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There have been so many honor societies created at Commack High School on Long Island in recent years that some students ended up in six or seven of them, racking up memberships like so many merit badges or thanks-for-playing trophies.</p>
<p>With so many societies, some students are unable to attend all of the meetings and shirk their duties with the groups, showing up only to collect the honor cord a decorative tassel to wear at graduation.</p>
<p>Commack is one of many places where educators and parents are re-examining the role of honor societies, which started out as an academic distinction reserved for the top 5 or 10 percent of a class but have become a routine item on college résumés. </p>
<p>While the prestigious National Honor Society still requires members to maintain at least a 3.0 grade-point average (many chapters like Commack set the bar higher), fledgling societies in individual subjects often accept lower grades in other areas. In Commack, where a sizeable number of graduates are accepted into Ivy League schools every year, nearly a third of the 1,200 juniors and seniors belong to honor societies; the average among those students is three apiece.</p>
<p>This cheapens the currency, said Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a nonprofit educational policy group in Washington. Once everyones wearing rhinestones, you might not notice someone wearing diamonds.
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<p>I had not heard of the sprouting up of specialized honor societies on high school campuses.
Are others familiar with this trend?</p>
<p>I almost gagged on the "prestigious" NHS phrase, knowing how arbitrary it is at so many schools. (Translation: administration's faves.)</p>
<p>I regard NHS as completely bull. I got the grades to join but never did. I did other things that I like and have passion for than waste time in NHS for transcript decoration and for ego-boosting.</p>
<p>At our school, NHS was a “reverse” prize – otherwise known as a consolation prize. The Vals who were also star leaders & citizens & work-horses, never rec’d the (<em>cough</em>) “accolade.” Who did receive them were the 3.0 Non-Honors students who were athletes, and non-athletes who were gofers for the Dean of Students. Really, it was so transparent.</p>
<p>Obviously it was some abuse of the system intended to “equalize” status artificially, and to reward personal favors. Corrupt, actually.</p>
<p>But I was more interested in the random arbitrary competing Honors Societies mentioned in the article. This is the first I’ve heard of them. I’m wondering if they emerged as a reaction to the whimsical NHS memberships, and if they’re just as whimsical in their own way (if anyone knows).</p>
<p>My school isn’t nearly as honors-crazy as the school mentioned in this article, but in addition to NHS, we do have language honors society. They are simply a name to put on a resume- little activity involved in maintaining the award, simple application, low requirements. I imagine many of the honors societies mentioned in the article are similar.</p>
<p>Yes there are specialized honor societies. 3 of mine belonged to the music honorary society, and wore the pink cord at graduation. It was for excellence in their field and performances. I don’t remember if they had to have a 3.0 for it. It might have just been around there since a coupe of mine were not great students, just around a 3.0, but had to have recognized excellence in performance, district honors, state honors, etc. Once in they had service hours to perform. There were a dozen others, too, in languages, math, and other subjects.</p>
<p>NHS required a 3.5 (I think) but after that it was somewhat arbitrary. </p>
<p>Foreign Language Honors required all A’s in the language for 3 years, and enrollment in the 4th year.</p>
<p>Math Honor Society required only enrollment in Algebra II or higher. D never considered that much of an honor and didn’t bother joining.</p>
<p>Drama Honor required a certain # of hours. D had that but didn’t qualify for the graduation cords. This despite being in the cast of 3 spring musicals (as well as Dance Captain for 2 of them), a lead in a Fall play, a part in the competition play, 2 years in student directed (acting and directing) and maybe more. I don’t know how the heck ANYONE qualified.</p>
<p>D belonged to NHS and Spanish Honor Society.</p>
<p>Our sch. has …NHS …3.0 req. to get in but also have to have lots of leadership and community service involvement. I know a girl who was in the top ten in the class who didn’t get in NHS due to the leadership piece. We have all the language ones plus Art, Theater, Mu Alpha Theta. I think there is even some sort of Vocational/Technical Honor Society too. </p>
<p>The funny thing is at graduation, only the NHS members got to wear the special NHS stole thing with their cap and gown. There were no other special cords for other honor groups allowed. Somebody made a fuss about that a couple of years ago. So now some kids have five or six cords flapping around their necks as they cross the stage to get their diploma.<br>
S1 was in NHS,National Latin Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta (math honor society) all of which he quit by senior year.</p>
<p>My S and D’s school recognizes the top 10% of the junior class and then the next 10% of the senior class - the total in NHS by graduation is 20% of the class. This means that only the top 10% are listed by the time they apply to college because the honors ceremony is at the end of the school year. It’s also a private prep school, so the students generally are higher performing than average.</p>
