<p>First, my daughter was offered NHS. But, when she went in and did the paperwork, her and a certain group of students were omitted. The teachers in charge claimed to not get the paperwork. But I was there when my daughter went in to the teachers. I was at the school, but I did not go in to the actual classroom when my daughter went in for the paperwork. When we met with the teachers and the principal in a conference regarding our daughter being omitted, the teachers were obviously lying. They kept giving each other these looks. They insisted they had never spoken to or seen my daughter ever before and they would know if they did because they only have had 1-2 kids in each day in the weeks they had the applications turned in. Then they also said they had 200 kids turning in their applications so they can hardly keep up with the ones who didn't. And they swore they never ever met my child before, ever. The principal blew up at me for complaining. </p>
<p>Later, my daughter got in to math honor society. Then, I complained to the school district about the flipped classroom concept they are doing. The teachers being left to monitor the classroom do not even know how to do the math. I went with my children on multiple occasions to ask how to do certain math problems and the teacher admitted she had no idea what was on the videos they watched to teach the class. Later, the teacher kicked my child out. She said she had a community service project that the entire math honor society was supposed to be doing...making blankets for her church mission trip, and my daughter did not show for the meetings during the time which she was performing for a musical and had rehearsals. I ended up calling the Mu Alpha Theta main offices and they said that they are not a service organization, therefore, they were not supposed to kick students out based on that. The chapters were supposed to be doing math activities, contests, and so on. The chapter never did any of that. Turns out too, even though my daughter was kicked out of the chapter, she is still a national member, so, she can still put that down on her applications.</p>
<p>Back to NHS this year. My daughter did about 160 hours of community service over the summer. Turns out, a bunch of students are being turned away, because their community service is not good enough. My daughter is one of them. Yet, they won't suggest any volunteer work that will pass. And, it is very random who is rejected over this and who is not (my daughter is not the only one being rejected, not this year, not last year).</p>
<p>Seriously?</p>
<p>Should I even be upset over this? Or is this just all frivolous side stuff that won't matter?</p>
<p>Based on last years reaction by the principal, there is little point to speaking to him about it this year.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is all that important. 2 of my 3 boys were invited but didn’t bother to go through the recommendations, application etc. with NHS. My last is a joiner and loves to be in organizations and he was invited and of course joined. It’s one of those things where you either throw yourself in and follow the ‘rules’ or you say “no thanks.” No one has ever asked my older boys - one now graduated from college and one a senior, why they didn’t join NHS.</p>
<p>“Or is this just all frivolous side stuff that won’t matter?”</p>
<p>the latter is correct. NHS and its ilk are NOT EC’s that colleges admissions offices care about.
What IS important however, is the LOR that your D’s college counselor writes. So I advise you to step back, and stop hyperventilating about these petty “slights” re: who is or isnt accepted into these unimportant programs. Your complaints about the teachers running them could come back and bite your D in the butt ,and I dont think you want that.</p>
<p>I’ve said this before–your life will be a lot easier if you back out of your children’s lives some and stop getting so caught up in the numbers game…</p>
<p>My younger daughter will do NHS next year because she qualifies and wants to do it. My older daughter never had an interest- she is a college freshman and nobody seemed to care. Applied to 8 schools, got into 8 schools, no NHS.</p>
<p>Our school did something similar with NHS, and made it very difficult for some students to meet the requirements. Our D was admitted, but she had to complete a much more detailed application than our older D had to three years prior. We would have been disappointed if our daughters had not been accepted, but in the whole scheme of things, it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Also agree with taking a step back and letting the child fight the battle.</p>
<p>NHS, as well as Honor Societies for specific subjects only matter if your student holds an officer position and/or can articulate specific things they did to make a difference, just like any other EC. It’s not the specific EC, it’s the dedication, dept of involvement, and what you accomplish. </p>
<p>NHS is very political at our hs. Our S2 was a bit miffed after being turned down when he saw who was accepted and saw them openly boasting of lying on their apps. NBD, he already had a main EC with regional, state, and national awards. He did join Science National Honor Society which was a great fit and he enjoyed quite a bit. S3 was invited to apply to NHS as well. He did, same thing, again nbd as his main efforts were elsewhere. Both were asked again as Srs to apply to NHS. They laughed and tossed it in the trash. </p>
<p>I do strongly agree with others that have suggested that it’s time to let DD handle things on her own. It’s also best to carefully choose what’s really important to ask the GC for help. They absolutely are there to be your child’s advocate. Before I call/email I always stop and think ‘Is this the favor I want to call in?’. If I’m unsure I write the email and let it sit in my drafts overnight. 95% of the time I delete it in the morning. We’ve had the same GC for three kids over six years. It’s important to me she not groan when she sees my name in her inbox.</p>
<p>NHS is an important brand. To get in a student needs a very high GPA, school EC’s and teacher recommendations. In a nutshell it’s exactly what the colleges admission officer is looking for - all wrapped in three neat little letters-NHS. Perhaps the very three letters that the tired eyes of the admission officers is glad to see. Will it get you in college over a more qualified student? No definately not. Is it a darn good tie breaker? Heck yes.</p>
