<p>Back when I was in high school, all you needed to be admitted to NHS were good grades. Now, at least in our district (and I know in many others), you need letters of recommendation, demonstration of leadership, and must write several essays. </p>
<p>So given this, is being in NHS meaningful at all from an admissions standpoint, or is it sort of a “no big deal” thing?</p>
<p>Thanks!!</p>
<p>My school has an extensive application process for NHS, but the organization itself is basically a joke for us. If your kids’ NHS is like mine, it’s “no big deal”</p>
<p>The process in our district was much like back in the 70s for me…recommendation, GPA, teacher committee that voted the kids in, formal indoctrination ceremony, honor cords at graduation and you are asked to leave if the unweighted GPA falls below 3.5. It’s an honor and while many kids don’t think it’s a “big deal” but it is a very nice honor if it’s selective. My kids’ NHS was a service organization so there were required service hours and projects. </p>
<p>Ours too. Hard to get in, hard to stay in due to volunteering requirements, but a good number of kids let themselves get kicked out after the start of senior year. It is like take the resume item and run!</p>
<p>^^I know the kids think about it that way, although none of mine were “kicked” out. I just remembered, the kids’ NHS had meetings every other month and if you missed a meeting you had to kick $5 in a kitty. If you missed a service outing you had to kick $15 into the kitty…at the end of the year each year the NHS group voted which organization would be given the kitty. They did raise quite a few bucks off the backs of the less engaged kids!</p>
<p>I was not in NHS back in the day because my school required leadership activities (I was shy, not a joiner - and while I ran track, that didn’t count). My S was also denied NHS at his school for the same reason. D’s school invited students into NHS based solely on grades - but after induction, students had to do a certain number of tutoring sessions and have a minimum number of volunteer hours. All went well until she got unceremoniously kicked out between junior and senior years. She wasn’t told … WE were … not sure why the parents were informed that the student did not meet her volunteer commitment, but it was a private school, so they probably thought we cared. I know for a fact that D turned in her volunteer hours, because she asked me to do it while she was VOLUNTEERING with the sixth graders at camp. I guess the teacher who runs NHS (my D never had her for a class) lost D’s sheet. D was so mad about the way it was handled, she had no interest in trying to get back in. She was the only summa cum laude grad not in NHS! She got into some top schools, so having NHS only listed for sophomore and junior years didn’t seem to be an issue in admissions.</p>