Well I've spent my Freshman year running for the club at Minnesota Twin Cities. I've had a great experience, but I suppose it depends on how dedicated everyone on your club is. For example we have a dedicated coach here, a core group of guys who are dedicated to improving, and some corporate sponsorship.
Your enjoyment/improvement will depend on how motivated you are, most of the extrinsic motivators are gone with club running, but you can really improve if you apply yourself. In my case I used this year as a chance to get faster and train harder and now I'm transferring to another Big 10 school and walking on there.