Is Phi Beta Kappa worth it?

[Anonymous]

You put it on your resume for the rest of your life.

[Anonymous]

My school (SLAC, highly regarded among those who know SLACs but not as well-known as a big university) did not have Latin honors, so I was thrilled to be chosen for PBK. It is on my resume and 25 years later, I am still pleased to have it there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is $95. It is not a significant amount of money. NP here

You sound very sheltered.

You sound very naive. If you know anything about the cost of this kind of thing on college campuses today, $95 is nothing.

[Anonymous]

Yes, sign up. THis is one of the few honor societies that is not a scam.

It is legit, and meaningful to those in the known.

Congratulations to your DC!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is $95. It is not a significant amount of money. NP here

You sound very sheltered.

You sound very naive. If you know anything about the cost of this kind of thing on college campuses today, $95 is nothing.

NP. It is a legitimate question. My kid gets invitations for things like this all the time. Psi Chi. National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Phi Kappa Phi. Golden Key Honor Society. Order of Omega. The list goes on. Sure, $95 may not be a significant amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but we’re not going to throw $95 at every last organization that wants to flatter her. It is helpful to know what is and isn’t “worth it”, what is actually something that is legitimately impressive/valued to have on a resume for a workplace or grad school and what just screams “I’m a sucker.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is $95. It is not a significant amount of money. NP here

You sound very sheltered.

You sound very naive. If you know anything about the cost of this kind of thing on college campuses today, $95 is nothing.

You both sound kinda obnoxious.

OP asked a question.

Naive or not, she wasn't sure of something outside of her experience and she asked. I think that says good things about her. So just answer the question.

OP - it is definitely worth the money. Your child will get to put this on her resume forever, and people will care. It is quite an accomplishment so you should be very proud of her!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is $95. It is not a significant amount of money. NP here

You sound very sheltered.

You sound very naive. If you know anything about the cost of this kind of thing on college campuses today, $95 is nothing.

NP. It is a legitimate question. My kid gets invitations for things like this all the time. Psi Chi. National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Phi Kappa Phi. Golden Key Honor Society. Order of Omega. The list goes on. Sure, $95 may not be a significant amount of money in the grand scheme of things, but we’re not going to throw $95 at every last organization that wants to flatter her. It is helpful to know what is and isn’t “worth it”, what is actually something that is legitimately impressive/valued to have on a resume for a workplace or grad school and what just screams “I’m a sucker.”

This!

Congrats to your DD, OP. What a great accomplishment.

[Anonymous]

Of course she should pay the 95 dollars to join phi beta kappa! This is not even a question. If it’s a financial hardship ask if there is a fee waiver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was in it. Entry requirements may vary from institution to institution, but at least my college, all PBK really signified was that I got good grades across a relatively wide range of courses--something that was readily apparent in my transcripts already. PBK membership isn't an achievement in-and-of-itself, it is simply recognition of prior achievements. By all means if she wants to join and has $95 to spare she should go for it (and be proud of her awesome grades!) and she can list it under "Awards and Honors" in a CV or resume. That’s what I did, but I’m not positive it added anything to my CV that my Latin honors, GPA, and the classes/grades on my transcript didn’t.

There are a lot of circumstances where you share a resume or CV but not a transcript, and having PBK on a resume is a boost. A college may not have a class rank but PBK suggests you were in the top 10%.

[Anonymous]

I JUST got off a physician's webpage. He noted that he had graduated from college phi beta kappa, and later mentioned another honor society with the explanation "which is the medical equivalent of phi beta kappa." And this person was OLD!

So the cache continues.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it’s a great honor and can be put on a resume for years. Congrats to your DC! And no harm in asking at all. There are a lot of honor society type organizations out there, some of which mean little else besides “I paid $95”, and it can be hard to know which ones are worth the money. This one definitely is

[Anonymous]

Heck ya - that's the only honor society from college I still list. It is the only legit one recognized by most everyone. It has a strict cut-off and it seemed to me that there was some sort of professor input.

Congrats to OP's child!

[Anonymous]

Thanks, everyone! She just sent the email to the contact accepting her invitation! She IS an awesome young woman and we are super proud. $95 isn’t an issue, but like others have said, invitations to “exclusive honor societies” come along pretty often and I have heard that a lot of them aren’t worth the money or putting on your resume.

I come from the tech world, so many of the people I work with (lots of engineering majors) weren’t eligible to join anyway — so I just haven’t heard of it much. And my college, North Carolina State, didn’t even get a chapter until a few years after I graduated (if Wikipedia is to be believed) so I wasn’t exposed to it in college. Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the thread. I was wondering the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. It’s a distinction that really matters to some people who are gatekeepers (employers, grad admissions) and may matter more in an era when there’s lots of grade inflation so GPA isn’t always a useful metric for distinguishing among students.

Is it really $95 to accept (vs buy the key)? I did the former but not the latter. Only membership benefit I’ve used is putting it on my CV. True of DH as well.

+1 It was decades ago now, but I am almost positive that I was charged to buy the gold key pin, but not to accept the honor itself, which was largely GPA based.