The easy membership for every top student… and I got rejected, all thanks to the janky way it is officiated at our school. NHS at our school is run by a relatively young teacher and she basically makes all the decisions for the program. Coincidentally, she is also my teacher this year. To say the least, we don’t get along well because sometimes i act like too much of a goof. Everytime I crossed the line (got too loud, talking when I wasn’t supposed to, etc) I immediately put my act together and made sure I wasn’t being disruptive. But, it wasn’t enough to keep the relationship healthy.
For our school, a GPA higher than 3.25 is eligible for NHS membership, but then the membership is approved after a teacher screening of the students in question. This screening is completely hidden and there’s no way of seeing how exactly a student is approved for membership.
The NHS sponsor, my teacher, is known historically for keeping students out of NHS on purpose because she didn’t like them. I expected the same thing and staying completely respectful, silent, and attentive but the moment I got out of line once she threatened my NHS membership (against the normal guidelines set by the school) and later mentioned to one of her students that “There is no way in hell I am letting bozongle get into NHS, no matter what.” I thought these were empty threats/jokes but the point kept getting reinforced, even when I didn’t say a word all class. In the end I got my letter today and ended up getting rejected. I know 90% that it was because of my sponsor because I have no issues in any other class and my teachers generally like me a lot. But this one case and the position my teacher has basically screwed me over.
Anyways, rant over, but seriously how important is NHS on my college app? I’m tearing myself up right now and am extremely stressed already about college apps and getting into a good college, and this made it ten times worse.
Woah thats messed up, you should take that up to administration! And it all depends on what the rest of your application looks like and what schools youre planning on applying to
It’s not that important in the grand scheme of things.
With that said, you can likely appeal the decision to the administration if you believe you are more qualified than many students accepted and that it was only due to the teacher’s bias that you were not chosen. My high school had a similar issue where all the kids who took a certain (non AP or even honors) class with the teacher were practically guaranteed in and those the teacher didn’t personally know would get rejected. Many students appealed at my school at a good number of those appeals were accepted.
Ehh, NHS doesn’t magically make your application any stronger. NHS policies vary WIDELY from school to school.
At my kid’s school, NHS is for seniors only and you need an unweighted 3.8 to get in. Other schools are 4 years of NHS and you need a 3.3 or something.
Bottom line, focus your efforts on other ECs and HNS or the lack thereof shouldn’t matter.
My friend was in no honors societies and got into the most selective computer science program in the country. I almost didn’t even put honors societies on my common app. They’re not very important. It’s just nice to have that cool orange cord during graduation.
What grade are you in? I didn’t get in my first year, but I was accepted the next year and I’m now the VP. If possible, I think you should apply again. However, if you can’t/choose not to, I’m sure you can find other EC opportunities and do just fine. If you know that your NHS isn’t run with integrity, then you shouldn’t be worried about not being a part of it.
A couple months ago I was accepted to NHS but got kicked out for missing 1 meeting (the first meeting, because I was actually working on research for my job).
I read through the handbook and found that this procedure was completely refuted by it, so after crying to both of the sponsors (who also ran it incredibly jankily), I wrote a letter to our school principal. My letter basically went: I have _____ qualifications, the handbook says _____, I got accepted but had my acceptance wrongly rescinded, can you please intervene.
He talked to the sponsors and tried to convince them to let me join but they actually wouldn’t let me join JUST TO PROVE A POINT AGAINST ME. They did change the missed meeting rule, but it will go into effect next year (and I won’t be applying).
At that point I was EXTREMELY frustrated, because I felt like NHS was the pinnacle of all academic achievement at my school. However, I did a bit of research (see the thread I started http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1843669-national-honor-society.html#latest) and found that NHS has come to have very little impact on college admissions–oddly enough, because adcoms have come to realize that the way many sponsors run it is incredibly janky.
I guess the moral of the story is: talk to higher authority if you can express your situation in a way that they can intervene. Chances are, they’ll be on your side and will do what they can. However, keep in mind that NHS, or the lack thereof, is likely going to have very little impact on your admissions to a college, and if you end up without NHS, it really won’t make a difference.
i personally know lots of people who simply left out nhs out of their application. Not important enough to take up a spot on awards or activities section unless you’res pres or vp