<p>In my school, the National Honor Society is a big thing. And also, so far, no one has been the valdectorian without being in the "cult." I want to change that. Anyone know a person who was valdictorian and NOT in the National Honor Society?</p>
<p>If I were an adrep, I would assume that you were in NHS, and had just not bothered to put it down. I think that there were 100 in my D's class of 300.</p>
<p>Why do you want to change that?</p>
<p>Because I didn't get in due to a bad freshman year (you can not get in if you had anything lower than a C- for one term grade, no matter how high your GPA is). However I still want to be recognized for all the time I put into my work after freshman year.</p>
<p>When it comes to top colleges, grades, scores and class rank are important, but NHS is totally unimportant.</p>
<p>You can make up for the bad freshman year and go all the way to #1? At my school, if you had 1 grade of a C, you likely would have been knocked out of the running for Val.</p>
<p>Well at my school you need x amount of community service hours to get into NHS, so I guess if our val hadn't done any community service then she could've done what the OP said.</p>
<p>Ohhhhh haha I thought you meant you were val but didn't want to be in NHS.</p>
<p>Anyway, colleges don't care about NHS. The requirements to get in vary between schools, and it's a bit way too common.</p>
<p>It's kind of impossible for this to happen, unless every single student didn't get at least a 3.75GPA + then there would be no NHS, and then I guess the val would not be in NHS, but neither would anyone else, b/c the only requirements are the 3.75GPA+, and two service acts which trust me can be some of the most ridiculous things.</p>
<p>I don't know of it happening, but at my school it wouldn't be impossible. You have to apply to NHS at my school and have 40 service hours 5 extracurricular activities since freshman year (three of which must be current) and have two leadership positions (one of which must be current) as well as 6.0 GPA (highest is 7 it's weighted on a 6 point scale). So the valedictorian could not do some of the service, leadership, or clubs or just not apply to NHS and then not be in it at my school.</p>
<p>The requirements for NHS for my school are as follows:
~10 hours of community service (this isn't enforced and you can work in the school during study and have it count)
~no less than a C- for a term grade
~no less than a B- for a final grade (if the class is honors, then you can have a C+, if it is AP then you can have a C)</p>
<p>So, as you can see, you can get a B- for a final grade for every class and still be in NHS, which equals a GPA of 3.0 in my school. My school's GPA is out of 5.0, to prevent people from having a 4.3 out of a 4.0 or something like that because of weighting for honors and AP classes. Also the person who is predicted to be val got more than one C, but has AP and honors classes to make up for it so has a GPA of 4.6</p>
<p>No, but I was one of the first kids to graduate with academic honors without qualifying for NHS (at the time, my GPA was .1 too low for NHS)</p>
<p>Yes...</p>
<p>in 2005, the valedictorian wasnt in NHS because he didnt believe in community service and such...so he didnt apply for NHS</p>
<p>I agree with the previous posts that NHS doesnt count much cause so many people get in (~180 in my class) that it jst doesnt exemplify anyone's application</p>
<p>NHS is an honor at our school only 24 of 440 students are accepted. Ita rigorous...first they recruit students that have a 3.75 or better....then you have to fill out an extensive application....get recommendations...then a faculty commitee meets and chooses the twenty-four best students.</p>
<p>OH wow that's pretty crazy, just wonderin' where do they get the number 24 from.</p>
<p>Well NHS is voluntary so it's possible you could be val and not be in it. Although they get to wear a special NHS sash at graduation! lol.</p>
<p>My son had been # 1 in his large class for 4 semesters, with a GPA of about 100,
no B's ever and to my knoweledge nobody ever suggested/offered him to join NHS. So the answer is yes, you can be a valedectorian and not a member of NHS very easily.</p>
<p>Northstarmom: Although you say that "NHS is totally unimportant", does being an active NHS VP or P mean anything? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>For second tier colleges and perhaps for lower ranked first tier colleges, being a NHS officer of any kind may be impressive. For the very top colleges, the kind of leadership that stands out would be being NHS national president or VP or being the lead person in a local NHS project that has a major impact such as creating and organizing a major fundraising or service projects.</p>
<p>The admissions officers at top universities know that often club offices are popularity contests and window dressing. Those colleges also get many applications from people who are NHS members and officers. Consequently, the students who stand out are the ones who really have had a major impact on the organization or community, the kind of impact that would be reflected in awards (such as citywide community service or leadership awards), recommendations containing specifics about your impact or an essay or interview that provides such details.</p>
<p>As far as I know, most of the top academic students at my school aren't in NHS, and our valedictorians have a special dislike for it. It requires a lot of committment and many people can't find time for it (especially since we're an IB school).</p>