First year I joined about 8 clubs and like you, didn't end up going to many meetings.
These days I'm part of three. On the exec for one and spend about 5 hours a week doing stuff related to it (I run a radio show + exec meetings and coordinating music). Another is 2 hours a fortnight. The third is an hour a week. Overall managable, but couldn't do much more!
I think it's better to be really involved in a small number of clubs than try to stretch yourself. And going to the same stuff regularly means you're likely to run into the same people time and time again and make friends. But you can always join a heap of clubs to start off with and figure out which ones are best for you.
This post is great, as always hence the rep
Yeah in first year, I joined a lot of clubs I never went to or barely did haha. That's why this year I know what ones I want to do and which to make the time for etc.
Many of the clubs/societies I'm involved in are college student club based ones. (Like our Feminist Committee, Frevue, Cabaret, Debating etc etc.)
For general on campus (ones I actually did a few things with), last year I was involved with SciRevue (dancer), SciSoc things, MADSOC and Debating. Also not an official club persay, but I did get to know a lot of good friends through Union board and SRC campaigning.
So essentially just as Suedos said, I think you can start off trying several at the start of the year, and then just prioritise the ones you made best friends with or which activity you most want to do. For instance, I would like to do more with MADSOC this year because I felt I have neglected my dancing a bit and I watched their Showcase last year and it was really good. But that'll be a trade off of doing a bit less at college. Every human only has so much time.
So in essence, it's good to have one to three clubs you are fully committed into instead of shallowly going to 15. Especially, like Suedos if you really love a club you might move onto being one of the exec or something