<p>I think today’s NHS reeks of favortisim, subjectivity and secretiveness. At our HS, of all applicants with 3.5 or higher (113 kids), 32 were chosen. I do not understand why an organization would choose to exclude qualified, interested students, thus denying them opportunities and scholarships. What was the difference between selectee #32 and #33 who was rejected? Surely it was arbitrary.</p>
<p>I am a former NHS president myself (of 30 years ago), and back then we accepted every applicant with 3.5. The members who were sincerely interested seized the opportunity, and those who joined for the status soon dropped out.</p>
<p>If I were you and felt my child had been arbitrarily excluded, I WOULD make a “federal case” of it, or at least insist that someone articulate to you exactly why she was not included.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s high school, students with GPA’s greater that 3.0 are invited to apply. Application consists of listing classes taken and ec activities. Then decision is made based 1/3 on class rank, 1/3 on ecs, and 1/3on teacher recommendations. (Teacher recommendations consist of all teacher receiving a list of eligible students and then being asked to check off which students they think should be in NHS.)</p>
<p>My d applied to NHS both junior and senior year and was rejected both times. But based on schools crieteria, rejections made senses. School did not weight grades, and D took most challanging classes available, but with a 3.7 gpa, she was barely in top 10% of class. Her ecs were mostly activities outside school. And with a class of 500 students, teachers mostly recommend students they know or have heard of — more recognition given to sports stars, students active in theater or newspaper, other teacher’s children.</p>
<p>At the time, d was disappointed about NHS rejection. But really, it didn’t matter. She was accepted a good college with generous financial aid. She continues to participate in several of her high school activities while at college. She’s happy – and glad to be away from high school atmosphere where who and who does not get in NHS is subject of gossip and angst.</p>
<p>Many schools raise the bar to make it a true honor, rather than just a club for kids who have good grades. National allows, indeed welcomes, this from individual schools. It is my understanding that many times character can be a problem. Arrogance toward teachers/fellow students and an attitude of entitlement would be examples of character issues. Schools often poll the entire faculty. Any member of the faculty who has insight into potential ‘issues’ is welcome to share concerns. Leadership can also be a problem for some. Teachers are asked if students are leaders in the classroom, community organizations, teams, clubs, etc. Often that is not the case when a student is ‘bookish’. One year there were problems with students who ‘padded’ their community service hours. Faculty council members contacted the agencies and found inaccurate information was stated on the app! Easy to see that lying is a character flaw! If a junior is denied membership, an explanation is given so said student can work to improve chances for selection during fall of senior year. Selection can be subjective, especially when considering one’s character, leadership, etc.</p>
<p>No offense, Sarahsmom, but what a crock! NHS selection is based on subjective criteria applied by teachers who favor students they know and like. It is a devisive, unfair competition that causes additional stress on students and should be banned or boycotted.</p>
<p>At our school, all students who fall within the academic requirements, and do not have poor disciplinary records, are given the opportunity to fill out a questionnaire and submit a resume/application. That is fair, because many ECs and community service are not readily know by the “powers that be” at school. Perhaps a student participates in outside theater, dance, orchestra, etc. Perhaps the student is a leader in scouts, works, or runs a business. How does the school really know about every single student’s “leadership” experience? Who knows, unless the student is allowed the chance to submit a resume? </p>
<p>I would ask someone at the school how the students are chosen, show them a resume/activity summary, and ask that the student be considered.</p>
<p>Edit, I just read Marlene’s post about the politics and favoritism toward sports stars, etc. That is just plain wrong!</p>
<p>Still remember my daughter telling me that a few days after she found out she was not accepted in NHS, one of the girls who was inducted into NHS shared with her she had a friend call her in sick to school so she could stay home and nurse her hangover.</p>
<p>A recent inductee at our school recently passed out from underage drinking at a weekend party, and confided to my D that she had sex with her boyfriend at age 15 and continues to do so. Yes, the teachers certainly had an accurate bead on this lucky girl’s character!</p>
