When every extracurricular club promises that its community and mission are the best, it is hard for students to determine which clubs are actually the right fit for them. Are you looking for a future management consulting career, a breath of fresh air on a hike, or a creative escape? The diversity of clubs almost all share one feature: the comp process.
Initially meant to abbreviate “competent,” comp is the intricate, multi-stage process by which academic clubs select their members. There are two types of comps: completion and competitive. The former often requires students to attend specific lectures, office hours, and complete particular tasks, while the latter usually involves interviews, deliverables, and anywhere from a week to a semester of work, all with the goal of being admitted to the club.
Women in Business is a popular club with a completion-based comp. “I think WIB is the way most comps should be, especially for more affinity groups,” shared member Margaret Caris ’25. The 10-week process, which includes a small weekly meeting, a “wibternship”-wide weekly panel or workshop and an end of comp section-created business proposition, generally cultivates high member retention. “This is a women’s group, and allowing the space to open for women for networking and recruiting events is important,” said Caris. “It’s an organization that I’m so proud to be a part of.”
These semester-long completion comps introduce students with little field experience to a broader understanding of the material. In these more welcoming processes with high flexibility and low participation obligations, many students who succeed end up losing interest after a semester or two if they are not truly passionate about their clubs’ mission.
Phillips Brooks House Association’s CHANCE, a college preparatory program which connects students to local highschoolers, has a high retention rate, despite its simple, two-question application comp. Member Joseph Kester ’23 attributes this to the community and culture that the program cultivates. “When there is a mission that is larger than yourself and isn’t just your professional track, you don’t see that large drop off when people are juniors and seniors,” he said.
While Kester admitted that the concept of applying for community service work feels a bit superfluous, he explained that this process is a matter of practicality. And even students who do not get into their desired program can still get involved with one of PBHA’s over eighty student-run, community-based programs. “The nice thing about how PBHA works is you never really get rejected from a program, you just get recommended to another program,” Kester said.
Not all clubs are as generous with admission. Project-oriented clubs, such as Harvard College Consulting Club, tend for shorter, competitive comps to quickly determine which students are worthy of consulting for Fortune 500 companies. “The HCCG comp is notoriously competitive, but I’m okay with that, to be honest, and I say that as someone who didn’t get in the first time I applied,” said HCCG consultant David Kiley ’25. “They’re very clear about what the comp process entails… It’s a difficult one, but then it is over pretty quickly.”
Meanwhile, other clubs prolong selective comps for weeks, requiring students to dedicate hours to an organization they may never get into even after completing all of the necessary requirements.
When Kiley comped the student fashion magazine, FIG, the fall of his first year, “I was really excited to join the club,” he said. “I was rather surprised when I was cut at the end without a reason as to why,” especially after he completed a photo shoot and submitted a writing sample and received positive feedback on both.
Rejection does not necessarily breed regret. From Kiley’s two distinct comp experiences, he advises students to “make sure you enjoy the comp process itself because, unfortunately, a lot of the time, that might be where it ends. Or, if you do enjoy the comp process, it means you’ll enjoy the club. I wouldn’t think of the comp process as a means to an end. It can be telling of the organization itself.”
With both comps and clubs, what you put into it determines what you get out of it.
“I’ve found that the more involved you are in a club, the more enjoyable it is. Of course, this makes sense, but then you see people in eight different clubs and wonder how they are getting anything out of them,” reflects Daniel Schwartz ’23. “Don’t get me wrong, I did this too, and I do think joining a bunch of clubs helps you build a social network and explore your interests, but eventually, it’s important to focus lots of energy into one or two.”
Signing up for mailing lists, comping a dozen different clubs, and then dropping or getting cut from half of them—all are part of Harvard life. Comps, much like Harvard clubs and students, come in all forms. Some prepare you for the professional world, others offer an escape from the Harvard stress, and many introduce you to your best friends.
Robert Lawrence ’25 emphasized the importance of building your passions and social community. “Don’t comp a club because you think it sounds cool or because you think it will be good on your resume,” he said. “Comp because you like the people in it and you like the things you would be doing. Take some time either informally or formally through the comp process to make sure you spend some time getting to know the people in the club, because a big part of clubs is the social aspect of it as well.”
Hannah Davis ’25 (hannahdavis@college.harvard.edu) is still on extraneous mailing lists from first-year fall.