<p>NHS is hypocritical in my school. I got in and then kicked out because I had a minor disicpline record way long back that they realized. Ironically nearly half of NHS member in my school go on academic probation for getting displine later on. So I figured screw them and not waste a tear.</p>
<p>NHS is worth nothing without a leadership position. too many students across the nation are in NHS for it to have any real prestige. Just look at the award certificate…Charter number #10000 or something. 10000 different charters of NHS…probably dozens of kids at each charter. if your college app has room to list all your awards/activites than list it. if not, try to find better awards.</p>
<p>NHS is supposed to be a community service organization (mine doesn’t do anything other than inductions every year…), so if you’re friend is really upset about it, tell her to do community service somewhere else. It will look at least as good on an application because it will stand out more than “member of NHS” which nearly everyone can say. Especially if she organizes a community service project (read aloud at an elementary school, get a group of students together to adopt a highway, do a fundraiser for a good cause), she would be miles ahead of regular NHS.</p>
<p>I think they are worth the $60…for resume fodder if nothing else. The major honor societies are definitely worth being a part of, but like I said…most new graduates probably don’t have a lot to put on their resumes. Tacking on some “honor societies” can’t hurt.</p>
<p>National Honor Society is very generic and unimportant. A friend of my who is an NHS reject (3 times!), got into U.Chicago, NYU, BU, Tufts, Cornell, and was wait listed at Harvard and Yale. While the people who is in NHS will be attending Suffolk (…it beat state school by a small margin), Umass Boston and A COMMUNITY COLLEGE!!! NHS vary from school, at some it is highly prestigious, as other it just another club. Colleges lose interest in it as being an indication of highly qualify students. If you in an unknow club, but do a dam good job, it still beat being in NHS and gasp air. Your friend should cheer up and don’t beat herself with it, it meaningless. I wish her the best of luck.</p>
<p>A lot of us in our school’s chapter of NHS think it’s overrated. At least, we think the acceptance/rejection part of NHS is overrated. We have fun, though, while we do projects and such, so it’s all good. I definitely don’t think anyone should cry over not getting in, though.</p>
<p>I dont think there is any way that NHS can make you stand out in college applications.</p>
<p>Not have NHS on your application will have absolutely zero effect on your acceptance or denial. A lot of times, the kids who are already in NHS vote on who to accept. It really is meaningless.</p>
<p>It’s different from my high school. It is the teachers who vote on who to accept, not students. Second, my friend cannot apply again because she will be in college. NHS already accepted members for NEXT YEAR, not this year. She can’t apply again.</p>
<p>So it is a faculty popularity contest instead of a student popularity contest. This entire thread has indicated that NHS membership is meaningless to admissions committees. There is another thread in the Parents Forum named “National Honor Society - does it matter?” that says the same thing but with more detailed stories. Just forget about it.</p>
<p>is NHS kind of like beta club? we have a beta club at my school but i hadn’t really heard of NHS until recently.</p>
<p>Imo, NHS should be banned and boycotted, (and yes, I am bitter because my D, like the girl in OP, was unjustifiably rejected, but she is going to Yale - ha), unless all qualified students are admitted. NHS really serve no unique purpose other than to create an exclusive organization that has no place in public schools because the membership criteria is largely subjective and discriminatory. Think of it as an obnoxious fraternity, that chooses you as a member if they like you, and claims to exist for community service but really is all about keeping others out.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go to Bay’s extreme. Like most things, good and bad can be made of them dependent on the overseers. I must have been too busy because when NHS was recruiting, I was always left out of the loop. I wasn’t the type to go searching out clubs or honors anyways. Frankly I was too busy w/my schoolwork and ECs to be bothered.</p>
<p>I was never asked, so I never joined. I was the only student from my HS to go to an HYP college that year. Didn’t adversely affect me.</p>
<p>dancemuse5: Yes, it’s similar to Beta Club. In my high school, though, Beta Club actually seemed to emphasize service a little more.</p>
<p>I agree with ~everyone that NHS means little. I wasn’t in it. I decided not to join because our chapter required a parent to go to a couple of special parent meetings in order for the student to join. My mom was taking care of five kids, going to law school full-time, and training a couple of hours a day (she is an elite-level cyclist). There was no way I was going to ask her to waste her time going to some stupid pointless meetings so that I could be in some resume-padder club and wear a pretty gold cord at graduation.</p>
<p>The next year, a guy I knew, very bright guy who eventually went to Stanford, didn’t get in, because his homeroom teacher wouldn’t give him a good recommendation, because he didn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance (he had religious objections to doing so). Had I been concerned that I had made the wrong choice, I would no longer have been after that.</p>
<p>No. 10char</p>
<p>NHS really doesn’t mean much. A lot of the smartest kids in school didn’t apply because the app was too big and they didn’t feel like filling it out. </p>
<p>And half the people join NHS so they can graduate in a different color robe :D</p>