@unpublished {1483791,
	title = { A Sense of Community on Campus in Pre-Professional Student Groups},
	year = {2020},
	abstract = {In this paper, we explored how exclusivity contributes to a sense of community in exclusive pre-professional Harvard College student groups (clubs mandating multiple interview rounds for admission) in contrast with Harvard-mandated {\textquotedblleft}default{\textquotedblright} communities (the Harvard dorm/housing system). We sought to find the most impactful attributes that fulfill one{\textquoteright}s sense of belonging within a community, and potentially advise how to build more fulfilling communities. Specifically, we chose two prominent and visible pre-professional organizations on campus and surveyed students on various community-evaluating questions. We found that default communities produced a greater sense of community in many scenarios than more exclusive student groups in which membership was handpicked. Some of the underlying mechanisms for these results might be that default communities involve cooperative or collaborative living, which lends itself to giving up certain aspects of privacy and likely makes it easier to communicate and share private matters in general. Nevertheless, more than 90\% of students in both pre-professional groups still believed exclusivity of their pre-professional community to be valuable to the sense of community established.Reflecting upon our research implications, we suggest that more exclusive pre-professional student groups can make efforts to strengthen their sense of community through group outings, socials, and mixers. We also commend the university for making efforts to create more intimate and close-knit social spaces beyond the realm of more exclusive student groups, which are necessary to celebrate/encourage intimacy, warmth, and inclusion regardless of students{\textquoteright} personal and professional interests.\&nbsp;},
	author = {Danielle Green {\textquoteright}20 and Chelsea Guo {\textquoteright}23 and Arnav Srivastava {\textquoteright}23}
}