<p>I think this is pretty selective, but unfortunately other schools are so generous with the honor that it probably doesn’t mean much to colleges that aren’t aware that this particular school’s NHS is more selective.</p>
<p>Our NHS probably has some sort of grade cut-off, but I don’t know what it is. The real problem is that they announce you are eligible junior year, but you have to prove a bunch of community service hours. There’s no time to get them if you don’t have them already. Both my kids could have done it, but chose not to as you had to be involved in the NHS comm. service projects if you joined and they wanted to do their own thing. They also didn’t like the teacher who ran it. I don’t think it hurt them getting college acceptances.</p>
<p>Latin Honor Society goes to anyone who sticks it out through AP Latin. Math and Music both are supposed to require community service - though they seem to be somewhat lax about it. I don’t have a problem with a subject matter honor society only requiring good grades in the subject.</p>
<p>At DD’s HS, to join NHS, students must have a 3.50 to be nominated. Then they must show school participation. Students need at least 6 points in the spring of sophomore year and fall of junior year to qualify. Club memberships (which are tracked closely to ensure participation) garner 1 point, club officer 2 points, choir, orchestra, band - 1 point each, varsity athletes - 5 points (I think to recognize the time commitment which often prevents them from qualifying for other clubs). There is also a teacher recommondation piece. It seems to me that there is an attempt to be somewhat holistic about this. Once a member, the NHS students must participate in a variety of community service activities (and earn 6 points over each semester - usually one point for each activity) and during senior year they must organize and run a community service activity of their own. My DD is NHS secretary this year and I can tell you that she spends quite a bit of time communicating with the members and updating their wikispace with members’ points. She takes her responsibility to track points very seriously. The NHS officers have an assigned homeroom together so they can meet (albeit briefly) each day to plan activities. I don’t know (yet) if these kids have some recognition at graduation, but I can say that at our HS, being an NHS member is not just a grades based accomplishment. The kids must demonstrate a commitment to school and community involvement. That said, I see from other people’s posts that this is not the case at all schools.</p>
<p>I think D’s high school set the NHS bar at the top 15% of the class, but it was a much larger percentage of the college-bound. There were also chapters of national theater (Thespians) and music (Tri M) honor societies that had very small memberships. I’m sure adcoms are fully aware that every high school has its own criteria for various honor societies. Applications already contain all the information that goes into honor society selection (grades, teachers’ opinions, community service), so membership really adds nothing to a student’s profile. The diamonds will always stand out from the rhinestones. The silly situation at Commack High must cause many an adcom eyeroll.</p>
<p>According to the article, when school officials cut funding for a number of the societies, families raised money over the summer to restore them. One student spent the summer organizing and attending fund-raisers to save the societies, then wrote about the experience in his Yale essay.</p>
<p>What a waste of money, time, and effort, and to what end? Local honors of this sort are just not important to highly selective colleges.</p>
<p>NHS is a joke. Almost half of my school is in it. You need a 3.0 to be in it. How is that considered prestigious? When I told a kid that I wasn’t in it, he told me “I thought you were smart”. No, actually I chose not to join. I will not be wearing a sash during graduation because I don’t need an ego boost.</p>
<p>At least with NHS it includes something other than grades in the evaluation.</p>
<p>Out here in CA they have somethig called “CSF - California Scholastic Federation”. As far as I know (correct me if I’m wrong anyone), it is basically 100% based on grades in college prep courses. So anybody with a high GPA would automatically qualify. I don’t know if it looks good on a resume, but I would think that an admissions officer would be smart enough to know that if a kid had a 4.0 and wasn’t in CSF it was probably only because they didn’t feel it was worth it to apply.</p>
<p>NHS is the domain of the must-look-good-for-college set at my school. i swear, they would do pretty much anything if volunteer hours were involved…</p>
<p>NHS at our sons’ HS requires a minimum 4.0 on a 5.0 scale, evaluation of character and leadership from 10 teachers and service hours (minimum 50). Service hours have to be verified by the sponsoring organization and can begin with summer before freshman year.</p>
<p>Pretty tough standards for a school of 1,600 that sends less than five students per year to competitive colleges.</p>
<p>I’m not actually sure what the scale is to get into NHS at my daughter’s school but they do have a special designation for the students who have been on high honor roll in school. They also will eject you from NHS if you do not stay on the honor roll. This recently happened to two students. My daughter is president of NHS and they do a lot of tutoring, community service, etc.</p>