National Honor Society - is it worth it?

[Anonymous]

So my daughter would technically qualify for Nationals Honor Society, but she is thinking she doesn’t want to apply for it. She’s already busy with her other activities and it does require a small time commitment for service. Can anyone tell me how valuable is it to join the National Honor Society? Do most kids do it? Is it something that distinguishes you for colleges? Or do they care if you have the grades and are just not a member of the Honor Society?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So my daughter would technically qualify for Nationals Honor Society, but she is thinking she doesn’t want to apply for it. She’s already busy with her other activities and it does require a small time commitment for service. Can anyone tell me how valuable is it to join the National Honor Society? Do most kids do it? Is it something that distinguishes you for colleges? Or do they care if you have the grades and are just not a member of the Honor Society?

If you look at the numbers of kids walking at graduation with a bazillion tassels and cords from every honor society, I can't think that just being in one really makes a difference. If it's really a student's passion and is THE club they put their time and effort into, then sure it matters. If it is just one more things on a long list of activities, it doesn't matter so much. If she could only list 3 activities, would it be one of them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So my daughter would technically qualify for Nationals Honor Society, but she is thinking she doesn’t want to apply for it. She’s already busy with her other activities and it does require a small time commitment for service. Can anyone tell me how valuable is it to join the National Honor Society? Do most kids do it? Is it something that distinguishes you for colleges? Or do they care if you have the grades and are just not a member of the Honor Society?

If you look at the numbers of kids walking at graduation with a bazillion tassels and cords from every honor society, I can't think that just being in one really makes a difference. If it's really a student's passion and is THE club they put their time and effort into, then sure it matters. If it is just one more things on a long list of activities, it doesn't matter so much. If she could only list 3 activities, would it be one of them?

Probably not. She has other activities that mean a lot to her and she’s very involved in. She would only do Honor Society to “check a box”
That is to do it if it were expected.

[Anonymous]

For admissions purposes, it is nearly meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Does she do other service?

[Anonymous]

"Probably not. She has other activities that mean a lot to her and she’s very involved in. She would only do Honor Society to “check a box”
That is to do it if it were expected."

Does she have any "check a box" activities? Are her activities focused in only one direction?

One of our DC was lucky that he had a couple "check a box" activities to chose from when an injury kept them from playing his sport for a year.

Our other DC needed to change the focus of her activities when a teacher left and the new advisor had a very different take on the program.

[Anonymous]

She should check out the NHS at her school to figure out whether or not it's worth joining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does she do other service?

Yes, she has 300+ SSL hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Probably not. She has other activities that mean a lot to her and she’s very involved in. She would only do Honor Society to “check a box”
That is to do it if it were expected."

Does she have any "check a box" activities? Are her activities focused in only one direction?

One of our DC was lucky that he had a couple "check a box" activities to chose from when an injury kept them from playing his sport for a year.

Our other DC needed to change the focus of her activities when a teacher left and the new advisor had a very different take on the program.

That is an interesting point. She does not have any “check a box” activities. She has two “creative” areas she’s very involved in. But, I would imagine that if the advisors changed and she did not like them, it could be an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So my daughter would technically qualify for Nationals Honor Society, but she is thinking she doesn’t want to apply for it. She’s already busy with her other activities and it does require a small time commitment for service. Can anyone tell me how valuable is it to join the National Honor Society? Do most kids do it? Is it something that distinguishes you for colleges? Or do they care if you have the grades and are just not a member of the Honor Society?

If you look at the numbers of kids walking at graduation with a bazillion tassels and cords from every honor society, I can't think that just being in one really makes a difference. If it's really a student's passion and is THE club they put their time and effort into, then sure it matters. If it is just one more things on a long list of activities, it doesn't matter so much. If she could only list 3 activities, would it be one of them?

I was just wondering if it’s a baseline thing that colleges look for. Is not being in Honor Society any sort of disqualifier?

[Anonymous]

No it's not a baseline thing. Our son went to a private school. It is not a thing that the kids do.

[Anonymous]

The Common App has space for 10 activities. If she can already fill those 10 spaces with substantial activities (ie: sports teams, jobs, school clubs, etc.) then I wouldn't worry as much about it. But if she needs something else for that list it's a good thing to put down.

Also, if she's already doing service hours then NHS isn't going to be that much of an extra time commitment.

[Anonymous]

What are the service hour requirements for high schoolers? For middle schoolers (and the National Junior Honor Society) it is just 10 hours. It was a good start to my child's having to locate service hours she could do and be responsible for. Other than that it was just grades, that she got anyway, and filling out a form. What is the big deal?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, DD technically qualified but refused to do it. She said, "mom, why should I do these meaningless accolades?" mmmmmm.

She also wanted to walk in with her friends and not with the honor society (they walk in first as a group).

If your DC is into it, by all means do it. The little silk collar thing is nice, there's no harm in it.

[Anonymous]

Aren't the requirements to make the NHS different in each school? I believe in our public it is a 3.5 GPA, but in my son's private it is a 3.8 GPA. Plus the public school weighting is much higher with honors classes than in our private. In that sense, NHS is about as meaningful as the inflated GPAs in public schools. Either way, my DS went for it because he liked checking the box and some of his friends were also in it.