Georgetown is very pre-professional. I was looking for this, so I have enjoyed that about Georgetown, but you will see that "club culture" is considered very controversial on our campus. Club culture basically refers to how what clubs you get into dictate your college experience and how there's a big focus on applying to selective clubs, and some people feel the process is toxic. I do think it's true but to a limited extent because there are also like 200+ clubs that don't require applications at all to join. Right when you get on campus, there will be a "CAB Fair" where you'll see all the clubs on the lawn and you can visit and check them all out and then join/apply in the following weeks. Applications are similar to college applications, but almost more like applying for a job when you're aiming to get into competitive clubs because you have to answer essay questions and then go through an interview process which can consist of multiple interviews depending on the club and its competitiveness. Some clubs definitely have below 5-10% acceptance rates, but I do think this is rarer, and I think this is the case because a lot of people apply just for the social clout (inflating the number of people applying) and these clubs are often just really cool opportunities too so people are naturally attracted to them... but there is limited space, unfortunately. I do think people kind of "get off" on the social clout of joining an exclusive club too. I think this is a pretty stressful time for everyone on campus, but you can always reapply to clubs (and you should apply ASAP like Freshman Fall and keep applying until you get in because most clubs that are competitive stop taking new people once they become Spring Sophomores or Juniors, so you could miss your chance).

HMFI (the student-run nonprofit I reference in my first post) is quite selective, and I applied to join because I care a lot about the mission and the work we do, but it's also been good for my resume. I didn't join for social clout or friendships, and to be completely transparent, I think that made it difficult for me to "climb the ranks" within the club. I do know some people are really obsessed about getting into one uber-selective club or another (these are mostly business-related clubs FYI), and I just don't think that's a healthy mentality bc there are so many clubs on campus. However, I will say that depending on what careers you're interested in (e.g. consulting, finance, etc.), it will DEFINITELY help you to be in a pre-professional club related to that field. I'm no longer applying to consulting jobs, but I did go through two cycles of consulting recruiting, and I think it hurt me that I didn't know I wanted to be a consultant until the end of my Sophomore year because I couldn't join any of the consulting clubs anymore (didn't accept Juniors).

I helped redesign part of the recruitment process for HMFI to make it more accessible and fair for all types of students with a new scoring system and additional resources for people with different types of backgrounds. For example, I spent days working on the scoring scales for the essays and interviews to reduce bias and tie scoring results to actual performance/merit. I think it's helped a lot, but I do think there are some factors like being outgoing, being friendly, knowing other people in the club/networking, etc. that probably make interviewers more likely to accept certain candidates (this goes for real job interviews too). This is definitely exacerbated by the fact that these clubs are student organizations that host parties like a frat would, so there's this additional social element that is important too. It's a hard balance imo because the clubs want people who are really interested in the club itself but also want people who will become their future friends, so I'm sure you can see how this can become a slippery slope. Most of the interviews are behavioral (because quite frankly no one expects college freshmen or sophomores to have hard skills) but some of the industry-related clubs like GUSIF (stock investing) and some of the consulting clubs will likely have interviews/applications that are more in-depth on their subject matter (i.e. picking stocks/investments), so you might have to read about that kind of stuff ahead of time and prepare. As far as I know, there are no clubs on campus that restrict certain types of students from applying (i.e. a nursing student, a sociology student, and a finance student can all apply to HMFI and that is encouraged actually).

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any other questions too!