@payn4ward totally! My point was that the school doesn’t think it’s really necessary…and I agree.
At my kids’ school, you have to be a Junior or Senior with a gpa higher than 90% to receive an invite. It is also seen primarily as a route for volunteering opportunities. If accepted, volunteer svc must occur during the school year for it to count for NHS. Not sure what the rationale for this particular requirement is. If it’s really about students helping their communities in a meaningful and personal way, why does the NHS at their school place a time of year stipulation on service? Maybe someone on here can help me understand. The more info, the better decision we can make as a family.
As I said before , it’s a personal decision whether one joins or not. I never said that not being a member would prevent or limit acceptances . It is another club or organization offered at school that some students choose to participate in. It is also a club that people feel perfectly comfortable minimizing . I would never minimize whether or not a sport , or participating in band, or participating in tech would limit someone’s acceptances into a college. I have actually seen people say "it means nothing " I can guarantee it means something to the students who choose to participate .
@mom2gkc there is greenspace outside Randolph Hall in the Cistern Yard. There is also greenspace outside of the library . While it is not officially part of the college, there is Marion Square across the street from the college where a lot of students tend to hang out. Lots of parks nearby in Charleston. It’s been voted most beautiful college this year by Travel and Leisure magazine . I hope this helps.
@carolinamom2boys Well of course it means something to the kids who participate. I completely agree.
I appreciate everyone’s perspective and it is helpful to know that NHS isn’t required for students to be successful in getting into college. I may be reading responses incorrectly because I’m tired from work, but I really don’t think anyone is saying NHS participation or non participation is limiting anyone’s choices.
I think the main point is that kids need to get outside the classroom and just do things that are meaningful to them. There is no wrong or right answer to this.
@4MyKidz You said it more eloquently that I did. It may be nice to participate in, but just like all EC’s students participate in, it’s what the student does with it and gets from it that may be more meaningful. At my son’s school, they appear to have taken the position that the designation itself is not as meaningful as the activities the students engage in.
I think we are all on the same page. I’ve seen elsewhere on CC where people are unnecessarily worried about not getting NHS and I’ve seen people say that NHS is meaningless. I personally don’t view it in a general sense as better or worse than playing a sport or participating in Boy Scouts or Science Olympiad. It will work out for some kids but it’s not a necessary component of a college application for any student.
I think part of the confusion, too, is that NHS is different at each school so it’s hard to compare apples to apples.
Very True @homerdog
At least at S17’s school, it has turned into something most kids do only for the sake of college application without substantive service activities. The school would never get rid of it (neither grade inflation, weighted gpa, etc) as it may indeed help the kids college outcomes and being the number 1 school, etc is important.
At D19’s school, NHS doesn’t actually appear to do anything. She does volunteer work through other organizations and NHS tracks the hours. But that’s it. She joined as a sophomore. AFAIK, she’s only had a single meeting.
D19 should have more time to do ECs this year. Last year, she did XC in the fall semester and switched to track in the spring semester. The problem with track is that it meets every day after school. So she couldn’t do a single after school activity.
This year, she’s just going to stay in XC for spring semester. The only difference is that the XC runners run longer, while the track runners do speed work in addition to distance work. But since she runs 800m and 1600m, she has the ability to choose. People who run 400m and below have to go to track and those who run 3200m have to run XC.
@carolinamom2boys Thank you! That is good to know. I have always wanted to visit Charleston so this finally gives us a reason to do it.
Picked up d from the PSAT. She felt like it was easy in comparison to last week’s SAT. She said she completed the non calculator math section with a lot of extra time. She said the calculator part had one question she wasn’t sure of at first but she is pretty sure she figured out. She said she might have missed something I’m careless errors but overall math went really well. Reading and grammar are less her thing but she felt they went pretty well too. Grammar especially she felt she wasn’t lost on. She decided as a strategy to skip and go pack to any reading passages that were 1800’s/early 1900’s speeches or letters because those tend to throw her off the most. She said the strategy worked. She did all the science passages and thinks she understood and answered correctly, did a story based reading passage next and thinks it was good and then did the more difficult to understand Passage with 10 minutes left. She said she didn’t panic because she knew that was all she had to do and could spend the whole 10 minutes on it. She thinks that helped a lot. I hope everyone else who took it today felt confident.
DS 19 skipped and went back too. He felt like that went much better.
Glad to hear it went well for her @mom2twogirls!
It seemed like the Wednesday PSAT was more difficult than last week’s SAT (which S19 found really easy). It will be interesting to see how the two different PSAT tests are curved and whether their impressions of what was “easier” is reflected in the scores.
D also said the non calculator part seemed to be harder for kids currently in algebra 2. She’s had a lot of practice with non calculator tests in precalc and AP chem in particular (she may have said calc BC but I can’t remember). She said just having that practice for the last year + helped her not panic and feel comfortable with it.
Has anyone every played around with Parchment? I wonder how they use all of the information entered to come up with predictions. Do you think predictions include things like state you live in or how many APs you’ve taken? Or is it simply GPA and scores? I know it’s just kind of a parlor game and I’m not taking it seriously, but it is interesting to see some of S19’s predictions…
Parchment? Predictions? I googled it and it looks like a grades ordering thing. Where do you find the predictions?
@ninakatarina Up at the top of the page there’s a “college tools” bar. You can also enter a profile with the profile drop down menu and fill in scores, grades, etc. and it will tell you your chances of getting in a college based on everyone who has entered their data. Kids come back and enter if they’ve been accepted or denied and you can see profiles of kids who got in and who was rejected. Of course, it’s only as good as the info entered. Plus, I’m finding that certain schools (like Kenyon) where they predict a high possibility of getting in seems to be wrong a lot. (Many kids had 75% chance are more of getting in according to Parchment’s algorithm and got denied.)
Kind of fun but I’m wondering if there’s any real use for it.
D19 says that, unlike all the practice PSATs, the math part felt easier than the verbal (or whatever they’re calling it these days) part. No idea how she did, of course, but she’s feeling cautiously secure about having broken 1200, which is the goal.