<p>I don’t think teachers necessarily play favorites on purpose, but when given a list of eligible names from a class of 500 students, unless a student is in one of your classes or is has a recognizable name, how would you even know who you are? And the recommendation part of application in our school is based oh how many teachers recommend a particular student.</p>
<p>Funny thing is, school instuted practice of basing NHS membership based on class rank, number of recommendations, and number/type of activities to eliminate favortism and politics from the nomination process.</p>
<p>Our school got rid of NHS a while back (maybe 10 years ago?). There were a lot of complaints about the lack of transparency in who got selected. It’s unfortunate that we don’t have it, but hopefully the colleges know that. Back in the day at my high school (mid-60’s), there were specific guidelines about grades/activities, etc., so it was clear-cut–no favoritism involved.</p>
<p>Both of my D’s were invited to apply and declined. The NHS at our school is quite large and pretty much a joke. Anyone with a 3.7 or above can get in unless they have a criminal record or something. It’s not some super selective thing and many of my girl’s friends also blew it off. I suppose it’s a nice feather for your resume cap, but your GPA, stats and EC’s are really what matter. My eldest was 6th in her class of 370 kids. Of her class, 15 got kids got into Ivy league schools and only 2 of the top five bothered with NHS. Don’t sweat it.</p>
<p>Bay, it’s hard to live in our world without some competition. Competation is clearly divisive! Otherwise, just call it a club for the smart kids. Where’s the honor if there aren’t criteria and a process for selection? No entitlements!</p>
<p>We had a 17 year old single mom inducted in our chapter a few years ago. Lots of people thought the selection committee had lost their minds!</p>
<p>You can’t necessarily judge who gets in by popularity as there are many kids who are invited to apply who choose not to, for various reasons including, just too darn busy. One of the criteria I have an issue with is the leadership. Most opportunities for formal leadership positions don’t even begin to happen until a student is a junior or senior. You just don’t see club officers that are freshman or sophomores, so when it’s the beginning of your junior year and you’re now eligible, there’s not much time to list it on your NHS application when they’re due (at our school, in late September) so early.</p>
<p>I agree that out of high school it doesn’t matter whether you were in NHS or not. But the reason I urged my kids to do it is because I think it can raise questions amongst adcoms when they see someone has stellar academic stats and is not in NHS. Again, some choose not to do it, but if a kid had awesome numbers, had an average amount of ECs, and wasn’t in NHS, it might not fit into the typical profile of a similar student and cause wonder.</p>
<p>Like my D said, “Why do they pick the kids who are already the most active and involved in the school (or another activity), and give them another activity to be held accountable for?”</p>
<p>One thing I found interesting in our school district - many of the kids who were admitted to National Junior Honor Society in middle school (because in our experience, it was all based on popularity) didn’t make the cut in high school. And many of the kids in middle school that didn’t make it into NJHS, made it in high school. </p>
<p>Also, when D1 was a senior, the membership voted to raise the GPA requirements. They didn’t feel the scholarship standard was high enough.</p>
<p>Regarding the requirements, at our school, if you don’t get all your required volunteer hours in by graduation, you don’t get identified as a NHS Scholar with the special collar at graduation. So it’s definitely an impetus to not goof off once you’re in it. Our high school of around 2200 will initiate 66 new members this weekend, mostly juniors.</p>
<p>Teri, you may be right. One of my D’s encountered it in an interview. The interviewer made the observation that she would have been an excellent candidate and my D said “I really didn’t have the time. I would have had to drop my participation in a volunteer organization and my work with that organization was more important to me than an aqua scarf to wear at graduation.”</p>
<p>Both of my D’s were accepted at their top pick schools without it.</p>
<p>Sarahsmom - but your D had the opportunity to explain that in an interview. For people applying to schools where interviews are not considered, you have to wonder if they make assumptions, or what.</p>
<p>I think that it is AWESOME that the committee selected a single mom as one of it’s candidates! Do people really think that she’s the only girl in the school having sex? Maybe she should have just gotten an abortion and then it would not have been any big deal…?</p>