Clubs and societies are a huge part of student life, though many miss out on them. According to a recent survey by Savanta, 67% of students, particularly those who live at home while studying at university, did not take part in societies, clubs or social activities at least once during term. But if you ask the students and graduates who did benefit from extracurricular activities, they’ll tell you they are well worth the trip.
Here are their dos and don’ts. . It can be quite a great escape from when you’re feeling stressed about university work or other situations.” Izzy Clark, 20, an anthropology student at the University of Aberdeen, agrees. Even activities that aren’t directly related to your chosen field can end up making the difference in a future job search, says Alex Frost, 24, a history graduate from the University of Edinburgh.
Frost says his experience on the committee of his orchestra was more useful in his current career working at a prison than anything he learned on his degree course. He learned “a lot of skills in how to interact with people and leading projects,” he says. We also organised a tour to the Lake District.
And that’s the sort of stuff that you have to do in a real job. You have to get out of your comfort zone.” Isabella’s time as social secretary of her cheerleading squad gave her leadership and organisation skills, she adds. Radhika*, 22, a medicine student at Queen’s University Belfast, advises freshers to first ask for taster sessions before joining any clubs.
It just means you’re saving money, especially considering how expensive everything is nowadays.” And try meeting other members online first, says Martha Page, 23, who graduated from the Lancaster University: “My main advice is to join WhatsApp group chats and connect with people online first.” Page, who is blind and suffers from anxiety, says this helped “take the pressure out” for her when joining a new group felt daunting. We were not a competitive cheer club, and we didn’t have a coach, but we had big sparkly bows and each other.” Don’t feel like you have to drink the whole time. But I think the less structured societies are more susceptible to just becoming excuses to get really drunk together.” But whatever you do, don’t go without trying any societies at all.
As Isabella says: “My only bad experience is I wish I had done even more.”
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