… by Clare / from Livingston / MMath Mathematics / 3rd Year (UG)
How to balance committee roles with a maths degree.
What’s crackin’ everyone! Wanna know how to be on the committee of your favourite society and study maths at the same time? Cool, I can tell you all about that… Here are all the steps needed to be a successful committee member AND maths student.
Step 1:
Join a society. Maybe you’re already in one but don’t know if you’ll be able to balance being on the committee with your uni work. Maybe you’ve never been in one, but you really want to get more involved. Either way, my best advice to anyone at uni is to join a society. They are the best! I’m in the brass band and the uni choir, because if I’m one thing, it’s a big music nerd.
Step 2:
Run for committee. If you wanna be on the committee of your society you’ve got to be elected by the members. In my experience this is a super chill process and there’s normally loads of different roles which you can run for! When I was in 2nd year, I was the Social Secretary for the brass band, and when I was in 3rd year I was the President.
Step 2a:
Stress about how you’re gonna manage all this extra work.
Step 2b:
Remember this is gonna be really fun.
Step 2c:
Read a blog post from someone who’s done this before.
Step 3:
Organise your time. This is good advice for any student, but especially for a maths student/committee member. I would recommend setting aside one evening a week just to focus on your committee work, this way you know that Monday evenings are for committee work only (and no studying). Remember to schedule your studying around any committee meetings too!
Step 4:
Remember that maths should come first! I am definitely guilty of doing committee work over studying, but I probably wouldn’t recommend the same to you. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with committee work remember that there are other people on the committee who can help you out with your role because we all know that teamwork makes the dream work.
Step 5:
Spend all year learning some cool maths AND being a great committee member who will be remembered forever in your society’s Hall of Fame!
Step 6:
Run for committee again because you just can’t get enough. Next year I am going to be the Treasurer of the brass band and the Secretary of the choir. Is it a good idea to give myself so much extra work in fourth year? Some might say no, but good thing I know all about how to balance my committee work with my calculus homework…