<p>We told our son that it is our hope that he act honorably all the time and he does not have to be in the ‘society’. Just because he is a member of society. He does finds ways to contribute in life that don’t involve scooping rice in bags.</p>
<p>It is not a tie breaker. To get into my daughters hs honor society it was a 3.0.</p>
<p>College know that very qualified students don’t get into some NHs because of how they are run. Some are just fluff clubs. Some are serious. It’s what the kid does in a club that matters. Having an NHs is way down on the list Gpa, classes, test scores, recs, work, other ecs rank above NHs, which is in many cases a popularity contest. My daughters friend joined at her school, and saw it was filled with kids doing whatever they could to pad the resume.</p>
<p>No tie breaker.</p>
<p>For some schools it’s a big ole process, for other it’s Gpa only. It’s soon different from school to school one cannot say it really has much value as a “brand”.</p>
<p>I agree that the school’s taking 3.0 student’s are watering it down. The gold standard are still the 3.75 schools. Kids from these schools should note the EC on the app but with the higher qualification. E.G. (NHS- 3.75 required GPA). Also, I stick with the value of the brand, everyone recognizes it as something positive. which has value. BTW - Since it’s a school record EC, it should have value over other EC puffery.</p>
<p>I had 2 children in with the same teacher. Both were telling me that the teacher was not teaching the class and could not answer them when they would ask questions. One of my children had an IEP so the communication between the teacher and the parent is mandated in the IEP. He also has a contact teacher and an autism counselor. So, I went in with both kids, at the same time, after school, so they could ask the teacher the questions. I actually thought the teacher was going to answer their questions and I would simply end up with later, being able to point them to this place or that, such as a textbook, to find the answers. Instead, right in front of me, the teacher could not tell them how to do basic pre-cal. There had been news articles about the “flipped classroom” but I did not realize it was so bad or that it applied to classes that my children took. </p>
<p>Also, the school is probably going to hate me anyway. I worked on the campaigns for the city counsel and now it is time for school board elections and I am working on that. AND, I am NOT working on the side of the incumbents. In the last school board election that I worked on, the person running told me she refused to run until her children were done with school as she did not want anyone taking anything out on her children. But then again, so many blame the parents for not being involved enough. Of course, when they get involved, others get angry. A few years ago, when I voted against a grant for one particular teacher, some of the teachers were really angry with me. They were at the meeting and I was on the grant committee. I stepped back from the committee work after that.</p>
The presence/absence of NHS on your d’s resume won’t matter in her college applications. There have been many stories on CC over the years (it wouldn’t surprise me if they numbered in the hundreds) about deserving students who were rejected for NHS membership.</p>
<p>But. The NHS application procedure might serve as a test run for next year’s college applications. If someone is rejected from NHS because the paperwork wasn’t in order, whether the fault lies with the student or the school, that tells you that paperwork doesn’t always wind up where it’s supposed to, and might need close (although, of course, polite) attention next year. If a kid has no idea why he was rejected for NHS, it might mean that he asked the wrong teachers for NHS recommendations, and shouldn’t ask the same people for college recs. It might mean that there’s an error on the transcript, and that advanced-level classes were recorded as remedial courses. It might mean that the kid’s off-campus ECs are not valued, or possibly even known, by the school staff. It might mean that the committee confused the kid’s disciplinary record with another kid’s.</p>
<p>I’m sorry your d was rejected. She can use this experience to make sure that every t is crossed at the right time for her college apps. Since the principal blew up at you over this issue, you might want to be sure that you’re on professional terms with him/her from this point on, just so you know that ill feelings won’t linger.</p>
<p>You are not making friends and influence people. I am not sure why you are doing this to your kid. I was very involved with my kids when they were in high school, but I had good relationship with their teachers and GCs. What’s the point of being involved if you are upsetting your kid’s teachers.</p>
<p>I actually have a good relationship with all my children’s teachers. It was in the past, before the kids were in high school (they were in middle school), that I was on the grant committee. My daughter did do everything right in the NHS paperwork. But every child who was involved in a transfer to a STEM program got rejected. They claimed the paperwork was not done on every single child. Now, all the kids in the French honor society are saying they have been rejected by the same teachers because the community service was not good enough. Meanwhile, other kids who did the same community service are not being rejected. These teachers, and only them, who are in charge, are giving a lot of kids problems. The principal just says he stands by his teachers and is not at all receptive to any parents at all and does nothing, while a lot of kids are thrown out. My children do not have these teachers now, nor will they ever have these teachers again, ever. </p>
<p>Everything was done right this year and last.</p>
<p>OP, its time to let this go.
I’d also suggest you encourage your D to find and commit herself to EC’s outside of HS.
It seems that her HS treats some of these honors societies like Sororities. Thats too bad, but fixating on them will not help your D one bit.
Not having them on her college applications will not hurt her chances of acceptance.</p>