NHS is not that big of a deal. In fact, it’s a joke at a lot of schools really where everyone that meets the GPA requirement gets in and they don’t even do anything. At my son’s small private school, it’s pretty much a popularity contest, but they are very active. DS was way over the GPA requirement and has tons of service hours through the scouts and didn’t get in Sophomore year and was bummed out. When Junior year applications were being accepted I told him to just skip it, which was fine by him.
He got into every college he applied to.