<p>DS has received invitations to join Golden Key and Phi Eta Sigma. Does anyone know anything about them? Is it usual to accept more than one honors society invitation or would that seem odd? </p>
<p>You probably could search the Alabama thread because this has come up several times. Your son will probably be invited to join ALOT of honor societies if he is a good student. My oldest, who is a 3rd year student now, decided to join Phi Eta Sigma basically to put it on his resume when looking for internships (otherwise he hasn’t done anything except go to the initiation ceremony) and the society for Computer Science students (I can’t remember the name), which was an honor to be asked to join. I have heard good things about Golden Key too. It’s up to you how much you want to pay for these societies. I know I have heard on this board that a couple members did get scholarships.</p>
<p>Here is the link to some of the HS’s at UA: <a href=“http://honorsocieties.ua.edu/honor.cfm”>http://honorsocieties.ua.edu/honor.cfm</a> . Just my opinion: unless you put in a lot of time/activity with these societies, and unless service hours are your cup-o’-tea, I don’t think that you are a likely candidate for a scholarship, so I feel that your membership in the FR and SO year societies is 99.9% going towards funding someone else’s scholarship who is active/serving. </p>
<p>As you get older, there will be Honor Societies more relevant to your major (and, therefore, to your resume). These are often harder to get into, because they have higher reqs (and, let’s face it, cumulative GPAs are difficult to keep high for some students in some majors), but these will carry more ‘weight’. With hindsight, I’m fairly cynical of these FR and SO year societies - they make it sound like you will not have another opportunity to join an “honor society”, and you feel an urgency to join. Look at who they invite (i.e., the catchment of students) and ask yourself if this ‘honor’ will really make you stand out. I don’t consider being in the top 20% an ‘honor’ - it’s a statistical catch-all for 1-in-5 Freshman who are largely getting gen-ed coursework out of the way their 1st semester. The top 3 or 5% of Seniors…now, that’s something to honor. </p>
<p>Thanks for your replies. I did go back and look through the threads as well as do a general Google search. Golden Key has a bit of a chequered past. Although some people here on CC were satisfied with their experience, the founder of Golden Key did a number of things which were pretty shady when he ran the society. Things may have changed since his departure but it gives me pause for thought. Here’s the story if anyone is interested.</p>
<p><a href=“The Tuscaloosa News - Google News Archive Search”>The Tuscaloosa News - Google News Archive Search;
<p>Neither society is listed with the Association of College Honor Societies, but when I contacted the association they told me that Phi Eta Sigma used to be a member and would probably be again soon.</p>
<p>On the whole I think mom2collegekids has good advice i.e.</p>
<p>
</p>