Get Involved
     While school always comes first, getting involved with various student organizations is also very important. Your leadership and team working experience on your resume usually draw more attention from your potential employers than you academic. It doesn’t mean that you don’t need to study hard. But if you have a 3.5 GPA while actively participate in various student organizations, your employment interviewer will most likely chose you over someone who has a 4.0 but hasn’t had any campus involvements at all. There are three types of organizations at UIowa that you can get involved with.
Student Government (UISG) (http://uisg.uiowa.edu/)
     UISG is the student governing body composed of elected representatives from each of UIowa’s schools and colleges. Positions available are President, Vice President, Student Senator, Executive Officers, Judicial Branch, Charter and Advisory committees and Committee members. The elections for most of the positions start in April except for the Charter and Advisory committees and Committee members, which becomes available as needed. Some of the positions have special requirement for you to obtain candidacy, please visit UISG’s website if you need more information. If you are a new student, being a committee member would be a good start since the election process is less competitive and it requires less time commitment.
Greek Life (http://www.uiowagreeks.com/)
     Greek life refers to fraternities and sororities. They could play an as important role as UISG does. Fraternities usually only recruit males and sororities recruit females. There are also some fraternities that recruit both sexes. Most of the fraternities and sororities are social-oriented, while there are some fraternities that are professional or service oriented. The recruitment process usually starts at the beginning of every semester. Each fraternity or sorority has different recruiting process. The best way to find out which fraternity or sorority suits you the best is to go to their information meetings which take place at the beginning of each semester. Unlike UISG, fraternities and sororities usually put a lot of emphasis on the social aspect of college life, which means they usually hold a lot of social parties and formals. Community service is also an important part of the Greek community, which may include visiting sick kids at the hospital, cleaning up parks or highways and many other event that get back to the community. There are also some business fraternities that put up professional events, such as guest speakers, resume workshop or professional trips. Being involved with the Greek community allows you to meet a lot of people as well as to build up you leadership and team-working skills.
Student Orgs (http://imu.uiowa.edu/osl/)
    This category consists of the ones that is neither part of the UISG nor the Greek community, but they are recognized by the University. Each college has many different student orgs and each of them has a specific purpose and serves a special group. For example, the American Marketing Association under the College of Business usually serves marketing students and it may hold special events for its own members, such as inviting speakers from the advertising industry or forming study groups for its members who are taking the same marketing class. CSSA is also a student organization that serves the local Chinese community and Chinese students at UIowa and it focus on serving the Chinese students at UIowa and the local Chinese community. If you don’t like the craziness of the Greek life and think UISG is too formal for you, joining a student organization might be a good choice for you.