I am a senior who has been accepted to and is planning on attending a Top 20 university. Will there be any repercussions for quitting National Honor Society now? My grades are still high, I just don’t want to deal with the extra (volunteering, tutoring, etc.) requirements anymore.
I’m not sure of any repercussions from the college where you plan to attend, but why quit NHS now with only a month or two left before graduation? Call the admission office.
Are you serious?
@BtheMan, What was your parents reaction to this, or do they know what your plans are?
Why now? If you can’t deal with the NHS requirements for the next two months, how will you deal with college and life after that?
I doubt the university will find out, nor do I think it will matter to them – your grades are most important. But you won’t be able to wear the special NHS rope at graduation! 
Do you know for sure that you’re at risk of being kicked out? Is it necessary to actually quit?
Figure out how to graduate with honor society. You may regret withdrawal at this late date. Is there any room for modifying obligations such as doing whatever right after graduation. How much does the rope really mean to you?
You won’t be rescinded, but honestly, it’s a blemish to your character. You made a commitment, you should honor it.
On the other hand, NHS is kind of stupid. Its purpose is for members to honor themselves, basically.
High school graduation tassels are also profoundly unimportant.
What IS important is whether or not you are leaving someone in the lurch. If someone is counting on you for tutoring, you must honor the commitment. If your volunteer hours actually make a difference to something, and if your withdrawal will put a burden on someone else, you must honor the commitment.
Honoring a commitment for its own sake and for no good reason is a waste of time. Builds character? Sometimes, but how would it build character to make 50 students hang around an event as “volunteers” when only 10 workers are actually needed, just because someone randomly thought up a requirement? I see this stuff all the time.
Doing what needs to be done is a virtue. Doing something that doesn’t need to be done has no more value than writing lines as a punishment.
At our school NHS is for seniors only. You are inducted at end of 11th and at that time you make a commitment to a certain number of tutoring hours. Tutoring hours are the only service hours that our NHS requires. They are also the only free tutoring provided on campus. It’s a very large program that takes place in the library after school and you can sign up for any number of subjects and shifts that work for your schedule. It is a service that is widely used.
As NHS moderator, I would have a real issue with a kid who joined to help beef up his application, then quit once he had an acceptance.
I wouldn’t go so far as to notify colleges, but I would absolutely speak up art the committee meeting that decides who gets the top graduation awards.
There will be no repercussions.
I think you should quit NHS so that you have more time to hang out with your friends and enjoy your few remaining HS days, but offer to continue the tutoring so that you’re not leaving the people who need you and who you’ve committed to help in the lurch.
I was pretty nerdy, but one of the best things I ever did after I got into college was to take a day in May and cut school and go to the mall with my friends to see how the other half lived. THAT was educational!
BtheMan, your response and/or decision?
Nopeynopenopenope
You validly got into NHS. But remember, NHS, to me is sort of just a “capstone” of all the hard work and volunteering you have done. It is just the HS saying “Yay for you!” It is the grades and service that the colleges care about, not the “title” of NHS (Parents care very much though! And it is great for HSs to honor the students!)
So you, like many others, don’t keep up with the service at the end of senior year. Nobody cares.
Fret no more.
I think the kids who show up to use tutoring at our high school would care if no one was there.
I’ve got to say…I am very surprised many think it is A-OK to quit. If you put it on your college applications, you should fulfill the tutoring and volunteering requirement. Feel free to skip a day of school or celebrate in any other way to see fit, but don’t bail on your obligations. It’s dishonorable.
You committed to do the volunteer/tutoring when you joined NHS. I think it would show a lack of character to join an organization with the idea that it might help in the college process, make a commitment to do something that will benefit others, and then bail out after you commit to a college because the tutoring/volunteering becomes inconvenient. I think you need to honor your commitment to volunteer/tutor not only to avoid any small chance of an issue with your college (which may or may not find out) but for yourself.
There have been times when I’ve actually supported my kids quitting an EC. And I’m not a huge fan of NHS. But it does seem like you joined to beef up your app, and now don’t want to fulfill your responsibilities. I wouldn’t have encouraged them to do that.
I don’t know OP joined to beef up apps. Being part of NHS is not an admit tip. We all know different hs have different criteria, some more valid than others, some clubs more active than others.
As it wasn’t a tip, I see no issue quitting (from the college’s perspective.) We’re probably talking 6 weeks or so left.
Btw, I told my own kid to make her own best decision when she wanted to quit an audition based music activity that she’d been in for years and that probably had looked good on her apps. There were legit reasons why and I never said, “But it was on your app, you have to stay.”
Mate, it is not that hard to do a little bit of community service. It will make you feel good and you will actually be doing something useful with your time. Whether they rescind you or not, someone who quits NHS because they don’t feel like it probably doesn’t belong at a top 20 institution anyway.