs just to look good or have a title or anything like that. It's not "leadership experience" either. Leadership experience is simply an arbitrary term for being elected in August, meeting in September, and then not meeting/doing anything until next Fall. Trust me, that defeats the purpose of everything.
One Key Word: INITIATIVE
INITIATIVE IS KEY!!!!!
How are you using your position to make a difference in your classroom, school, community, larger organization? How are you SHOWING your leadership through your actions? Don't be like "oh it's just secretary, I can't do anything; oh the President doesn't listen to ideas."... forget that please. Try your best to take INITIATIVE and be the force for change. I know it sounds corny but listen to me, this is what colleges want to see.
Thus, I would rather be the lowest position in 1 club but be able to take meaningful action/initiative than be President of 5 clubs and do nothing. Hopefully, you know what I am hinting at.
Good luck!
NO club officer position has a huge impact on college admissions. Being a President or VP or Treasurer of a club is good thing in general but pales in impact compared to showing impactful leadership roles.
The bigger school activity roles that are more meaningful to college admissions officers are the following:
-Editor in Chief of the School Newspaper because you are using your voice to share information and weigh in on important topics of conversation.
-Class President or ASB President because that shows you have some charisma and positive personality and have opportunities to impact your school. If you just won a popularity contest and didn't do anything, AOs can see that as well but if you can back it up with evidence, that's a good one.
-Team captain of key varsity sport. That is a good one to show that you are a team player and motivator and lead by example.
Outside of school I'd say the following:
-Serving as a student member of the Board of a City Council.
-Serving as a board member of a City org like the Parks and Recs, or Finance Budget Committee, or Library.
-Serving on a board for some DEIA committee, or School Board, or Educational Curriculum Board
-Serving as a board member for a non-profit org 503C
Club positions are a dime a dozen, especially for clubs like NHS, Deca, MUN, Robotics, Math, Chess, etc. It's okay to have a couple of these but they will not make much of a dent in your college application.
If I were you I would just go for the highest ranked leadership position. Schools mostly care about club officer positions for the leadership experience, and a higher ranked leadership position would earn you more leadership experience. I don't know whether Treasurer or Secretary is the higher ranked position in the clubs you're in, but I would run for whichever one is higher ranking. The only exception would be if you want to apply to college as a business major. In this case I would run for Treasurer no matter which position is higher ranking.
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President/Vice-President is a Tier 2A EC. Other officer positions are Tier 2C ECs. So they're pretty good. For the clubs at my school, we're allowed to choose 2-3 positions to apply for, but only selected for one or none at all. Try doing that to be on the safe side and having a higher chance of getting a role.