Princeton and NHS

Colleges & Universities Princeton University
1

<p>I’m a junior who plans to apply to Princeton and I, like everyone with whom I’ve talked, got rejected from National Honor Society with the invitation to reapply because there was something wrong with my application. I understand that NHS is filled primarily with people trying to pad their applications (no offense intended to anyone, for I realize that some teenagers are passionate about community service), and admittedly that was chief among the reasons I decided to apply, but I’m wondering if it’s worth it to reapply. It should be noted that almost everyone who reapplies gets in at our school.</p>

<p>I perused the 2012 decisions thread and having NHS on one’s application didn’t seem to help–in fact, a higher percentage of people who listed their application and didn’t have NHS were accepted than those who did (16 of 20 versus 6 of 9, if you’re curious).</p>

<p>However, my leadership is pretty scarce right now (founding president of one club, vice president of another by the time I’m a senior ) and I think I have a decent chance of becoming president or at least on the board of NHS my senior year. The downside to me applying would be, of course, that I would have to give up time for homework and extra curricular activities about which I’m more passionate in favor of NHS meetings, planning the meetings, and community service (of which I already have a fair amount).</p>

<p>Keeping all of this in mind, do you think it would be prudent of me to reapply? Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Don’t ever pad your resume! If you think that NHS will detract from your passions, then don’t do it. Ivy League colleges, especially HYP, look for passion from their applicants. (Remember they’re trying to sculpt a class.) But, if NHS won’t add anything to your passion and is only for padding purposes then I wouldn’t do it.</p>

<p>A friend of mine is very passionate about theater and is in NHS. In order to merge the two, he made his service project a program that taught middle school students the basics of drama and improv. If you could do that, then I would say it can’t hurt. But if it’ll detract, then I wouldn’t recommend joining.</p>

3

<p>I think you should reapply only if it’s something that you really want and you are passionate about . If you’re just doing it to add something to your application, i wouldn’t apply because it would just be something insignificant on your application and admission officers could probably tell.</p>

4

<p>Doesn’t sound like it’s worth it to reapply, since you said you’re more passionate about your other extracurricular activities. In my opinion, I don’t think simply being a member of NHS helps in the slightest bit when it comes down to top schools like Princeton. It’s just not something that can contribute too much to making you stand out, unless you actually devote a lot of time to NHS, which from the looks of it you would rather devote that time to something else.</p>