It certainly was not my intent to disparage college teams. My intent was to point out that there are unique challenges to supporting college teams at club launches. They are young and don't have the years of experience many of us do. They are jumping in at high power instead of launching progressively bigger rockets as most of us have. They also don't have the support network that many club members have where we can learn from each other at build sessions and launches. They are sort of in the position of learning to drive with a Ferrari.
My goal with my comments is for other clubs and individuals to learn from what my club has seen and prevent some of the same problems. We want these teams to succeed, but we should be in a position to mentor and advise and stop the launching of unsafe rockets.
I agree with your comments about the college teams. We started hosting Battle of the Rockets almost 10 years ago and have hosted and helped many SLI, CanSat, and other college competition teams. I'm always amazed be two things, their amazing engineering and ingenuity, and their project destroying mistakes because of a lack of practical rocketry experience. The learning to drive with a Ferrari is so appropriate. The keys are dangled and they are taught all about how the engine, transmission, suspension, aerodynamics, etc., all work. Then they are given the keys, told to drive and nobody has bothered to tell them about speed bumps, stop signs, lane markings, one way streets, or all the other practical things you need to know to drive from one place to another.
To address the OPs original questions, no you don't need a NAR or TRA certification, or do you need to join or launch at a club site. i would highly recommend you embrace the nearest club and work with them. You might want to consider that the 5 to 10 most active members of any club will have about 100 years of practical rocketry field experience. That is a huge and valuable resource that as a college group is probably the one thing you are most lacking in. I've watch incredibly well engineered payloads go out to the pad and come back because the rail buttons pulled loose and fell off. It's the little things that club members almost take for granted that the college teams have no experience with that tend to delay and destroy their projects.
So even if you don't need the TRA clubs for flights or certs, go and find them, attend launches, learn and study. Your professors probably don't have any practical rocketry experience either, so don't depend on them to be able to give you the nuts and bolts advice and info you'll need. The club RSO is one of your best professors, listen and learn. Consider any club launch as Rocketry 101 and it should be a pre-requisite to any rocketry project.