Anonymous
09/05/2025 17:51
Subject: National Honor Society:pretty meaningless, right?
Cum laude is a nice recognition but it doesn’t make or break an application to a top school. Just based on what I’ve seen at my kid’s private school.
Anonymous
09/05/2025 17:41
Subject: National Honor Society:pretty meaningless, right?
Anonymous wrote:Kid is panicking because “everyone” is applying and the application is due tomorrow and they did not ask for teacher recs or download the application yet or anything. I don’t believe there’s any requirement at our HS beyond GPA and paying a hefty fee. My child has the GPA (4.0 unweighted, something like 4.6 weighted? as a junior in a magnet program) but I’m trying to convince them that their transcript and other parts of their “resume” will speak for themselves. They do not have a lot of other ECs (a varsity sport, very part time job), but as an excellent student who’s aiming for probably T40-75 schools, they don’t need to play the silly NHS game, do they?
No applications were decided on the basis of NHS status or not. Private schools don't even have them. They're nice to have but pretty forgettable and meaningless in the grand scope of holistic admissions.
Please tell DC not to worry or panic.
Anonymous
09/05/2025 15:54
Subject: National Honor Society:pretty meaningless, right?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Lol what a joke. Now we have private school posters arguing that somehow their bullshit cum laude thing is a big deal but a public school’s NHS isn’t.
It actually is a bigger deal than NHS. As others have posted, NHS has a very low bar to qualify. And not every private school is admitted to the Cum Laude Society. For example, in Maryland there are only 19 schools admitted, 4 in DC, and 16 in Virginia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cum_Laude_Society_chapters
So basically few people have ever heard of it.
I thought just the name of the private school opened the doors.
Maybe few people have heard of it, but admissions officers are very familiar of the fact that it is a higher bar. Yes, the private school opens the doors, but that combined with the distinction of Cum Laude is golden.
Anonymous
09/05/2025 13:24
Subject: National Honor Society:pretty meaningless, right?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Lol what a joke. Now we have private school posters arguing that somehow their bullshit cum laude thing is a big deal but a public school’s NHS isn’t.
It actually is a bigger deal than NHS. As others have posted, NHS has a very low bar to qualify. And not every private school is admitted to the Cum Laude Society. For example, in Maryland there are only 19 schools admitted, 4 in DC, and 16 in Virginia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cum_Laude_Society_chapters
So basically few people have ever heard of it.
I thought just the name of the private school opened the doors.
Anonymous
09/05/2025 13:23
Subject: National Honor Society:pretty meaningless, right?
My kid's HS has 16 different honor societies so IMO whole thing is a big joke
Anonymous
09/05/2025 13:04
Subject: National Honor Society:pretty meaningless, right?
Anonymous wrote:Lol what a joke. Now we have private school posters arguing that somehow their bullshit cum laude thing is a big deal but a public school’s NHS isn’t.
It actually is a bigger deal than NHS. As others have posted, NHS has a very low bar to qualify. And not every private school is admitted to the Cum Laude Society. For example, in Maryland there are only 19 schools admitted, 4 in DC, and 16 in Virginia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cum_Laude_Society_chapters
Anonymous
09/05/2025 12:59
Subject: National Honor Society:pretty meaningless, right?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Cum laude is top 10% of jr class. According to our college counselor, this is a big deal, esp at schools that don’t otherwise rank kids.
Cum laude senior yr is top 20%- nice but not as meaningful.
Only the junior year ranking would be known in time for college apps anyway, right? It’s based on end of year gpa?
My daughter was just informed of her Cum Laude invitation. She is a senior. I believe it is up to the top 20% of the class, but I don't know any other parameters. They say it can be less than 20%. So she will be able to share this for her college apps. I am pretty sure the school doesn't invite to cum laude until senior year, but I may be wrong (and dd just didn't get invited junior year). Also DD received the College Board School Recognition award for being in top 10% of the PSAT scores in the school, so that is also a nice brag on the application.
Anonymous
09/05/2025 12:46
Subject: National Honor Society:pretty meaningless, right?
DD didn't bother because she's in two other honor societies that are more closely tied to her interests and each require their own volunteer hours. She didn't think she needed NHS to round out her application and didn't see the value in writing the essay or tracking down the teacher rec just to check the box.