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National Honor Society - Why do it?


SailorMelina

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So, I'm a junior right now and I got the letter to join NHS. In fact, everyone I know got the letter to join. I asked around and wondered, "Well, what does NHS do?" People replied, "Oh yeah, it's a great program. You have to get service hours signed...blah blah blah....looks good on college application."

Well ok, I thought. I guess I'll join. But then I thought again. I'm already doing service hours for IB, aren't I? And the counselors have been really vague on whether or not CAS and NHS hours can overlap, so why do it? Does it really look that great on college application if everyone in my class is in it? If that's the case, then it's not very selective. The lowest grade range on a 4.0 scale a member can have is a 3.0 and people can't have any lower than a C, however, a number of the people I know who got the invited and/or accepted seemed to have even lower grades.

I asked another student if I should join NHS and they replied, "Well, do you want to get into college?" What gives? Can colleges really weight a program that much?

I ended up not sending in an application, not just because of all these things, but also because I was in the midst of mock trial season, did not get my acceptance letter on time, and could not get to all the teachers on time either. I figured, why stress about it?

Should I be stressing about it? A teacher of mine told me that it's possible to join NHS your senior year. Is that true?

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At my school, there are lots of people in NHS but very few active members. It's a great chance to get involved in service and things like that. You also get an extra cord for your graduation robe if you're in NHS, which is really nice. Don't stress about it. What's done is done. It would have been nice if you joined.. You don't need it for service, but you can still do service outside of CAS. And yeah, it does look good if you're in NHS because it means that you had good grades and good recommendations, extracurriculars, etc. A lot of people are in it, but being in it still means that you were accepted into National Honor Society. It'd definitely look better if you're an active member of the organization. Anyways, because you didn't apply, forget about it. Not being in NHS doesn't mean very much because it is often used as a filler in applications. You can join NHS as a senior at my school as it's open to juniors and seniors. I assume it's the same at yours.

I asked another student if I should join NHS and they replied, "Well, do you want to get into college?" What gives? Can colleges really weight a program that much?

:P

Wow it's definitely not that important. Colleges accept students not in NHS all the time. What I've learned [because I think you have to learn this for yourself no matter how many people tell you the same thing repeatedly] is that the quality [aka how big a part of your life it is] is better than quantity. I'm in NHS and Natl Spanish HS. So what? I hardly even mention these organizations. I'm in Spanish Club, which is a way bigger deal for me than NHS and NSHS combined.

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Don't sweat it - it is definitely not a big deal. You will DEFINITELY go to college regardless of whether or not you joined this national honor society. No one in my school is in the NHS because we're all mostly too lazy to take the PSATs or whatever and 100% of us go to college and 80% of us go to very good colleges.

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Aish. If only I could convince my mom. She thinks that I've totally messed up my life. I keep reminding her I was in Mock trial, student government, Fest Club (Spanish Culture/dance club), IB, drama club, newspaper, etc, however, she doesn't sound convinced. She practically had heartattack when I told her I didn't apply.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Im in NHS too yeah the whole service hour situation was a bummer at first. They dont overlap at my school but hmmmm yeah. Im in it and it really hasnt done a lot to my schedule just have to go to a couple of meetings so far.

Im not sure how much it counts but I do hope it benefits me. Yeah you can always be reinvited for your senior year, a lot of my friends skipped it this year and plan on doing it next year.

Edited by Jazmine
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  • 4 weeks later...

Check to see if they have NHS bonus days at your school. At mine, we get to have one day off per semester - which is awesome, because i usually take my days the monday after break ends. It feels AWESOME.

That and college apps are really what motivated me to join. So i'd say it's worth it.

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  • 1 month later...

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