The Emory Wheel

Volume 104, Issue 4

© 2022 The Emory Wheel Alumni Memorial University Center, Room 401 630 Means Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30322 Business (404) 727-6178

Editor-in-Chief Brammhi Balarajan bbalara@emory.edu

Founded in 1919, The Emory Wheel is the financially and editorially independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University in Atlanta. The Wheel is a member publication of Media Council, Emory’s organization of student publications. The Wheel reserves the rights to all content as it appears in these pages, and permission to reproduce material must be granted by the editor-in-chief.

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Frustrated, Ren repeatedly asked for feedback from clubs that rejected him. He received either no response or “random excuses,” such as clubs being “too competitive” or having “very qualified people” making it “very hard to decide.”

However, being “humbled” by business clubs gave Ren an understanding of the competitive world awaiting after college.

“It’s really difficult for them to accept everyone who wants to be in it,” Ren said. “Otherwise, the talent is going to be diluted and it’s going to be really hard to create a good experience for the few who got in.”

He added that if a person asks for genuine feedback, the club should do a better job giving feedback, regardless of rejection or acceptance.

Ren is among many students who were puzzled after receiving club rejections. Iris Duan (21Ox, 24B), who was also rejected by several business clubs, noted there is a range of exclusivity to the clubs.

Business consulting clubs — including 180 Degrees Consulting, Atlas Consulting Group and Goizueta Investment Management Group — are among the most exclusive. Factors like internal politics play into executive board appointments, according to Duan. However, there are also clubs with “less hostile” application processes, such as the Economics Society Business Club and the Emory Climate and Solutions Team, Duan said.

“It does make sense because, say, for the dance club, if you’re gonna go to competitions, you do need the best people,” Duan said. “I wouldn’t say that rejection culture is necessarily bad when it comes to exec positions.”

Even though club interviews are good practice for job interviews post-college, Duan said there is an access issue between students who are well-prepared compared to lowincome students who are unfamiliar with finance and consulting interviews.

Duan said this disparity became clear when interviewing people for 180 Degrees Consulting.

“When interviewing people, I really noticed that kind of pattern and trend,” Duan said. “I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s an equal fair shot,’ but it really isn’t because some people just come pre-prepared.”

However, Duan said that the disparities reflect the real-life job market.

Though Wyatt Wolfman (26C) was rejected from Alpha Kappa Psi Fraternity Inc., Atlas Consulting Group and Goizueta Investment Management Group, he doesn’t see the rejections as a bad thing.

“Having a high bar and their rejection, that’s basically real life,” Wolfman said. “You’re not going to get every single job you apply to. You’re not gonna get into every single school that you apply to.”

Wolfman added that students should work harder and better themselves to get into clubs. He said that though rejecting students might feel like a disservice, it’s worse to set them up to get every opportunity.

Murthy disagreed, noting that a part of the “real world” is people receiving multiple job offers and having the option to reject them.

One of the group’s current ideas is to implement implicit bias training into the Officer Compliance Training, a training mandatory for all club presidents and treasurers or financial officers for student organizations, in an effort to make selection for executive positions more inclusive. However, Murthy said that the initiative is still in its discussion stages, but they are still in the “baby steps” of working to “make an impact from [their] data.”

“We see this large problem on campus and we’re here to start the conversation and see what can be done to fix it,” Murthy added.