

Ask HN: What are worthwhile extracurricular activities in college? - deltapoint

For an aspiring entrepreneur, what EC activities should be pursued in college?
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ShabbyDoo
Most extra-curriculars are contrivances, designed either explicitly or
implicitly to convey some false sense of campus culture to the public at
large, alumni, or even the student body itself. I know little of college
athletics, so I'll stay away from that category of activity. What's left are a
bunch of campus clubs. Since when has the student government had any real
power? It either plans homecoming week or takes political positions on issues
over which it has no control (like South African politics). Does being student
body president get you anything in life? Yup. Those who have an incentive to
legitimize this false system might accept you into law school or some other
graduate program which can result in real, tangible outcomes. However, you
will likely better yourself more by volunteering for a real campaign for a
real elected office instead.

Fifteen years ago, I was my dorm's food service council representative. No,
I'm not kidding! Every month, I went to a meeting where representatives of the
firm who contracted with the university to provide food for $800/semester
tried to pretend to care what a bunch of kids said about their over-cooked
burgers. Actually, they seemed to legitimately care, and I learned a lot from
the experience. What I learned was how helpless those managers were when it
came to changing the behaviors of their minimum-wage staff. Once, a student
said that his dorm-mates wanted more kinds of cereal at breakfast time.
Immediately, it was promised that the number of cereal bins would be doubled!
Then, when another student wanted the grill to actually be staffed during
lunchtime (often, employees would take long breaks whenever they felt like
it), management said vaguely that they would consider their options. That they
would spend hundreds on frivolity but wouldn't attempt to control their
employees left a strong impression on me and has influenced how I consider the
behaviors of other managers I encounter in life.

Did being on the food service committee help me out in any direct way, like
getting a good job? Nope. I would have been better off finding something more
real to do where the outcome of my work meant something. Start an on-campus
computer repair company, whatever.... I learned more from doing IT work for a
small commercial roofing company during a couple summers than I did in any on-
campus activities with official, paid advisers.

In a nutshell, the contrivances of college life might provide benefit, but the
hours spent are less fruitful than those filled with "real" stuff. YMMV if one
wants to impress a law school admissions officer or similar.

Edit: I didn't really address the "for an entrepreneur" part, but I think my
comments still apply.

~~~
unalone
You're getting the wrong lesson out of your experiences. For the record,
ignoring athletics and focusing only on student government ignores a whole
plethora of non-athletic programs out there.

First off, athletics, which serve a valuable part of the college experience.
What's funny is I hated athletics till I went to school that had none and
realized just what purpose they were playing at the first college I attended.
Sports programs attract certain types of people with certain interests. Kind
of like how we intellectual sorts have writers/programmers/artists/scientists,
each with their own personalities and interests, athletes too have very
similar characteristics between sports. It's not a completely brainwashing
clique, but if you like a sport then there's a good chance people who like
that sport too will get along with you in more ways than one.

Most extracurricular activities are solely for the purpose of entertainment.
Student Atheist Club, Board Game Club, all the frats, exist so that you can
find whatever sort of entertainment you're looking for. If you like debating
religion, there's a club for that. You do it for _fun_ , not as part of an
ongoing business agenda. It's for being nonserious and whimsical.

As for your own experience: You seem to think that just because you worked in
a shitty program, all college programs have to be shitty. That's not how it
works. Some of them are very polished and tightly-run, just as some companies
are shitty and some are great.

But they all have that social college element, and that's what counts. When
you do work on your own, you miss out on the people around you, you miss the
chance to be with dozens of people. Now, I've heard the "misanthrope" defense,
where you don't like 99% of people and so don't mind missing out on them, and
my response to that is that if you're in a college where you hate everybody,
_you're in a bad college_. Transfer to a place where everybody is incredible
by your standards. They exist, because somebody like you at some point decided
to make a place like that and it worked. This is why you want to research your
college opportunities before you go to a mindbogglingly shitty place.

Now, my college is the sort of college where in your class you work on
actively making the college a better place and where a part of graduation is
interning with a company and securing a potential job offer after graduation,
so perhaps I'm spoiled by my "nonreal" college stuff, but all the people
complaining about how bad college was seem to be people who just ended up at
shitty colleges.

------
roundsquare
I'm no entrepreneur, but I think you should consider just finding stuff you
enjoy and where you'll meet people with common interests. E.g. if you like
dancing, join a dance club. It won't help you out in the future, but once you
graduate, its likely you won't have a lot of time for a dance club afterwards.

Might sounds a bit cliche, but still, I think that spending all of your
college life focusing on your future career is a bit of a waste (thats my
opinion anyway).

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clemesha
Slack on boring homework assignments, and work on a personal (and exciting)
side project instead.

~~~
nzmsv
Yes, but only to an extent. Some of the boring stuff ends up being the
foundation for something interesting (it just doesn't look that way at the
time). Before giving up on something boring, try to find out what it's useful
for, then decide.

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alexh
Debate. Hands down.

If you want public speaking skills, you will get them at debate. When I
started, I could hardly keep my sentences going the whole time. Very recently
I got into the finals of a tournament where we were judged primarily on
speaking style.

If you want to be able to structure arguments, as you will probably have to do
when pitching a startup. There is hardly a better way than trying a billion
times, and at the same time seeing how the best in the club do it.

Thinking on your feet? You often only have the 7 minutes of your opponent's
speech to come up with arguments and your own 7 minutes of refutation. At
first you are terrible, but eventually you get to the point where you are
never at a loss for something to say.

Coming to university with a minimal of social skills and an overload of
technical skills, I have ended up getting a lot more out of debate in my first
2 terms than out of the courseload.

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nzmsv
I ran a robotics design team. I learned that managing people is not trivial,
and I learned it the hard way. I also learned a lot about Linux, embedded
systems, and putting electronic circuits together.

Another thing I learned was that I strongly prefer working with software to
hardware. I am pretty good at connecting components together, but I wouldn't
want to design these chips. I ended up switching my specialization, and it's
good that I did this then rather than after graduating.

My marks suffered, but overall it was worthwhile. I'd still say do something
you like rather than what you think will impress a committee. But I don't
(yet?) have any incredible success stories to share to back up this opinion.

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albertsun
Just go to everything at first and find what you're interested in. As time
goes on you'll settle in to the activities you're most interested in and where
you enjoy the company of your fellow participants most.

~~~
mdolon
Can't agree with this enough. From club judo to breakdancing to the
microfinance club, I tried everything and anything while in college, even if I
sucked at it or quit after a while. In my mind, this is the best chance to try
out whatever your heart desires.

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hyung
Depends on your major. If you're a business major, and are thinking of being
an entrepreneur in the software industry, pick extracurriculars that are CS-
related. And vice-versa.

With any luck, you'll be able to meet potential business partners with skill
sets that complement yours.

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bjclark
Meet people. Lots and lots of people. And find a co-founder.

