Is National Honor Society worth it?

[Anonymous]

My kid was inducted into NHS last year as a sophomore, and we paid the required $20 fee. Apparently it's $60 (and some other hoops) to keep her membership going this year, but I'm not sure what the point it. She doesn't need NHS as a line item on the common app -- she has other honors to put there. Is there any reason to re-enroll?

[Anonymous]

No

Some people will claim it’s a great an activity, esp for college. The reality is it’s just an activity and not looked at highly UNLESS your kid did a massive amount for it and can explain that. For everyone else, it’s essentially not much, and better to have a diff activity listed with more invested and impact.

[Anonymous]

Only thing besides awards (or activities) on common app, is that my kid put on resume while looking for jobs in high school. Just something to show this is a good and conscientious student.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it is worth it.
Neither of my kids joined and they are both at top 15 schools

[Anonymous]

My kid is at HYP and she skipped it. She had plenty of really solid activities and community service that was meaningful to her and, even if she had joined, it wouldn't have made it on to her Common App. I was under the (apparently incorrect) impression that it was kind of a required thing for any high performing kid aiming for selective schools, but I was wrong.

[Anonymous]

My kid has minimal extracurriculars, so we went for it.

[Anonymous]

No.

Colleges care about what you do. If the NHS club at your high school engages in activities that your child is interested in doing, then they should do that. If not, then no.

[Anonymous]

IMO it is expected if your stats bear that out. So I would encourage DCs to participate

[Anonymous]

Hell to the no, unless your child actually enjoys the service aspect

[Anonymous]

No. It doesn't matter. Plenty of high acheiving kids don't join b/c they are already busy enough with other activities and the added volunteer hours aren't worth the trade off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO it is expected if your stats bear that out. So I would encourage DCs to participate

Curious on your thinking. Do you think if you are ranked in the top 1% of your class that a college sits there and wonders why you aren't in NHS?

Like other posters, my kid never joined and is at a Top 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMO it is expected if your stats bear that out. So I would encourage DCs to participate

I think this is a 90s way of thinking. That's how it was when I was in high school, but everything has changed so much since then.

[Anonymous]

We spend so much on stuff/activities for the kids, I was like hell, what's another $20 ($60)? Just the cost of having kids in the DMV!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMO it is expected if your stats bear that out. So I would encourage DCs to participate

Curious on your thinking. Do you think if you are ranked in the top 1% of your class that a college sits there and wonders why you aren't in NHS?

Like other posters, my kid never joined and is at a Top 5.

PP here. You could be right - as could be the PP who said it was a 90s way of thinking (guilty)
Anecdotal evidence is probably not super helpful, but basically the top students at my first two kids' schools joined, so they did too. It was a low level service commitment, they had other ECs that kept them more busy.
It probably didn't affect admissions, their records speak for themselves as long as they do have good ECs, so NHS was probably not a very important factor.

[Anonymous]

At our school, NHS basically requires that you report service hours you earn elsewhere, as long as they fit certain parameters (like peer tutoring). Much of what mine were already doing counted towards the hours. They supplemented with a bunch of peer tutoring sessions. It didn't add much to their workloads, was kind of low key. I'm sure that differs by school