The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
Moving away from home, becoming used to an unfamiliar place: For some students, the transition from high school to college can be a difficult one. But achieving a sense of belonging is easier if you can make new friends.
Social clubs allow college students to bond with their classmates, and some schools offer a high concentration of registered organizations that students can become involved in.
[Check out five reasons to get involved in college.]
Eight out of 10 colleges on this list are National Liberal Arts Colleges — undergraduate schools where at least half of graduates receive degrees in liberal arts disciplines. One of the colleges among the top 10 is classified as a National University, which is a school that offers a wider range of undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees, and another is a Regional College, which is a school that focuses primarily on undergraduate students but which grants fewer than half of its degrees in liberal arts disciplines.
Each of the 10 colleges had fewer than 2,500 students enrolled, including both undergraduate and graduate students.
[Discover six ways to network while you’re in college.]
Since the typical club at these colleges had fewer than 10 people, the odds are higher that club members will get to know each other than at colleges where clubs are larger.
The average number of students per club at these 10 colleges is 7.6. That’s seven times less than the average — 56.6 students per club — among the 1,195 ranked schools that reported these data in an annual survey.
Below is a list of the 10 colleges where students had the greatest likelihood of being members of student clubs in fall 2015. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School name (state) | Total enrollment | Registered organizations | Students per club | U.S. News rank and category |
| Scripps College (CA) | 989 | 200 | 4.9 | 23, National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Marlboro College (VT) | 280 | 46 | 6.1 | 128 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Hamilton College (NY) | 1,872 | 256 | 7.3 | 12 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Pomona College (CA) | 1,663 | 227 | 7.3 | 7 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Centenary College of Louisiana | 588 | 75 | 7.8 | 146 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry | 2,384 | 300 | 7.9 | 99 (tie), National Universities |
| Cottey College (MO) | 320 | 38 | 8.4 | 22 (tie), Regional Colleges (Midwest) |
| Haverford College (PA) | 1,233 | 145 | 8.5 | 12 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Davidson College (NC) | 1,784 | 200 | 8.9 | 9 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Harvey Mudd College (CA) | 815 | 90 | 9.1 | 21 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find enrollment statistics, information about registered organizations, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2016 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The enrollment and registered organization data above are correct as of Feb. 14, 2017.
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10 Colleges Where Joining Student Clubs Is Easy originally appeared on usnews.com
